Marry My Dead Body is Taiwan’s submission for Best International Feature Film in the 96th Annual Academy Awards. It’s a film that spans mystery, comedy, and more genres. It also deals with the cultural custom of ghost marriage – and why you perhaps shouldn’t pick up any red envelopes you see lying on the ground. Director Cheng Wei-hao chatted with us about their film.

Ayla Ruby: Great to talk to you. Can you talk about the story of the film and themes?
Cheng Wei-hao: This is an action comedy that combines with suspense, thriller, and LGBT genres. The story follows a straight police officer named Ming-han, who accidentally picks up a red envelope left on the ground while chasing a drug dealer. According to Chinese cultural tradition, anyone who picks up these red envelopes from the street is encouraged to marry the deceased, otherwise they will be punished by misfortunes. Thus, Ming-han is unwillingly forced into a ghost marriage with a deceased young man, Mao-mao. He initially refuses the uncomfortable marriage arrangement, but many unexplained misfortunes occur in his life, forcing him to accept the ghost marriage. After completing the ghost marriage ceremony, they start a journey of mutual understanding together, and accomplish Mao-mao’s bucket list.

Ayla Ruby: Can you talk about your journey to the story? It’s quite different.
Cheng Wei-hao: This original concept came from an essay competition for story summaries. This submission won first prize at the time. The initial story was about a street cleaner who picked up a red envelope and had to marry a gay ghost. According to a Chinese custom, a red envelope is left on the ground by family members who want their female relatives who die young in their marriageable age to marry the living. The person who picks up the envelope usually has to make a ghost marriage with the deceased. Otherwise you will be punished by lots of misfortunes. But this time, it’s with a male ghost. I thought the idea had great comedic potential. And for the longest time, I had wanted to work on a comedy project. So I found another writer to co-create the official screenplay. When writing the script, I started to add mixed genre elements, including changing the main character from a street cleaner to a detective, so that criminal cases could be involved in the story. Also, because the other main character is a ghost, I decided to enlarge some supernatural elements to the movie. And what you saw is the result of the development.

Ayla Ruby:  Can you speak about any cultural inspirations behind the film? There’s the red envelope as a running motif and then because of that, ghost marriage. It’s all very intriguing. 
Cheng Wei-hao: I grew up in Taiwan. It still revolves around a lot of folklore and local beliefs. For example, there’s a temple every kilometer on average in Taiwan. People often go to temples to seek protection or blessing after certain incidents or events. We fear gods and demons, therefore, I have accumulated a lot of stories about gods, ghosts and folklore since I was a child. Therefore, when telling a Genre story, the first thing that comes to mind is to use local materials. In particular, the themes I am interested in are thrillers, so I like to extract elements from local folklore to tell genre stories for the foreseeable future.

Ayla Ruby: This film has a few genres. There’s supernatural themes and then action and comedy elements. Can you talk about balancing all these?
Cheng Wei-hao: When writing the script, I started to add mixed genre elements, including changing the main character from a street cleaner to a detective, so that criminal cases could be involved in the story. Also, because the other main character is a ghost, I decided to enlarge some supernatural elements to the script. At first, everyone worries about mixing too many genres, but my approach is this: if we split all movie stories into foreground and background ones, everyone is usually familiar with “foreground story”, they will say This is a suspenseful crime”, “A supernatural thriller”. When people describe a movie, they usually describe it based on the foreground story, because it is easier to define the main atmosphere on the surface of the movie. But in fact, I kept reminding the cast and crew that we should pay more attention to the “background story” of this movie. This movie is actually a Road Movie and Bromance about two guys. We will follow the movie flow experiencing the mutual help and growth arc of the two guys. The story is driven by the two main characters. So mastering the “background story” is the key to mix all genres. And this might be the key reason why the whole movie will not be scattered in different genres.

Ayla Ruby Can you talk about filming the movie? How long did it take? There are quite makeup effects in the film with the dead – can you talk about that? There’s also other effects. What was shooting that like?
Cheng Wei-hao: Actually, Mao-mao originally had more visual effects shots because he is a ghost. I wanted to show him suddenly appearing next to someone and then, in the next moment, already sitting on the sofa. Also, he needed to float for extended periods. This sudden appearance and disappearance were achieved through multi-layered shooting, combined with editing. But for scenes where Mao-mao needed to float, we still had to use CGI. The visual effects used in floating of Mao-mao are to assist the narrative. In addition to CGI effects, we actually built a special car. Having him sit on it allowed us to do most of the actual shooting. Not only can he float without using his feet, but he can also rotate his body left and right. Sometimes when the entire body was shot, I used CGI for the feet to achieve the final effect. Sometimes we can even create some funny footwork through the animation of CGI. But most of them are actually performed by the actor himself, and then assisted by the effects. In addition, I am always keen on trying new technologies in Taiwan. There are a lot of technologies that are already widely and maturely used in Hollywood and South Korea. I especially used virtual production and full CG to make this car chase scene. The parts inside the car were shot in a virtual studio. Outside the car, all scenes and car animations are full CG. This can be said to be the first attempt in Taiwan. Being a pioneer in the local industry is one of my consistent creative motives. I know there is still a lot of space for improvement, but we have to take the first step. This method also helped me to try my best to complete the car chase I envisioned within a limited budget.

Ayla Ruby: Can you talk about finding your cast? What was your approach to that?
Cheng Wei-hao: As a director, I always pay long-term attention to the actors’ drama performances. In addition to their memorable good looks, the key is their convincing acting skills. I noticed Kuang-Han before he appeared in “Someday or One Day,” which became a hit all over Asia. The roles he took on in dramas were all very diverse, including very eccentric ones, such as weird, perverted or creepy characters; Austin was the same. Both of them were able to play all kinds of roles with ease, which means that they both have the courage to take on the challenges and have the acting stability. Being a commercial film in Asia, it required a famous cast as a box office attraction. So, once the first draft was completed, I offered them the roles, and they quickly agreed because they liked the characters and the story very much.

Ayla Ruby: Was anything really challenging during filming? Was anything unexpected?
Cheng Wei-hao: The biggest challenge for me in this movie was establishing the comedy rhythm. Dialogue and actor performance are the key points in establishing rhythm. So I spent three years working on this script. Then I found two main actors who are popular and have acting skills. But what impressed me the most at first was that both of them were actually very polite and well-educated people. I was nervous about whether they could handle such a crazy comedy. But after they read the script and rehearsed the play, I discovered that they are indeed great actors, because they quickly entered into the roles and demonstrated a different side of themselves. We established a tacit understanding between the actors through rehearsals. I requested them to rehearse almost half of the script. This opens up their tolerance of embarrassment, helping to build up more comedic effects. It was through these efforts that we achieved the successful result you saw.

Ayla Ruby: How did you find out that Marry My Dead Body was an Oscar contender? What was your reaction?
Cheng Wei-hao: Regarding awards, I always try to manage my expectations. But I also have a certain amount of confidence in this movie. The movie covers many social issues, and is packaged as a genre film, which uses comedy to discuss the more serious topics. The most important thing is that the story is about love: “When it comes to love, we’re all the same.” Furthermore, the content of the movie represents Taiwan’s contemporary significance. These reasons may be what make this movie stand out.

Ayla Ruby: Is there a message behind the film? Or any thoughts you want to leave the audience with?
Cheng Wei-hao: The story intentionally establishes comedic conflicts using different stereotypes. But when you are involved in these two characters’ journeys, you will discover that what we are truly conveying is about tearing off labels and breaking out of stereotypes. And the most important thing is that no matter your gender or sexual orientation, all of us are the same in the face of love.