Jiang Yuan Long · Xuan an

M'lady Zhang Ziyi has returned (starring Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Grandmaster, Memoirs of a Geisha...)! She's Got No Name is worth the wait and re-editing - hats off to director Ho-Sun Chen for the riveting yet well-balanced display of undisguised gore, historical reenactment, tragic moralizing, and superb cinematic technicality. Zhang absolutely nails the desperate, psychotic, but at glimpses feral and unyielding character of Zhan Zhou; her talent is ageless. I was never a fan of Yang Mi until she shares a scene with Zhang as Wang Xumei, a witty, compassionate, and truehearted foil character whose ending drew tears.

I believe there's a delicate line between telling the story and siding with it. For films like Chicago or She's Got No Name where interior metalepsis is used and the very act of storytelling is criticized, it's even more difficult for the actual narrator, the filmmakers, to deliver their message. For this movie, for whatever reasons of commercialization or re-editing, I feel like that delicate line is blurred and the story's moral becomes disorienting. Are we to uphold Zhan Zhou's rights as to ignore that she dismembered her husband? Is the film's purpose to recreate history, moralize, or cause another spectacle of the rather simple case?

Either way, I would very much like to see the conclusion of She's Got No Name in Part 2.

This film adapts one of the Four Bizarre Cases of the Republican Era.

"Bizarre" - Beneath the social climate of 1940s Shanghai eighty years ago, the very occurrence of this case was suffocating, absurd, and unimaginable - thus bizarre.

"Suspenseful" - With everyone offering conflicting interpretations of this "bizarre" event, the truth became as fragmented and elusive as the dismembered corpse - thus suspenseful.

Peter Chan once again masterfully exposes humanity crushed beneath a turbulent era: the chilling cinematography, meticulous framing, and visceral tapestry of lives are flawless. Zhang Ziyi's "disfiguring" performance electrifies the screen - from her blood-soaked cheongsam to her hollow, defiant gaze, she embodies Jam Chow-shi's struggle and rebellion to the bone! The god-tier supporting cast (Wang Chuanjun, Lei Jiayin, Jackson Yee...) each delivers radically transformative roles, drowning in the enigma.

Beyond "bizarre" and "suspenseful," the film exposes the era's crushing weight crime festering in shadowed alleyways, trials obscuring truth. What moved me most was Jam Chow-shi's ferocious resilience: hacking a path through chaos, swimming against the whirlpool of turmoil, dynamically carving possibilities where none existed.

What could have been a well-explored tale about the horrible conditions women suffered during the early eras of China and the historical background, ends up becoming a tedious, boring, and messy approach which takes away from it's purpose and message.

Director Peter Chan has good intentions to explore the story about the themes of womanhood, justice, politics and the tragic era during the early ages of China. However, the storytelling, interior atmosphere and structure doesn't do a service to it's themes because it kind of goes all over the place. Resulting it into becoming a messy, unbalanced and repetitive story that struggles to maintain it's atmosphere and tension. Included to be shoved in with poor production designs that fails to reflect it's time period and poor pacing.

Zhang Ziyi comes a solid performance as she is doing her best to what she is displaying and offering for the character and story. However, the characters weren't interesting at all as many of the characters development and engagement felt too disoriented and one-noted to fully connect. Making it difficult to believe many of the characters motivations and ideas when poor development, some bad acting, and bad dialogue is presented. It makes it bland, predictable, and at times, unintentionally hilarious in the worst ways possible.

The editing is one of the worst aspects as the editing feels choppy, messy and all over the place. As if the editors had no idea how to make a movie. This is one aspect I dislike about Modern Chinese cinema. Oftentimes they try to replicate the Hollywood and box-office approach and many times, they come off as poorly made, annoying and pure embarrassment. Art-house independent Chinese movies are a must need of support.

I am aware a continuation of this movie will occur to explore more of it's characters and development but a movie like this doesn't need to be that long, and could easily become one movie. Overall, one of the most tedious and overlong movies I have seen in some time.