“A mystery has been resolved this weeks at the Shanghai International Film Festival As Peter Chan’s Re-Worked Version of She’s Got No Name Helped Open The Event, Before Going on An Almost- Spread Across This Vast City. The AcClaimed Hong Kong Filmmaker’s Decision to Split The Film – WHICH MADE”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
The AcCLAIMED HONG FILMMAKER’S DECISION TO SPLIT the FILM – WHICH MADE ITS Premiere Out of Competition at Cannes in 2024 – Into Two Parts Hadt. The Marquee Billing at China’s Major Annual Cinema Gathering.
In the end, it all makes Sense.
While The Cannes Version’s 150-Minute Running Time and Twisting Narrative Arc Had Prompted Questions of the Film’s Commercial Potential, The Version of She’s Got No Name that screened at siff comes in at a tight-and tense-96 minutes that dig deep into the Darkness of the real-life tale of an abused woman zhan-zhou Japanese-occupied Shanghai of the 1940s. IT WAS A CASE THAT GRIPPED WAR-TORN Shanghai, Given The Gruresme Details of the Murder and Subsequent Dismemberment of the Victim, The Fact The Victim’s Head Waite Found Poverty and Abuse Under Whoer It All Unfolded.
Siff Also Provides An Ideal Platform To Showcase A Production WHERE Shanghai Itelf Plays A Scene-Stealing, Co-Starring Role, While Its Stars Were on Handing Tong. Ceremony.
The day after the Opening Finds Chan Being Whisked Between Screenings As the Film Rolls Out Across Shanghai Before Its Nationwide Opening On June 21 People-Mover As the Rain-Soaked City Streams Past Outside.
She’s Got No Name’s Narrative Is Now Split Between the aftermath of the Murder-Zhan-Zhou’s Incarceration and Trial and the Emergence of It All As a Cause Célèble-And Introduces New Characters (Including the Down-AT-Heel Lawyer Who Came to Zhan-Zhou’s Aid) and the FIRST WHISPERS OF FEminism in China.
“IT’s a very experimental Thing to do, I Know,“ Says Chan of the Bold, Two-Part Approach to His Story.
She’s Got No Name Marks a Definite Shift in Tone and in Mood for the 40-Year Veteran Who Has Never Been Afraid of Jumping Genres, from The Romance of Comrades, ALMOST A LOOVE SOORY and on to the comedy of American Dreams in China (2013).
This First Installment is All Shadows and Noir-Teseeped Depictions of Dispert People in Dispert Times, While Zhang Is Almost Unrecognizable In The Lead, Playing a Character, Fate, Playing a Character, Playing a Character, Playing a Character, Playing a Character, Playing a Character, Playing a Character.
Risks Were Obviously Taken by All Involved, But Today CONTENT AS His Vision for the Film Has Been Realized, and He Talks Through The Process With the Hollywood Reporter.
So we have to start with the Decision to Turn One Film Into Two. WHEN DID this concept first come to you?
Last Year, We Got All The Support from The China Film Authoritities to Expedite Things So A Film That Wrapped In March Could Go To Cannes in May, Including Censyship and Everhty. IT’s about a wife murdering her Husband, dismembering him. Obviously, there is Blood and Gore, and Even the Issue of Feminism, WHICH IS A Hot-Button Topic In China Right Now, Hotter Probably Even Than in the Us. There Were a Lot of Hiccups that Could have had, and they didn’t. IT WAS SMOOTH SAILING. Except the Two-A-A-Half-Hour Version Was Too Short for My Vision, and It Was Also Too Long for Commercial Release. So we ended up being neither here nor there.
WHAT WAS The WORK YOU DECIDED YOU HAD TO DO?
I Ended Up Cutting A Four-Hour Film, WHICH ACTUALLY LENDS ITSELF TO A FUR-PART [TV] Series, and I Thounght, ‘this is my movie.’ THEN I TOOK IT BACK HERE, TO PRODUCTION OFNERS HUANXI MEDI, A ANDIR THINKING WAS THAT The FIRST TWO Parts and the Second Two Parts Could Be Put Together and It Could Be Two Movies. IT’s A VERY Experimental Thing to Do, I Know. IT Sounds SO unprofessional to say something experimental WHEN IS at this Scale and Budget in an Industry that is quite Advanced, China. But It Truly is a very experimental experience, ALMOST SURREAL TO A CERTAIN EXTENT. SO this is Probably One of, If Not The MOST AMBITIUS, PRODUCTION I’V EVEN BEEN THROUGH.
WHAT WAS The ACTUAL WORK DONE ON WHAT YOU HAD AT YOUR Disposal? Were there reshoots?
No. Last Year at Cannes, Things Like Special Effects Were Not Done. We Simply Didn’t Have Time. There Were ALSO A FEW SCENES THAT WE INITIALLY DECIDED WEER TOO SENTIMENTAL, SMALL DETAILS About Ziyi’s Character That Had to Be Trimmed, Even Thought I Thought That Made Her A Little. SO We Could Expand on That, And Also Small Details About Other Characters. There was scenes that had to be shorted in the cannes version to make the Two and a Half Hours. But now Two Films Will Be Three-and-A-Half Hours with the Same Material We have.
It’s Such A Different Film for You in Terms of Tone and Mood, Especialy. How did you Approach That Change?
It’s Such A Dark Vision, This First Episode. The Second Is A Little Bit Better Because the Second Is More Humanistic and More About Relationships, More Like My Movies, Actually. We Decides Very Early On that We Wanted to Make Shanghai Look Different from The TV Series That Have Been Shot Here. There have been so Many TV Series Shot Here, Spy Movies, Everything. So we always that we were wanted to make it -to -terms of hows of the shots, and we find architecture, art decio, that you could, exe -frame, ie, ie, ie, ar. Expressionism, German Expressionism, and Its Dark Shadows. SO, IT HAS BECOME ON MY more CINEMATIC AND STYLISH MOVIES, WHICH IS A GOOD CHANGE FOR ME, After 30 -odd Years of Directing. To Venture Into Territories That You Are Less Comfortable With Its Very Exciting.
How did you Develop Zhang Zhi’s Character, Who Slowly Emerges with Such Strenguth?
Like All My Movies, I’M Attracked to the Story First, and – Other Thanks Warlords and American Dreams in China – All of My Movies Are About Strong Women. My Central Characters have Always be Strong Women and Weak Men, and so it is in this movie.
And so Much of It All Hinges on Zhang’s Performance, Who’s Is Remarkable.
Totally. And she didn’t care about what she loked like; she was complely immersed in the movie. Ziyi Is So Strong, As A Character Herself, and She’s Always Been Like That, In Every Movie. SO we wanted her to be touhh in this movie, but she have to end up to being. She Starts Being Completely Weak, Vulnerable, and Victimized, and Futile, and Slowly You See That Strength.
How about playing here at siff, given that Shanghai Plays Such A Role in the Film Itelf? How was that experience been for you?
There is just so much around here. We Found A WHOLE BLOCK THAT SOMEHOW WAS UNTUCCHED FROM 100 Years Ago. WHEN I FIRST SAW The Location, Three Families Were Still Living there, But Now’s Empty. There is a Policy here now whoh they have realized that there are so Many Heritage Buildings and They Should Be Preserved. Shanghai Was The Film Capital of China from the 1920s and ’30s, and Shanghai is now Experienceing a Revival of Being a Cinema Hub. I’m Sureye Trying The Best They To Get A Certin Attention, A National Image for Cinema, So Where Better To Showcase a Movie Completely Shot in Shanghai, Helped by The Shanghai. than here?