Writer/Director Cheng Wei-Hao Discusses ‘Marry My Dead Body,’ Taiwan’s Queer Genre Concoction [VIDEO]

Cheng Wei-Hao’s Marry My Dead Body, Taiwan’s International Oscar submission, takes the Chinese tradition of “ghost marriage” where a dead spouse can marry a living one, and gives it a gay, comic spin. In addition, he blends the romantic-comedy and suspense-thriller genres to achieve quite an entertaining concoction. But the film is also a call for acceptance and understanding.

Ming-Han (a terrific Greg Hsu) is an ambitious, if sometimes bumbling, homophobic cop who accidentally picks up a red envelope which sets the stage for a family expecting him to marry their beloved dead Mao-Mao (sweet Austin Lin). Ming-Han initially balks at the idea of marrying both a man and a ghost but superstition creeps in and his fears force him to agree. Ming-Han visits a great master to figure out how to rid himself of his new dead husband and is led on an unexpected journey towards finding out who ran Mao-Mao over and how a drug-smuggling ring is involved.

Taiwan has always been one of the most progressive Asian countries in terms of telling queer stories and this film was a huge box office hit, ranking in the top 10 highest grossing Taiwanese films of all-time. This is also one of very few overtly queer International submissions. (FYI: Same sex marriage became legal in Taiwan in 2019).

AMPAS has never been too keen on comedies but they did nominate two Ang Lee comedies The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Lee is still the only Taiwanese director to score nominations in this category (winning in 2000 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

Wei-Hao made a number of award-winning short films before his feature debut, The Tag-Along in 2015, followed Who Killed Cock Robin and The Tag-Along 2, both in 2017. In 2021, his film, The Soul was nominated for 11 Golden Horse Awards including Best Director. His miniseries, The Pond also bowed in 2021.

Marry My Dead Body currently streams on Netflix.