The shadowed alleyways of 1940s Shanghai hold more than crumbling bricks; they cradle the defiant spirit of Zhan Zhoushi (Zhang Ziyi). Her story in She's Got No Name (酱园弄) isn’t an isolated tragedy. It reverberates with the haunting cries of "Little Cabbage" (Bai Xiugu), a 19th-century woman similarly ensnared in a web of marital brutality and societal apathy. Both women were branded "husband-killers," their lives reduced to sensational trials where their guilt seemed preordained simply because they were women.
Little Cabbage’s torment lay in her powerlessness - a pawn tortured into false confessions, her body broken to serve corrupt officials. Zhan Zhoushi’s agony, however, ignites into agency. Sold into marriage to a hulking, abusive gambler ("Big Block" James), her existence is a litany of bruises and humiliation. When she finally grasps the cleaver, it’s not just a weapon against her tormentor; it’s a shattering blow against the iron law of "husband as sovereign." Her trial becomes less about proving innocence and more about surviving a society eager to silence her.
The film masterfully suspends us in this tension - Zhan Zhoushi’s fate literally "hanging" between old-world brutality and fragile modernity. Initially broken by police torture, a spark ignites within her after reading activist writings. Her transformation culminates in a courtroom roar of self-defense, a metamorphosis from victim to warrior that mirrors the seismic shifts in China itself.
Dialect as Time Machine
Director Peter Chan doesn’t just recreate old Shanghai; he resurrects its heartbeat through the cadence of Shanghainese. The alley’s gossip, the courtroom gasps, the weary sighs - all pulse with authentic local flavor, transporting viewers beyond sets into a living, breathing past. This linguistic authenticity isn’t mere backdrop; it’s a character in itself, amplifying performances and grounding the film’s social critique.
Veteran Shanghainese actor Chen Guoqing, as a terrified neighbor, steals his scene with a single, trembling exclamation in thick local accent: "Scared to death!". The audience laughter it triggers is recognition - a shared cultural memory. Mei Ting’s landlady, oozing judgmental disdain in every Shanghainese syllable, embodies the suffocating neighborhood scrutiny Zhan Zhoushi endures.
Even non-native speakers harness its power. Jackson Yee (易烊千玺), as a blind fortune-teller, chants cryptic prophecies in accented Shanghainese, his voice a chilling wind foretelling doom. Yang Mi’s (杨幂) imprisoned opera singer, Wang Xumei (王许梅), finds heartbreaking grace singing a snippet of “Butterfly Lovers” in the prison darkness. That moment of fragile artistry, voiced in the local tongue, becomes a defiant assertion of dignity amidst despair.
Why Zhan Zhoushi's Fight Is Ours
She's Got No Name across class lines. Zhan Zhoushi’s cleaver is the raw, desperate weapon of the oppressed. Xi Lin (Zhao Liying), the educated journalist who pens her defense, wields the subtler, sharper blade of the written word, challenging a media landscape eager to vilify. Wang Xumei, surviving prison through cunning and song, protects her sisters with quiet, strategic solidarity.
The film explicitly invokes Lu Xun’s famous question: "What happens after Nora leaves home?" Zhan Zhoushi’s struggle answers it tragically: leaving isn’t enough when the cage is societal. Her story resonates not as a relic, but as a stark reflection of ongoing battles. The haunting specter of Lamu, the Tibetan live-streamer burned alive by her ex-husband, or the woman pushed from a Thai cliff by hers, proves the blade Zhan Zhoushi wielded against her tyrant is still needed today. Her "knife" cuts through the centuries to reveal the persistent rot of gendered violence.
Chan’s film isn’t just about one woman’s survival; it’s a clarion call against complacency. The final image of Zhan Zhoushi finding a fragile freedom hints at the sequel’s promise: true liberation lies not just in escaping physical chains, but in dismantling the invisible ones society forges. Her fight, suspended in 1940s Shanghai, demands we pick up the blade in our own time.
