[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]
1924:
Three Strange Figures
1925:
A Pitiful Girl
Lonely Orchid
1926:
A Lovelorn Actress
A Good Man
Daughter of a Wealthy Family
Her Sorrows
The Confession
1927:
Sacrifice for Parents
Fallen Plum Blossom I-III
A Beauty of 16
The Hunter's Legend
Real and False Daughters
Reciprocity
1928:
The Luoyang Bridge
White Cloud Pagoda
1929:
Confessing her Sins
The Life of the Rich
Burning of Red Lotus Temple, pts.7-10
The Beauty Under the Blade
1930:
The Golden Road
1931:
Hengniang
1934:
Youth
