[left, Ye Juanjuan in a Lianhua publicity portrait.]
By the late 1920s, the number of movies being produced by Shanghai studios was creating a growing demand for a wider pool of attractive young people to appear in them. But while in the earlier part of the decade a lead or major supporting role was almost a guarantee of stardom and a good career, Chinese filmmaking had reached the point where the number of failures matched or exceeded the successes. One of those who never attained the stardom expected of them was Ye Juanjuan 叶娟娟. The only recorded information about Ye Juanjuan's early years is that she was born in 1908, and entered motion pictures in 1928 with the Haifeng Film Company, then worked for the Jinan and the Shanghai Film Companies. Nearly all of her early work was as a supporting player. When the Shanghai Company was merged into the Lianhua studio in 1931, she became one of the latter's pool of leading ladies. However, unlike her Lianhua colleagues Ruan Lingyu, Lin Chuchu and Chen Yanyan, Ye Juanjuan never caught on as a star, and while she appeared in some of Lianhua's major successes in the early 1930s, they were all in supporting roles. She moved to the smaller Yihua studio in 1934, and after making three films for Yihua, acting the female lead in one, she disappeared from the screen. Chinese sources say she retired, but it may have been the studio dropped her. The last recorded information regarding Ye Juanjuan is that she made an unsuccessful suicide attempt on January 25, 1936, but whether this was due to career failure or other reasons is not stated.
[right, Ye Juanjuan in a still from one of her later films.]
Filmography (all as actress):
1928:
Reviving Romance
Zhaojun Goes Beyone the Great Wall
1929:
A Tender Lover
Good Luck
Hongyun Takes Power
Flying Swordswoman Lu Sanniang
1930:
24 Swordsmen
Island of Beautiful Women
Ghost of the Gold
Black Mask
Recapturing the Treasure
Swordsman
Burning of Pingyang City, III, IV
1931:
Amazing Monk of the Wild Mountains
Devoted Mother
Flowers of Peace
Chaotic Jinghong
Two Stars of the Milky Way
1932:
Three Live Rock
Wild Rose
Spring in the South
1933:
Isolated Army
City Crime
Spotless
Daybreak
Morning in the Metropolis
1934:
Cotton Blossom Village
1935:
Heroes of the Times
Escape
