Marry My Dead Body review.
A supernatural comedy that packs more emotion than laughs, Marry My Dead Body is an interesting fusion of parts that don’t always fit together.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Marry My Dead Body
Directed by Cheng Wei-hao
Written by Cheng Wei-hao and Sharon Wu
Starring Greg Han Hsu, Po-hung Lin, Gingle Wang, Chen-nan Tsai, Tsung-hua Tou, Man-chiao Wang and Nien-hsien Ma
Marry My Dead Body Review
Of all the things our foreign correspondent has brought up on the Scare Value Podcast about his home in Taiwan…ghost marriage was not among them. A check on Wikipedia assures that this is a real practice. Essentially, a marriage ceremony where at least one of the participants is deceased. Marry My Dead Body uses the custom as a launching point for a ghost-buddy-cop-comedy about growing as a person and resolving unfinished business. There’s also a full-on investigation into a murder, an operation to topple a dangerous drug kingpin full of twists and turns, and a family drama. If that sounds like a story that is trying to tackle too much…actually, it’s kind of what makes the movie work.
Wu Ming-han (Greg Han Hsu) is a homophobic cop who accidentally picks up a red envelope while gathering evidence. The envelope is meant to find a husband for recently deceased gay man Mao Pang-yu (Po-Hong Lin). Ming-han is completely against the arraignment until his refusal appears to have cursed him. After going through with it…his new husband begins to appear to him. The two set out to solve Mao’s murder so that he may move on.
You’d think that the concept of marrying a ghost would be the strange part of Marry My Dead Body…but it isn’t. The friendship between Ming-han and Mao grows in a natural way and, despite one of them being dead, feels more grounded than the criminal subplot of the movie. There is an unhinged cop movie happening in the B-plot…complete with moles and shootouts and an almost impossible connection to the A-plot. It’s as if they fused two unrelated stories together with Ming-han’s character caught up in both. And it somehow works.
The more intricate the police story in Marry My Dead Body gets…the better the Mao story starts to work. Had this solely been a dramedy about a homophobe becoming a better person after spending time with a ghost…I’m not sure the emotional moments would have worked as well. Combining it with a twisting police story helps those moments stand out. The drug kingpin story reaches an unexpected conclusion that borders on unresolved. Which feels right here. It’s not the main story…it’s a situation that Ming-han finds himself involved in while spending most of his time trying to help Mao.
The two stories are linked by impossible coincidence. This is explained away by saying “fate” must be involved. If we’re going to accept that someone can have a ghost husband…we have no choice but to accept that the supernatural extends to wild happenstance as well. It helps that the main story of Marry My Dead Body is about Ming-han’s redemption and Mao’s unfinished business. If the crux of that story depended on a coincidence it would be harder to accept.
Mao believes he needs to take care of his unfinished business before he can move on and be re-incarnated. At first Ming-han is only interested in helping so that the ghost will leave him alone. Of course, the two inevitably grow closer and become friends. Yeah…it’s a “flawed person can become better” movie. While I’m not sure we need stories that posit things like “homophobes can be good, actually” …Marry My Dead Body handles it in a more interesting way than I expected.
Very little of their adventures together involve Ming-han gaining an understanding or tolerance for an orientation that differs from his own. Marry My Dead Body doesn’t go over the top confronting him with gay stereotypes to get a laugh. There are some moments…but for the most part it presents homosexuality in a more natural way. Not as the quality that defines Mao or his life. What defines Mao is his desire to find love and acceptance and happiness. This quietly allows Ming-han to learn that people are people no matter who they love. The movie wisely never even has Ming-han have that epiphany moment or speak it out loud. He simply comes to love and respect Mao as his friend and companion. While the choice to have these redemption stories is a questionable one…this one, at least, respects subject.
The emotional parts of Mao’s story carry the movie further than the comedy does. While the dynamic between the two characters is occasionally fun…it’s the drama that works. The investigation into Mao’s death leads to some sad moments…and some beautiful ones. While Marry My Dead Body feels a little long…it rarely feels slow. Of course, how could it when there is a crime drama unfolding in the background. Without it this may feel more like a Hallmark movie. But a pretty good one, at least.
The cast does a fine job as well. Po-Hung Lin is instantly likable as the dearly departed Mao. Greg Han Hsu has the hard task of taking an unlikable character to a lovable one. While the script doesn’t lay out an easy path for him, he ends up getting to the finish line. The other major roles in the story are Mao’s father (Tsung-Hua Tou) and Ming-han’s partner Lin Tzu-Ching (Gingle Wang). They both end up playing big parts in the stories they live in…and both reveal surprising depth beyond the stereotypical role.
Part dramedy, part crime thriller…Marry My Dead Body is never as funny as it wants to be but lands the more difficult aspects of the story. While the journey of the parallel stories makes for a long ride…the destinations are worth the trip.
Scare Value
It’s a little too long, a little too serious, a little too unfocused…but somehow those things become a part of its charm. The emotional beats land better than the comedic ones. The main story is wrapped up in an insane subplot that has an odd ending…but provides a break from the heavier subject matter. I don’t know how much longer we’re going to get movies about the redeemable homophobe (or racist or misogynist) …but this one, at least, has its heart in the right place.
3/5
Marry My Dead Body Link
Streaming on Netflix
Marry My Dead Body Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of Marry My Dead Body, check out other new releases: The Last Voyage of the Demeter and The Communion Girl
