The Chinese Mirror

Zhu Fei: the Gigolo

[Zhu Fei in early career.  Click on any image to enlarge] 

    Zhu Fei (朱飞) was born in 1903 to a wealthy Shanghai family with ancestral origins in the south of China.  Upon graduation from the Far East Business School in that city, his degree and English language fluency gained him a position with the Anglo-American Tobacco Company, which had begun operations in Shanghai in 1923.  In 1924 the tobacco company founded a motion picture division, with the objective of exploiting the popular new entertainment medium to promote its products.  Initially, Anglo-American made short documentary films, shots of scenery and newsreels, filmed in such cities as Beijing, Tianjin and Suzhou as well as Shanghai, with advertising for tobacco products inserted into the middle of each film, like commercials in modern TV programs.  In 1925, the company shifted to making narrative films, mostly shorts but also two full-length features.  The only credits that have survived from any of these was that of a British expatriate named W. H. Jansen as the division's chief cinematographer, and Zhu Fei acting in one of the features.  But Anglo-American's films were of poor quality, lacking entertainment value, and audiences and critics rejected them.  So at the end of 1925, the company decided it could not duplicate the success of the Commercial Press, and shut down the division.
 [right, Zhu in later career] 

      But Zhu Fei had attracted the attention of the Mingxing studio's top director Zhang Shichuan, and he invited Zhu to join his company.  At that time, the dominant movie genre was the school called "Mandarin ducks and butterflies," relating the romantic struggles of a couple, typically a handsome, somewhat effete scholar and a beauty, often in ancient costume but sometimes updated to modern times.  Zhu Fei's appearance made him a natural for these.  He was very popular with female fans, many referring to him as their "screen lover" while critics pronounced him the standard for male beauty and projected he would have a brilliant career, the future "Asian Valentino." 

[above left, in 1926's "Her Sorrows" with Yang Naimei]

[lower right, in 1929's "The Beauty Under the Blade, with Han Yunzhen]

    Unfortunately, it didn't last long, the victim of changing audience taste in movies.  By the end of the 1920s, ancient costume romances had faded in popularity, supplanted by martial arts fantasies that featured athletic and rugged leading men, former star athletes like Jin Yan, Gao Zhanfei and Gong Jianong. Although Zhu was in a few parts of the "Burning of Red Lotus Temple" series, he was not suited physically to that now-dominant genre, and Mingxing didn't renew his contract when it expired. He made one movie in 1931 for Lianhua, "Hengniang," in which he had third billing behind his female co-stars Zhou Wenzhu and Tang Tianxiu, but he didn't make an impact.  

[left, in "Hengniang" (1931)]    

    So Zhu Fei left movies to pursue what had become his second career:  professional gigolo.  His boyish good looks had always been popular with women once described as being "of a certain age," i.e. more mature women willing and able to pay his bills.  He had no permanent address in Shanghai, and while the public thought this was because he was too cheap to buy a home, those in the film community knew that it was due to his second calling.  Like his contemporary Wang Yuanlong, he was rarely seen in public without a female companion.  Zhu Fei always stayed in good hotels, dined in fine restaurants and frequented Shanghai's most fashionable clubs, seldom having to pick up the check.  But in the classic fate of gigolos, as his looks faded from pretty to merely handsome, the supply of women sponsors began to dry up as well.  In addition, at some point Zhu Fei had become addicted to opium, and now his financial pressures were exacerbated by illnesses connected to the habit.  Desperate to recoup his fortunes, he attempted a comeback with Lianhua, his last studio, in 1934, but it came too late.  Zhu Fei died in Shanghai in 1935 of drug-related causes, age 32.  [Complete filmography follows after the bump]

Squandered Talent: the Wang Brothers

[left, Wang Yuanlong]    

 A prolific character actor with numerous credits in Hong Kong during the two decades immediately after World War II was Wang Yuanlong, nearly always a major supporting character.  Many of his earlier credits during this period were in martial arts and other action films, often as the hero's sifu; later, as he moved into middle age, he appeared more in dramas and romantic comedies, often as the father of one of the leads.  But like early martial arts heroine Qian Siying, while his face and name were familiar to HongKong film fans, it is unlikely that many outside of the industry knew of his earlier career in Shanghai, when he and his brother Wang Cilong were silent era leading men, and important members of China's first generation of directors.  (There were initially three Wang brothers in the Chinese movie industry, but like the Marx Brothers in Hollywood, not all had lasting on-screen careers.)  In the annals of show business, whether movies, music, or whatever, we often read the sad stories of celebrities whose stars shone brightly for a while, but whose fame and fortune were accompanied by poor lifestyle choices that ultimately destroyed their careers, and in some cases, their lives.  In the majority of cases, these one-time stars came from poor or modest backgrounds, and sudden success proved too much to handle; but the Wang brothers' story differs in that they were born into wealth, so perhaps the celebrity and power they enjoyed, combined with obvious character flaws, caused them to squander their talents.  But historical chance gave one of the brothers a second chance he exploited; for the other, the chance came too late.

    The wealthy Wang family of Baoding, Hebei, had three sons.  Except for a few film credits in the late 1920s, nothing is known of the eldest, who adopted the screen name "Wang Bailong" (王伯龙).  But it is recorded that second son Wang Yuanlong (王元龙), was born Wang Bingyu (王乘钰) in 1903.  He was athletic, and the family decided a military career would be most appropriate for Yuanlong, sending him to the Baoding Military Academy at age 19.  But two years later, in 1924, he decided on an alternate career path and went to Shanghai to seek employment as an actor in that city's new and growing film industry.  His first two films were with the Da Zhonghua (Great China) studio, and after it merged with the Baihe studio, he quickly moved into lead roles, including such popular successes as "Young Factory Owner" and "Battle Exploits," two of 1925's more successful films.    

    He was soon joined by the youngest of the brothers, Wang Cilong, born Wang Xuean (王雪庵) in 1907.  Probably using his elder brother's connections, Cilong joined the Great China studio in 1926, initially as a set designer, but soon moving into acting in minor parts.  That same year, Yuanlong turned his hand to writing and directing, beginning with 1926's "A Visit Home," which also gave Cilong his first role of substance.  In 1927, the three brothers decided to combine their movie experience with some of the family money and start their own production company.  The new business venture was called the San Long (Three Dragons) Film Company, aiming to exploit the martial arts craze of the time.  (龙, the second character in their adopted screen names, means "dragon".) 

    
[right, Wang Cilong]

["left, Four Heroes of the Wang Family'."]

    They produced several popular action films, beginning with "Four Heroes of the Wang Family," which featured the three brothers and another actor named Wang Zhengxin (王征信) [no relation] in the title roles, plus another Wang-surnamed non-relative, Wang Naidong (王乃东) as chief villain.  It may have been due to his athleticism and military training, but Yuanlong in particular was well suited to hero roles, and soon became a very popular leading man in the late 1920s.  Critics of the day were calling him the "Screen Emperor" several years before Jin Yan won that title in a newspaper fan poll.  The brothers followed their early success with more action movies in which they co-starred, but it all fell apart in a few years after the Chinese government's passage of the 1930 Film Censorship Act effectively banned martial arts fantasies, forcing the brothers to disband their company and follow other pursuits.  Bailong's next move is unrecorded, but Cilong joined the Lianhua studio as an actor and director, and Yuanlong  moved to Beijing to start and operate an acting school.  The two younger brothers were going downhill in their personal lives as well:  Cilong and his actress-wife Zhou Wenzhu had become drug addicts, and while there is no record of drug use by Yuanlong, Chinese sources describe his lifestyle as "dissolute and unconventional," and suggest he was a practitioner of what Hollywood termed the "casting couch."  Even in his Beijing period the stories of his numerous affairs continued.  

[right, Wang Yuanlong with Han Yunzhen in 1926's "Transparent Shanghai." The pageboy haircut, copied from Hollywood movie flappers, was popular with young urban Chinese women at the time.  Han (noted for her sexpot roles) may have been trying to project herself as the "Chinese Louise Brooks."]

     It may or may not have been connected to his personal life, but for whatever reason Yuanlong closed his film school in 1933 and returned to Shanghai to attempt a comeback.  He began by making a couple of minor films for his own, independent studio, then made three more for the Great Wall and Tianyi studios, but only one of these, 1934's "Give Back my Home" had any impact.  One of his comeback problems was that his matinee idol good looks had faded.  He disappeared from the film industry until 1939, when, somewhat ironically, the Japanese occupation of Shanghai revived his career by permitting Chinese studios to make movies that were sheer entertainments, and with the martial arts genre allowed again, he was in several productions that were popular with war-weary Shanghai residents hungry for escapist entertainment.   

[left, in 1931's "A Spray of Plum Blossoms," Proteus (Wang Cilong) captures the heart of Julia (Ruan Lingyu), seemingly by teaching her the latest Shanghai craze, "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider."]

     How the two remaining Wang brothers left Shanghai is unclear, but by 1940 they were in Hong Kong, prior to that city's occupation, starting a studio they called the Xinghai Film Company.  Cilong had abandoned his wife and child in Shanghai but continued supporting them financially; however, his death in 1941 at the age of 34 left them to an uncertain and probably tragic fate.  Whether he died of an overdose or from the cumulative effects of drug use is unrecorded, but his habit was certainly a factor.

[left, Two parents worried about their young adult children. Wang Yuanlong in the 1956 Hong Kong production "The Long Winding Road," with Chen Yanyan]

      Meanwhile, Wang Yuanlong sat out the war in Hong Kong in professional inactivity.  However, he did use the time to master the Cantonese dialect, which served him well in the postwar era.  When the war ended, he returned to Shanghai and resumed his career, mostly as an actor.  In 1949 he went back to Hong Kong for good, beginning a second career as a character actor and occasional director or writer.  Learning the Cantonese dialect greatly broadened his opportunities, as he was available for casting in both Cantonese and Mandarin productions.  While he never scaled the heights of his early career, Wang Yuanlong made (by my count) 110 films during this second phase, making the most he could of his second chance.   On July 20, 1959, while on location in Taiwan making what turned out to be the last of his films, Wang Yuanlong suffered a fatal heart attack, dying at age 56.  

 [right, Wang Yuanlong in one of his later roles as a wizened elder]

Liang Menghen (? - ?)

     Liang Menghen 梁梦痕  was a popular leading lady for several of Shanghai's smaller studios during the silent era.  A native of Lingnan, (an old term for what is now the Guangdong-Guangxi region), she was home schooled by her teacher father, an in-depth education that included the learning of English.  She made her movie debut in 1925 with the Da Ya (Great Asia) film studio as the lead in "Misgivings," showing obvious talent.  In 1927 she moved to Li Minwei's Minxin studio, appearing in several of its films, then in 1929 to the Great Wall studio, continuing her career into the rest of the silent era.  The records do not explain why her movie career ended when it did, but since she came from a region where the Cantonese dialect was dominant, the coming of sound probably ended it, as it did for so many Cantonese speakers.  

[Selected filmography follows after the bump]

Xiao Ying (1890? - ?)

  Xiao Ying 萧英 was born July 28, 1890 (some sources say 1889) in Hengshan County, Hunan.  He entered movies relatively late, beginning in 1926 with the Mingxing studio, making his debut that same year in《A Young Worker》and《The Unknown Hero》in supporting roles.  He appeared in numerous films for Mingxing over the next several years, often cast as fathers of one of the leads, especially in rural settings.  But in 1933 he was one of the leads in the classic《Spring Silkworms》, as the farming family's patriarch.  After Mingxing was shut down by the eruption of war in 1937, Xiao Ying worked for several Shanghai "Orphan Island" studios, making his last film in 1939. 

Supporting Actor Liu Jiqun (1908-1940): "Best in the Business"

     In the movie industry of virtually every nation there is a roster of reliable character actors who may seem to be in every film, their faces familar although their names may not be.  And while the names immediately following the title (if not above it) garner the publicity, the awards and the big bucks, most of of them realize that even their most successful films would be nothing without the capable backup of the unsung heroes, their supporting cast.  To me, the all-time consummate character actor was a small, creepy-looking guy named Elisha Cook, Jr.  (He should have received a Lifetime Achievement Oscar before a lot of the faded old stars who were so honored.)  For more Hollywood examples, Google "character actors" and Hollywood; there are numerous sites devoted to these people.  

    One of the great character actors of Chinese cinema's first golden age, the 1930s, was Liu Jiqun (刘继群) (sometimes credited as C.C.Liu), as popular with filmgoers as he was respected by industry co-workers.  Liu was born in 1908, a native of Wujin, Jiangsu.  He made his screen debut with the Great Wall studio in 1925's "Star-plucking Girl," then followed that with roles in some of Great Wall's more successful films, although his name was usually well down or last in the cast credits. An exception was 1929's "Erzi Yingxiong"《儿子英雄》[My Son Was a Hero], in which Liu had the principal adult role as the good-hearted but somewhat hapless and naive father of the title "son".  This film still exists, and will be the subject of a future retro review.  But Liu's career blossomed when he joined the new Lianhua studio, appearing in some of the major film classics of the 1930s. 

[right, dvd of 1929's "My Son Was a Hero".  Click on any image to view full size]

[below, Liu with Ruan Lingyu in 1930's "Suicide Pact".]

    He was often in movies starring Ruan Lingyu, who publicly declared Liu "the best supporting actor in our business" and encouraged Lianhua directors to cast him in her own movies. He largely disappeared from the screen for a time in the mid-30s, but it is unrecorded why.  While it may have been health-related, another possibility may have been despondence resulting from the March, 1935 suicide of Ruan, who had used her clout as Lianhua's prime diva to help his career, and became a close friend. 

[right, Liu Jiqun as a young playboy in "Night in the City" partying with, from left, Ruan Lingyu, Jin Yan, and Zhang Meimei]

    Whatever the reason, he came back in late 1936 to make one more film for Lianhua, before moving to wartime "Orphan Island" studios like Xinhua and Huaxin. His later movies were mostly comedies in which he was teamed frequently with "Skinny Monkey" Han Lan'gen as a Chinese version of the U.S. Laurel and Hardy comic duo.  Liu Jiqun died in early 1940 after a brief illness, age 31.

[left, China's "Laurel and Hardy":  Liu Jiqun and Han Lan'gen]

[Selected filmography follows after the bump]