Cai Chusheng
In "Little Toys" (1933), a film by Sun Yu, Ruan played a long-suffering toy-maker. Her next film, "The Goddess" (1934; dir: Wu Yonggang), is often hailed as the pinnacle of Chinese silent cinema; Ruan sympathetically portrayed a prostitute bringing up a child. Later that year, Ruan made her penultimate film, "New Women" (directed by Cai Chusheng), in which she played an educated woman forced to death by an unfeeling society. The film was based on the life of actress Ai Xia, who killed herself in 1934. Her final film, "National Customs", was released shortly after her death.