Marry My Dead Body

The film yearns for harmony between the old and new, traditionalism and progressiveness, and by extension, echoes Taiwan’s identity, with roots in Chinese heritage and modern Western influence.

The ensuing otherworldly silliness is a hilarious delight that some might find offensive since it isn’t careful or woke, but it is sweet and touching, albeit in a wildly, abrasively entertaining manner.

What follows are fisticuffs, grumpy gangsters, grandmas insisting you come over for dinner, and a few shoot-outs that lead to quite a sweet, moving, satisfying finale proving that sometimes we all need a good dose of otherworldly romantic silliness.

Gay men are often portrayed stereotypically, and many portrayals even repeat old and damaging alignments with depression, insanity, disease or illness, overt sexuality, and death.

Despite its issues, Marry My Dead Body offers a hilariously heartwarming twist to a long-time tradition.

When the focus is on the growth journey of Ming-han and the developing friendship between him and Mao, the movie is captivating and touching, using the character strengths of charisma and connection to showcase a wonderful relationship.

All the components for a nutty romp are present, but director Chang Wei-hao never seems interested in whittling the material down to something resembling coherence and consistency...

Marry My Dead Body’s sense of tone is perfect (...) The performances from the cast are great. Wei-Hao Cheng’s film looks and sounds incredible. In addition to all that, the movie is a major win for gay representation.

While the film offers up a few moments that deal with serious subjects, such as death, grief, and homophobia, it’s largely designed to be pure escapism, but with a lack of jokes and comedic moments, overall, the film felt long and disjointed.

This sporadically inspired spin on bromance conventions gets its message of acceptance across in agreeably light-hearted fashion.