If I had a nickel for every time I found a film at SGIFF that, considering all other aspects, should be perfectly decent but disappointingly enough, ends up being horrifyingly misogynistic, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice.
Last year, it was David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds. This year, I found Director Peter Chan’s She’s Got No Name (2025) to be a similarly uncomfortable experience, and not in the good way.
Based on a true story of an unsolved murder case in Shanghai in the 1940s, the film follows Zhan Zhou, a housewife who is accused of beheading her husband. On the surface, it appears to be a classic crime drama, accompanied by its star-studded ensemble cast featuring names like Zhang Ziyi and Jackson Yee. As we move along the film’s 96 minute-long runtime, Zhan Zhou finds allies and enemies alike as she navigates her way through her court case and term in prison, in a deeply patriarchal society.
In a movie that portrays such vulnerable stories of oppression, tact is especially crucial. To give credit where it is due, Peter Chan ostensibly meant to provide social commentary on oppression and justice, given his care in spotlighting women’s perspectives in his story. His main characters are mostly women, all with their individual motivations and strengths, which is more than what can be said about most blockbuster movies.
Yet, there is a stark dissonance between the (apparent) intention behind the story and the film’s final execution. I found myself becoming increasingly uneasy with how much violence was portrayed against women in this film. Viewers are subject to bloody and dramatized scenes of domestic violence and police brutality, including a horrifying scene featuring a rabid boar. In the end, I had to question: what could be the intended purpose of these scenes? Granted, the film adopted a clear slant towards wanting to entertain audiences, evident from its dramatic editing and dialogue. Yet, shock factor wasn’t enough to convince me, since the gore and brutality depicted soon became a tired trope anyway. So, what was it - to degrade and humiliate the very women it was supposed to uplift? To satisfy some sadistic, twisted tendency?
Regardless, I personally cannot reconcile the gaping chasm between what She’s Got No Name (2025) is meant to tell versus actually shows. Intentionally done or otherwise, it is simply indicative not only of poor taste and tact, but a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to uplift women through portrayals in media. Because it’s not just about what you say, but how you curate and design these stories. And surprise, surprise! You can’t depict women ethically if they spend more screentime being brutally victimised by men than anything else. That’s just not the way it works.
- j