Yahoo News Oscars: Taiwan Submits Hit Comedy ‘Marry My Dead Body’ For Best International Feature Category
Taiwan’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development has announced the submission of Cheng Wei-hao’s Marry My Dead Body for the Best International Feature category of next year’s Oscars.
The supernatural comedy with a crime-thriller twist is the seventh highest-grossing local film in Taiwan’s box office history, taking $11.3 million (NT$360M), and also performed well when it was released theatrically in South Korea, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
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The film, which is produced by Taiwan’s Calendar Studios and Bole Film, also landed in Netflix’s global top 10 (non-English) chart during its first week of release on the platform. It also won best screenplay at the Taipei Film Awards.
Starring Hsu Kuang-han, Austin Lin and Gingle Wang, the film tells the story of a homophobic cop who is forced into a same-sex “ghost” marriage to appease the spirit of a man who has passed away. Although terrified of both homosexuality and ghosts, he has no choice but to team with his ghostly spouse to solve a long-running drugs case.
BAMID, which is under Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, said that a total of nine films were submitted for consideration. The selection committee said it chose Marry My Dead Body because the film “cleverly combines traditional customs with modern perspectives, has both humor and emotion, and showcases the characteristics of Taiwanese culture and life.”
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