16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Why Zhang Ziyi waited years to play a husband killer in She's Got No Name
Patience is a virtue, they say. Although Peter Chan Ho-sun's film She's Got No Name recently debuted in cinemas, it has been nine years since the veteran Hong Kong director first approached Zhang Ziyi to star in it.
'She said 'yes' almost on the spot,' he says. 'With no script, with nothing.'
The Chinese actress, who is known for her roles in award-winning films such as
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Memoirs of a Geisha, has been scaling back her work of late and spending more time with her family. But this role was different.
'I've always had the passion for movies, but I didn't really see any perfect script until Peter approached me with this,' Zhang says.
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With the film based on a famous unsolved murder case in 1945 Shanghai, Zhang's role is unlike any other.
She plays a downtrodden, illiterate working-class woman known only as Zhan-Zhou. The story begins with her being arrested for killing her abusive husband and dismembering his body.
