preface
In the 1920s and 1930s, when the mainland was still in the period of silent cinema, Ruan Lingyu's reputation had already shook the Chinese film industry. On March 8, 1935, in this glorious festival for women around the world, Ruan Lingyu, who was only 25 years old and in her splendid years, was forced to die.
Ruan Lingyu's death is a typical portrayal of the insults and damage suffered by actresses in the old society, and it is also a sad indictment of the dark society at that time.
Ruan Lingyu
Deformed marriage
On April 26, 1910, Ruan Lingyu was born in Shanghai to a working-class family, and her breast name was Fenggen. Nguyen Fung-geun, the ignorant baby girl, spanned two eras— from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, and these two eras were the periods of suffering and humiliation of the Chinese nation.
Ruan Lingyu, like thousands of unfortunate babies, has her own painful childhood. When she was born, her father, Nguyen Yong Wing, worked as a hired worker in an oil store in Pudong, and her mother Ho was 15 years younger than her father and worked as a servant in a wealthy family for many years. When Ruan Lingyu was two years old, she died her only sister, she was just 6 years old, and her father died of poverty.
At a young age, Ruan Lingyu accompanied her mother to be a little girl, learning to do chores, laundry, polishing shoes for the old man, and hugging the little young master for his wife. At the age of 8, he went to school and took the scientific name Yuying. At first, she entered a private school, and the following year she transferred to Chongdeok Girls' School.
Ruan Lingyu was young and ambitious, determined to be a "self-reliant woman". However, the hardships of life and the confusion of her mother made Ruan Lingyu prematurely associate her fate with a cynical young master.
This person's name is Zhang Damin, and he is the first man in Ruan Lingyu's short life to possess her.
Ruan Lingyu
When Ruan Lingyu was 16 years old, her mother happened to be working at the home of Zhang Huichong, an early martial arts movie star in Shanghai. Zhang Huichong's third brother Damin watched Ruan Lingyu's performance at a party at Chongde Girls' School and fell in love at first sight. From acquaintance to love, from love to cohabitation, it is all lightning.
The mother felt that her daughter could marry the Zhang family and have a lifelong dependence in the future, so she enthusiastically persuaded her daughter to agree to the marriage. Ruan Lingyu was young and ignorant, and her mother's fate was difficult to violate, and in the case of seemingly understanding, she combined her life with the third young master of the Zhang family.
After Ruan Lingyu and Zhang Damin lived together, she wanted to live a comfortable life for a few days, but she did not expect that the good times would not last long. One day, Zhang Huichong suddenly broke into her house to let her apply for a film actor, Ruan Lingyu was surprised at first, but she thought about it, her husband Zhang Damin is a second-rate son who lives by his parents' money, has no fixed career and income, and has made several friends who are not the same, often throwing tantrums at her because of the constraints in his hands. After living together for less than half a year, he has completely cut off his living supply for her. Long nights, how can you live? In order to be a "self-reliant woman", she resolutely agreed to try her luck.
Ruan Lingyu
One day in the early spring of 1926, Zhang Huichong took Ruan Lingyu to the Star Pictures Company and asked her to take the exam for film actors. Sure enough, Ruan Lingyu was admitted, and she became the heroine of the silent film "Nominal Couple". Subsequently, she made five consecutive feature films depicting the problems of marriage and love.
Ruan Lingyu has an obsessive pursuit of art and also wants to become a generation of movie stars. In order to act well, she loved books as much as her life, and she kept improving her performances, there were many rental bookstores in Shanghai at that time, she was a regular customer, and often read a thick book in three or two days. Even when she went into the studio to shoot a scene, she had to bring a book. In a few years, she read no less than a thousand books.
In character creation, Ruan Lingyu often enriches her thinking by means of the psychology, demeanor and movements of the characters depicted in literary works, and sometimes simply shuts herself in the house, according to the needs of the characters, one will laugh, the other will cry. Someone asked her: Why can she cry and laugh freely, and be so sincere? She said: "Acting is like a madman, I am a madman!" ”
With unremitting efforts, Ruan Lingyu has entered the film world less than two years ago and has become a new star loved by the audience.
Ruan Lingyu
In 1928, various film companies made a big film of martial arts gods and monsters. Ruan Lingyu did not like martial arts films, nor did she want to catch up with the "fashion", and the star company began to look at her coldly. At this time, the Great China Lily Film Company recruited actors, and Ruan Lingyu wrote a letter to recommend herself. Soon, Ruan Lingyu merged with the company and entered the Lianhua Film Company, and since then, she has cooperated with the famous directors Sun Yu, Cai Chusheng and the famous actors Jin Yan and Wang Renmei, and began to climb to the peak of silent film art.
Sun Yu once praised Ruan Lingyu this year: "Before the start of filming, she quickly understood the director's intentions, in most cases, always a successful shot, rarely reshooted." The scenes she shoots are often much smarter than the director imagines. ”
Just when Ruan Lingyu was proud of her artistic spring breeze and ascended step by step, her family life was developing towards tragedy step by step. After living together, the playboy Zhang Damin is no longer as docile and considerate as when he first pursued her, especially when Ruan Lingyu gradually gained a reputation in the film industry, Zhang Damin regarded her as a cash cow, eating, drinking and gambling without money, he asked her for three days and two ends, and sometimes forced Ruan Lingyu to be a dress.
Ruan Lingyu's mother and daughter had been kind to each other, but Zhang Damin, instead of listening, hurt people with evil words and hit Ruan Lingyu in the mouth.
Ruan Lingyu
The misfortune of marriage forced Ruan Lingyu to separate three times, and she often said: "Being a woman is too hard, a woman lives past 30 years old, there is no meaning!" ”
Once, Ruan Lingyu really committed suicide by taking poison, but fortunately, she escaped from danger and turned the crisis into safety.
In 1932, the "1.28" incident occurred in Shanghai, and Ruan Lingyu proposed that the divorce was not successful, so she had to go to Hong Kong with Zhang Damin. In order to make her husband change from evil to righteousness, she specially entrusted someone to introduce Zhang Damin to work on the steamship.
In April of the same year, Ruan Lingyu received a telegram from Lianhua Film Company, asking her to return to Shanghai to shoot "The Dream of Continuing the Spring In the Past". Ruan Lingyu took this opportunity to temporarily "free" Zhang Damin from his unreasonable entanglement, mentally unloaded a lot of baggage, and devoted herself to the new exploration of film performance art.
Ruan Lingyu
The second trap
As a film actress, Ruan Lingyu is not from a science class. Her successful experience, in her own words, is called "more looking", that is, looking more at the finished product of the performing arts - the film; looking more at the original form of the performing arts - life.
In 1931, when she starred in Love and Duty, she played both a daughter and a mother. In order to play these two generations well, she watched foreign movies and learned from the strengths of a hundred families, while paying attention to the behavior of young girls and elderly women, and even followed them on the street, carefully imitating.
In April 1932, after Ruan Lingyu returned to Shanghai from Hong Kong, she was like a bird out of the cage, free and joyful, and her artistic talent was fully utilized. In a short period of time, he filmed sensational films such as "Spring Dream of the Old City", "Three Modern Women", "Gadgets", "Goddess" and "New Woman", and became a star with increasing brilliance. Her mood was lighter and more open-minded. When you have nothing to do, you can also go to the theater with two or three friends to listen to the play.
Ruan Lingyu
Once, Ruan Lingyu went to see the play of Xue Juexian, who was known as "Cantonese opera Mei Lanfang", and only wore a body-catching long cheongsam and thin grease powder. She had smallpox in her childhood, leaving shallow peddles on her face, but it was white and tender, which not only did not affect its beauty, but also added to the beauty.
When Ruan Lingyu temporarily got rid of Zhang Damin's entanglement and reached her best in artistic performance, a tea giant named Tang Jishan took possession of her petite body.
Tang Jishan is a well-known veteran of the love scene, who once adopted a despicable deception technique to deceive and live with Zhang Weyun, the first film queen of the mainland, and then abandoned him.
Zhang Zhiyun is a film actress in the embryonic stage of mainland cinema, and she established her star status after the success of the "Battle Achievements" filmed by the "Great China Film Company" in 1925. At that time, the name of "Ruan Lingyu" had not yet appeared in the film world.
Ruan Lingyu
After Ruan Lingyu had several contact with Tang Jishan at Lianhua Film Company and danced with her, Tang Jishan was moved by her color art and was determined to get her hands on her. This Tang Jishan's means are very high, and he first plays a roundabout tactic to win the favor of Ruan Lingyu's mother. His "Grandma" and "Grandma" shouted incessantly, and he bought and sent her good clothes and snacks from Shanghai, and often played cards with her, and then launched a "heart attack war" against Ruan Lingyu. He not only danced with Ruan Lingyu in every way warm, easy-going, and personable, but also carefully observed and understood her ideological and emotional needs. Ruan Lingyu loves the little girl Miaorong, and every time he goes to her house, he always brings some small dresses and dolls to please their mother and daughter.
Tang Jishan repeatedly told Ruan Lingyu that he would never treat her like Zhang Damin, nor would he be separated from her like Zhang Zhiyun...
Ruan Lingyu
Ruan Lingyu is worthy of being a strong person in her career, but she has a vulnerable side of women in life, and finally can't stand Tang Jishan's temptation and chooses to be with him.
At first, Tang Jishan offered to pick her up on her way to and from the photo studio, but she refused. However, Tang Jishan insisted desperately, no matter whether it was windy or rainy, he always sat in the car outside the factory department marked "Lianhua Film Production and Printing Co., Ltd." and waited for Ruan Lingyu's arrival. One day, Ruan Lingyu finally got into Tang Jishan's car. Later, after dancing at the National Hotel, Ruan Lingyu finally threw herself into Tang Jishan's arms.
Ruan Lingyu
In April 1933, Zhang Damin passed through Shanghai on official business, knew that Ruan Lingyu and Tang Jishan lived together, and repeatedly went to the door to quarrel. Ruan Lingyu had no choice but to invite a lawyer to negotiate with her, and the two sides reached a separation agreement stipulating that Ruan Lingyu would pay Zhang Damin a monthly allowance of 100 yuan for two years. At that time, Ruan Lingyu's heart had a little relief, full of thought that she could grow old with Tang Jishan. Unexpectedly, soon after remarrying, Tang Jishan appeared to be separated from her. Ruan Lingyu saw him enter the new house with a dancer and a woman.
Tang Jishan's strange thoughts were particularly heavy for Ruan Lingyu, she often washed her face with tears, had words of suffering, and had the heart to tell her sorrow to her mother, but she couldn't bear to open her mouth when she saw her mother's old face.
People who do not know the details, from the surface, Ruan Lingyu filmed as usual, and everything remained the same. But a little attention can see that Ruan Lingyu's heart has undergone subtle changes: when she laughs with everyone, there is always a hint of crying in the laughter, or the laughter stops abruptly as soon as it starts.
Ruan Lingyu
The last straw
Due to the failure of the two marriages, Ruan Lingyu at this time has lost confidence in her feelings. But at this moment, a chance brought another man into her world, and he was the Shanghai director Cai Chusheng.
At that time, Cai Chusheng was preparing to make a drama movie "New Woman", and the heroine was Ruan Lingyu. During the filming, Cai Chusheng developed a good feeling for Ruan Lingyu, but he was already a husband with a wife, even if he really loved Ruan Lingyu, he could not give up everything he had for her.
Cai Chusheng's retreat and weakness became the last straw that overwhelmed Ruan Lingyu. Since then, she has completely seen through this ruthless world.
Ruan Lingyu
Complaint of death
Ruan Lingyu shot nearly 30 films in her lifetime, of which "New Woman" is a masterpiece of performing arts in the late stages of her life. In this film, she plays the heroine Wei Ming, perhaps the role's encounter is quite similar to her own, so she plays a pure fire. However, Ruan Lingyu could not have imagined that it was precisely because of playing Wei Ming that someone pushed her to the brink of death.
"New Woman" was taken at the end of 1934, at a time when the white terror in Shanghai was rampant. In the filming, Ruan Lingyu remembered Tang Jishan's fraud and humiliation of herself, and sometimes she had to cry fourteen times a day when shooting twenty-five shots a day. She felt that when she lived with Tang Jishan, she was a mature woman of 22 years old, and a person who had experienced an unhappy marriage, which was self-inflicted.
Cover of The New Woman
In the film, in addition to a very emotional scene of suicide by taking sleeping pills, there is also a scene in which Wei Ming is sent to a hospital bed after taking sleeping pills, and Ruan Lingyu is also completely immersed in the role. When asked what she was thinking, she said, "Unfortunately, I had a similar experience, and I re-experienced the mood I felt when I committed suicide." ”
There was a scene where Wei Ming needed to slide down the stairs, and the director was worried that she was weak and advocated finding a "stand-in", but Ruan Lingyu insisted on shooting it herself.
After the film was released in the early spring of the following year, Ruan Lingyu was piled with flowers in front of her, but someone shot a poisonous arrow at her. In particular, some reporters of yellow newspapers and periodicals, nonsense film innuendo attacked them, pestering them endlessly. The frightened company owner actually publicly published an apology, and Ruan Lingyu was greatly insulted.
Ruan Lingyu stills
In the past, Ruan Lingyu never drank alcohol. But since discovering that Tang Jishan has another new love, her heart is full of pain, coupled with the troubles brought by playing the role of Wei Mingyi, she has to borrow wine to pour sorrow. Sometimes while drinking whiskey, he danced wildly and was mentally semi-anesthetized. Just at this time, Zhang Damin took the opportunity to make trouble and went to the court to accuse her of adultery with Tang Jishan and forging seals and documents, in an attempt to squeeze more money out of her by criminality.
Ruan Lingyu did not accede to Zhang Damin's unreasonable demands, and the court wanted to conduct a trial in public. For a time, Ruan Lingyu's "marriage change" spread throughout Shanghai, and some tabloids even used the title of "Ruan Lingyu's Adultery" as the title, and tried their best to create rumors and slander, so that Ruan Lingyu had no place to look at herself.
After this incident, Ruan Lingyu once revealed a suicidal heart to her mother, which aroused her mother's vigilance, but in the end she could not prevent it.
Ruan Lingyu
On March 7, 1935, Ruan Lingyu ate lunch and went to the beauty salon to perm her hair, carrying a bottle of green head oil. After the hair is permed, it is fluffy, shiny and looks very moving. In the evening, she went to the banquet at the invitation of Li Mingwei of the United China Company. Before going to bed, she asked for a bowl of noodles and walked back and forth around the room with her head down, the lights on until late.
Late at night, Ruan Mu overheard a scream, and when Tang Jishan called out to Ruan Mu, Ruan Lingyu had taken three bottles of sleeping pills and left two suicide notes.
When Tang Jishan discovered that Ruan Lingyu had committed suicide, she was worried that her reputation would be damaged, so she did not send her to a nearby large hospital, but went to the remote Japanese Fumin Hospital. Who knew that after Fumin Hospital, the doctor on duty had an arrogant attitude, there was no emergency room, and he could only push out the door again. When she was transferred to the Chinese and Western Sanatorium, due to the delay for too long and the lack of rejuvenation, Ruan Lingyu left at 6:38 p.m. on March 8 with hatred.
A Republic of China periodical that publishes Nguyen Ling-yu's remains
What is even more infuriating is that Tang Jishan also published a fake suicide note after Ruan Lingyu committed suicide, in an attempt to separate from his own negative intentions.
Until April 26 of the same year, the "Siming Business Journal" published an article entitled "The Truth Is Revealed Tang Jishan Forged Suicide Note". Only then did everyone learn the truth and see the real two suicide notes left by Ruan Lingyu. The original suicide note is extremely short, the text is not very fluent, and there are many alterations, one of which is:
Darmin: I have been forced to die by you, who will believe me? Don't you want to give you a monthly allowance of one hundred yuan after I separated from you? You really have no conscience, people must think I am afraid of sin? In fact, I am terrible, but I am very sorry that I should not be a contention between the two of you, but it is too late! Don't cry! I'm not going to live! There is no need to repent, because things have reached such a point.
Ruan Lingyu
Second:
Ji Shan: Without your infatuation with "XXX", without you hitting me that night, and hitting me again tonight, I probably wouldn't have done it! After I die, in the future, some people will say that you are a demon who plays with women, let alone that I am a woman without a soul, but at that time, I am no longer in the world, you can suffer it yourself!
The past Zhiyun (Tang Jishan's ex-girlfriend), today's me, tomorrow's who, I think you know it yourself.
……
From these two suicide notes, we can analyze Ruan Lingyu's state of mind at that time and the reasons for suicide.
Celebrities in the film industry carry the coffin for Ruan Lingyu
After Ruan Lingyu's death, the body was loaded into a silver-white copper coffin and then transported to the "Lianyi Mountain Villa" on Liuying Road in Zhabei for burial.
On March 9, 1935, the day of the public trial of the case became the day of the funeral. Thousands of Shanghai residents flocked to the Wanguo Funeral Home on Jiaozhou Road to mourn the actress, who went from maid to star.
Nikita, a foreign film star who starred in "The Return" with Ruan Lingyu, also approached Ruan Lingyu's body to mourn. Sun Yu, a famous director who has cooperated with Ruan Lingyu for many times, said bitterly: "It is no exaggeration to say that Ruan Lingyu's excellent acting skills have occupied the first place in the Chinese film industry for more than a decade, and her life is a page of historical facts that struggle upwards. ”