Hello, my name's Justin the Klu, and I'm here today with Will Sloan.

And you're listening to the Important Cinema Club.

And today, we're going to be talking about Ruan Lingyu.

I probably said that a little bit incorrectly.

Buckle in to have a bunch of names said completely wrong by me.

We did a whole episode on

Seijun Suzuki, where we mispronounced his name. We called him Saijun Suzuki. So, yeah,

that's something that you have to come to ready at the important cinema club as kind of,

you know, approachable, you know, fun, fun guys. Yeah, we're not going to get everything right.

So Ruan Lingyu is a subject that you brought to the table. She's an actress that worked in the early 30s in China. And what was it about her work that made you want to discuss it, Will? She's somebody who is kind of, you know, a Marlina Dietrich or Greta Garbo-style legend of Chinese cinema. She also is kind of a

Marilyn Monroe style legend because she committed suicide when she was very young, and that's

pretty close to the height of her stardom. She was 24. She's interesting to me for a couple of reasons.

Her life story was told in Stanley Kwan's famous film Center Stage,

also known as actress, where Maggie Chung played her. I think I might have seen a clip from one of

her movies in Mark Cousins, The Story of Film documentary, where he would, which, you know,

are you going to do your Mark Cousins voice now? And then, in 1934, in China, an actress.

Rending you, did something new, something innovative.

I mean, the story of film is a really interesting and comprehensive documentary that's, you know, narrated in...

Yeah, I also think it gets less good as it goes along.

Yeah,

that's just my opinion.

But anyway, he showed a clip from one of her movies trying to make a case for her as sort of a precursor to, you know, James Dean and Brando in their naturalistic style of acting. I still don't know enough about her to say if that judgment holds water. I think that this is one of those episodes where me and you are at a massive disadvantage

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