Chinese-language media reports said the movie was approved without any serious cuts.

Jiang and his wife Zhou Yun play the leading roles in the movie. Actress Chen Chong, Chinese rock veteran Cui Jian and Hong Kong actors Anthony Wong and Jaycee Chan are also in the movie’s star-studded cast.

The film took more than one year to complete and cost US$10 million. It is Jiang's third film as director, and first since "Devils on the Doorstep," which he shot seven years ago.

Japanese film music master Joe Hisaishi has been invited to compose the sound track for the movie.

Jiang is currently in France, editing the film. After editing is completed, it will once again be presented to the authorities for clearance.

Jiang has touched on sensitive issues in all three movies he directed. In the early stage of the shooting of "Sun Rises Again," it was speculated that the movie would have difficulty in obtaining clearance for release from the film authorities as it is set during Cultural Revolution.

Jiang wrote and directed his first film, "In the Heat of the Sun," in 1994, which was adapted from a novel by Wang Shuo. A tale set in the Cultural Revolution, it won for its young lead actor Xia Yu the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival and garnered six Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.

Jiang’s second feature, "Devils on the Doorstep," set during the Japanese occupation of China in the early 1940s, won him the Grand Prix in the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.

According to the film"s production studio and distribution agency, "Sun Rises Again" is popular with both domestic and foreign distributors, who are in talks with Jiang and the agency to buy the movie.