Ai Xia's growing experience.

1933, the film Modern Woman produced by Shanghai Star Film Company was released. This film is remarkable not only because of its distinct theme of pursuing women's liberation, but also because the actress Grape is the screenwriter of this film. In the early 1930s, when the education level of China film actresses was generally not high, it was even more valuable to write a short article, which aroused people's curiosity and appreciation, thus making the actress stand out among many popular stars. This talented woman in the film industry is Ai Xia, who was only 265,438+0 years old when the star film company became increasingly famous at that time. Ai Xia, formerly known as Yan Nan. Born in Xiamen, Fujian, 19 12, he came to Beijing to settle down and study with his business father very early. She is very clever and especially likes reading. In addition to reading many classical literary works, she was also influenced by democratic ideas through progressive books.

1928, 16-year-old Ai Xia escaped from the feudal arranged marriage and came to Shanghai to make a living alone. Soon, she joined the Nanguo Society, a progressive literary group organized by Tian Han and others at that time, engaged in drama performances, and studied painting and poetry creation in her spare time, thus starting her artistic career.

193 1 year, in order to strengthen the left-wing creative power of film companies, the party appointed Qu Qiubai to be in charge and set up the party's film group in the film industry. Its task is to introduce a large number of progressive literary and art workers, mainly opera members, to film companies in order to occupy the propaganda position of films. It is in this context that Ai Xia joined the Shanghai Star Film Company together with Wang Ying and Shen Xiling. After Ai Xia 1932 was admitted to the Star Film Company, he soon appeared in the film Old Enemies and New Hatreds. He stood out with fresh style and sincere performance, which attracted people's attention. Later, he starred in the film Spring Silkworm, which was adapted from Mao Dun's novel and reflected the tragic real life in the countryside. The film Daughter of the Times, which reflects the different life paths of intellectual youth; The film "Two to One" exposing the decadent bourgeoisie; And the film "Adventures in the Battlefield" of the anti-fascist war showed his talent in performing arts.

In the movie "Spring Silkworm", Ai Xia plays Lotus, the wife of farmer Li Gensheng. Because Lotus is a maid in the city, the villagers look down on her and say that she is a "white tiger star" and blame her for everything. Lotus is very disgusted with this, and once sneaked into the silkworm house of the silkworm farmer's hometown and retaliated by "rushing" away his "baby" (silkworm). Ai Xia vividly shows that the characters are dissatisfied with social customs, dare to think and act, and truly reflects the depressed expression of Lotus that people don't understand, which adds a lot of color to the whole surge. The director of the film spoke highly of this and praised Ai Xia for being "good at grasping the role, going deep into the role, grasping the feelings and being sincere and touching".

The film Daughter of the Times describes the different fates of many young intellectuals in the stormy revolutionary years of 1925 ~ 1927. Ai Xia plays the daughter of the owner of a wooden silk factory in Shanghai. This "daughter" is a girl's middle school student. Because of her vanity, her life has become more and more dissolute. Finally, she became a man's plaything and was expelled from school. Finally, she left home and fell into the world of mortals. Ai Xia grasped the personality characteristics of typical characters in typical environment and successfully played this tragic role, making it a contrast, which vividly showed that educated youth can have a future only by working hard to join the revolution. After the film was released, the role left a deep impression on the audience.

Ai Xia's outstanding performance was affirmed by the film industry and audience, which made her one of the "talented and promising newcomers" in the cast of star film companies at that time. People think that she is "hardworking, diligent and creative". Especially because all her films are "movies with positive and progressive significance", Ai Xia was very inspiring among the progressive youth at that time. Modern Woman, written and performed by her, made people know more about her and won her the reputation of "talented woman in film". At that time, most actresses engaged in film work were born in poverty, and their education level was generally not high. However, Ai Xia, who is smart and eager to learn, tirelessly published articles and poems in newspapers and periodicals with his original literary skills and art. His "writing style is concise and lively, bold and charming, and he is highly praised". Therefore, people regarded her as a "writer's star" together with Hu Ping, Wang Ying and Chen Boer in the film industry at that time. "An actress who is a screenwriter and heroine, in the film history of China, I'm afraid she will start from Ai Xia". Therefore, Ai Xia received extensive attention and praise at one time.

The film Modern Woman tells the life experience of a woman named Grape who "hopes to fill her empty heart with the stimulation of love", focusing on how she woke up from the beautiful dream of love and embarked on the "bright road" under the education of a prisoner with revolutionary theory after being arrested and imprisoned. The theme of the film is women's pursuit of true and complete liberation, which is undoubtedly of progressive significance. As the heroine of Grapes, Ai Xia also made great efforts in her performance. It can be said that this film is basically a success. However, due to the congenital deficiency in some parts of the script, the transformation of the heroine seems a bit far-fetched and hasty, and the characters in the second half are not full, which is really regrettable. Later, a film critic said: "This reflects Ai Xia's longing for bright happiness at that time, and also reflects her vague creative thinking and frustration at the difficulty in finding a real way out for women's liberation in real life." From 1932 to 1934, Ai Xia made eight films in just two years, and his creative energy was very strong. While people were waiting for Ai Xia to achieve another success, there came an amazing news: 1934 February 12 Ai Xia committed suicide by swallowing cigarettes. Her last words to the audience before she died were: "Life is painful, and now I am satisfied."

As Ai Xia was a talented and influential film talent, her death immediately became a sensational news at that time. People from all walks of life have spoken in succession, and fans are scrambling to pay tribute to the remains. Six or seven newspapers and periodicals published special commemorative articles to express their condolences. However, there are different opinions about the reasons why Ai Xia angrily committed suicide on the grounds of "life pain".

One said: it is because of the "financial dilemma"

After Ai Xia's father failed in business, the burden of a family of several people could only be supported by her meager income. After becoming a star, influenced by that environment, she gradually paid attention to dress style, hairstyle and accessories, and paid attention to the grade of life and entertainment, which undoubtedly met with difficulties in making ends meet. In that society that regards money as everything, she feels the pressure of heavy living burden, and she refuses to sell her soul for glory to cater to the dignitaries. In this way, the pursuit of enjoyment and average salary and the need to maintain independent personality have become increasingly intensified contradictions, which have aggravated her world-weariness

Second, because of "uncontrollable willfulness" and "depression in loneliness and emptiness".

Everyone who knows Ai Xia has this view. Since becoming a star, Ai Xia has become more willful in doing things and speaking. When she is in a good mood, she loves to dress up, and her clothes and hair are very bright; Treat people with initiative and enthusiasm; Walking, singing and dancing, talking is full of fun. But when he is in a bad mood, he becomes another person, who speaks rudely and does things casually, often holding a can of cigarettes in his hand and smoking nonstop; Yellow face, unkempt hair, or a person walking in circles on the road, or drowning in wine, drunk as mud. Ai Xia's uncontrollable waywardness and aloof personality, coupled with the star shelf revealed from time to time, make many people stay away from her. At this time, Ai Xia has the feeling that a bosom friend is hard to find. She often keeps company with cats in her solitary life, and she is secretly sad.

Three said: Because of "the tragedy of love".

Ai Xia is a talented movie star and a kind girl, but in the process of pursuing love, she has always been too idealistic and attached too much importance to love, so that she has been wet behind the ears, naive, deceived and greatly stimulated physically and mentally. After entering the star company, Ai Xia's talent appeared, and he soon became a dazzling star with more and more pursuers. She fell in love with a married man named Lin, and her good friends talked to her many times, hoping that she could pursue pure and sincere love. But she wouldn't listen and stubbornly said, "The taste of love is spicy, not sweet. Mr. Lin has promised me that he will divorce his ex-wife and marry me, and promised to love me only. I believe him! " While intoxicated with the dream before marriage, the rogue surnamed Lin who plays with women secretly becomes intimate with another woman, just like husband and wife. Knowing the truth, Ai Xia suddenly fell into a bottomless pit, and his body and mind were greatly stimulated. She said bitterly to Wang Ying: "The person I love most is the one who deceives me the most!" There is nothing sadder than Ai Xia's close friend and movie star Wang Ying. Wang Ying and Ai Xia turned from drama to film, and they had many contacts and friendships. Although Ai Xia is two years older than Wang Ying, she has always regarded smart and cautious Wang Ying as her sister. She is always willing to tell her what to say. Therefore, Wang Ying is very clear and concerned about Ai Xia's ideological situation and work life, and often reminds her. But Wang Ying never thought that she would find her own way. To Wang Ying's regret, she had a chance to prevent this tragedy from happening:1On February 29th, 934, Wang Ying was filming "Qiu Tong" in the studio of the company, and it was not finished until seven or eight o'clock in the evening. While taking off her makeup in the dressing room, Ai Xia came to see her and asked her to find a place to talk. Because Wang Ying had an appointment with someone else and couldn't get away for a while, he said to Ai Xia, "Well, let's talk about it after I finish shooting this scene!" Ai Xia was depressed, pale, with red eyes and long hair. She stood in front of the dresser for a while, and then left sadly. If it were anyone else, Wang Ying would be very worried. Ai Xia and Wang Ying know that this happens all the time. She never imagined that Ai Xia committed suicide that night. On the first night of New Year's Day, Wang Ying was reading a book in the small building of Huanlong Road in Shanghai apartment. Suddenly, she heard the newsboy screaming downstairs: "Extra, extra, movie star Ai Xia committed suicide!" Wang Ying was shocked. She can't believe it's true. She ran downstairs, bought an evening paper "Extra", opened it with trembling hands and saw the big black letter "Ai Xia committed suicide". Wang Ying felt pain like an arrow through his heart, and tears welled up in his eyes, sobbing. She regretted not having a long talk with Ai Xia for the last time and blamed herself for not stopping the tragedy. With deep thoughts and infinite grief and indignation, Wang Ying wrote a eulogy entitled "No Last Words with Ai Xia". This paper puts forward the term "dark film circle" for the first time, accusing and criticizing the crime of strangling Ai Xia in the dark society. Then, she wrote prose full of fighting passion, broke through the dark film circle, took off her five-color coat, and called on colleagues in the film industry to fight against various decadent forces to prevent Ai Xia's tragedy from repeating itself.

After Ai Xia's death, the 9th issue of Shanghai Film Illustrated 1934 published Ai Xia's poems and two oil paintings in the special issue of Mourning for Ms. Ai Xia, which made viewers feel sorry for the brilliance of the poems and paintings and the premature death of this talented woman in the film industry. A year later, playwright Sun Shiyi wrote the script of the film "New Woman" based on the life of this unique woman, which was filmed by Shanghai Lianhua Film Company and released on 1935. Through the narration of the tragic life experience of actress Wei Ming, the play vividly reveals the fate of oppression and humiliation of honest and intellectual women in old China, and mercilessly exposes the decay and evil of semi-feudal and semi-colonial dark society. This is a mourning for Ai Xia and a call for justice. I only hate that this society is too dark and cruel. Ruan Yuling, the famous actress who plays Wei Ming, the heroine of New Women, committed suicide following in Ai Xia's footsteps because she was threatened by reactionary forces.