In Marry My Dead Body, Ming-han, a police officer, is betrothed to marry the ghost of Mao Pang-Yu, who died under mysterious circumstances. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Ming-han is a homophobic straight man who is selfish and always looks out for himself. He is constantly at odds with his colleague, Lin Tzu-ching, who is struggling to make a name for herself because the department only uses her for PR since she has a pretty face.
Ming-han messes up while trying to catch a drug dealer named A-kou. Tzu-ching catches A-kou and puts Ming-han on duty to collect evidence. While collecting the pieces and scraps around the crime scene, Ming-han picks up a red envelope.
Old women around him quickly gather up and deduce that the ghost of Mao Pang-Yu, also known as Mao-mao, has chosen Ming-han to be his husband. Ming-han ridicules this idea. However, the women warn him that he will suffer from bad luck if he doesn’t agree to this union.
What the old women say comes true. Ming-han injures himself and also gets demoted for a previous case he handled. Slowly, Ming-han realizes the curse is true and agrees to the ghost marriage.
Mao-mao’s grandmother had promised him that she will live to see him marry. She is trying to keep her promise. Ming-han is married to the ghost of Mao-mao. Only Mao-mao’s father, Mr. Mao, is opposed to this marriage.
Ming-han somehow goes through this strange marriage. However, things start getting real when he actually sees Mao-mao’s ghost in his house. Mao-mao demands to be called husband, and when Ming-han declines, Mao-mao possesses him and makes him walk the streets naked.
However, every time Mao-mao possesses someone, his spirit is harmed; eventually, he will be scattered in pieces if he continues to be in a human body.
Mao-mao is still around, and Ming-han can’t get rid of him because Mao-mao says no to divorce. The only way Ming-han can help himself is by fulfilling Mao-mao’s dying wishes. Once they are all fulfilled, Mao-mao will be reincarnated.
Ming-han heals Mao-mao’s spirit by burning incense and paying respect to him. Ming-han then starts listening to Mao-mao. At the same time, Mao-mao proposes that he can help Ming-han get back to his old precinct too.
As per one of the dying wishes, Ming-han takes Mao-mao to see the latter’s ex-boyfriend, Chen Chia-hao. It turns out that Chia-hao has already moved on from Mao-mao’s death.
Near Chia-hao’s building, Ming-han finds Mr. Mao, who is investigating his son’s hit-and-run case. Although Mr. Mao doesn’t trust the cops, as they stopped the investigation after the CCTV footage from the scene went missing, he hands Ming-han the case file, believing it’s fate.
Ming-han investigates and finds out that A-kou, the drug dealer Tzu-ching caught, was there that night. However, A-kou is dead after having a fight at the detention center.
Therefore, Ming-han looks for A-kou’s partner, who was with him that night. While following him, he crosses paths with Tzu-ching. They reach the hideout of Lin Hsiao-yuan, the drug lord Ming-han’s colleagues are trying to catch.
Ming-han might finally get his job back if they catch Hsiao-yuan. Ming-han’s precinct devises a plan to raid the place, but Ming-han misreads signals and messes up. The cops still go with the plan but find nothing in the place.
It is suspected that there is a mole in the department, considering how quickly Hsiao-yuan moved his drugs. While the cops recover from this failure, Mao-mao guides Ming-han to investigate his case.
The camera inside A-kou’s partner’s car shows that it was Hsiao-yuan who hit Mao-mao. Ming-han hands this evidence to Tzu-ching. The cops once again fail to catch Hsiao-yuan.
All this while, Ming-han claimed he had an informant who helped him through the case. The fact that Ming-han is one step ahead of them and Hsiao-yuan is still escaping makes Ming-han’s boss, Captain Chang, suspect Ming-han, who is then suspended.
Ming-han and Mao-mao get into a fight after this. Ming-han tries to hand Mao-mao to Chia-hao. Ming-han confronts Chia-hao and asks him why he didn’t care much about Mao-mao’s death and moved on quickly.
Chia-hao reveals that he never planned to marry; it was Mao-mao who had dreams of it. To not hurt Mao-mao, Chia-hao started keeping his distance from him instead of being honest with him.
Mao-mao was busy convincing his father to let him marry a boy. After a fight with his father, Mao-mao needed someone to comfort him, and Chia-hao wasn’t there for him.
Though Mao-mao cries for Chia-hao, Ming-han says Chia-hao is not worth it. Ming-ha comforts Chia-hao later and finally changes for real. He starts seeing Chia-hao, a gay man who, much like everyone else, only dreams of receiving love from someone and giving it back.
Back on the case, Mao-mao finds out and tells Ming-han that Captain Chang is the mole and Hsiao-yuan is skipping town. Ming-han alerts the cops and goes to the scene himself.
A gun war breaks out at the location. Captain Chang and Ming-han are able to corner Hsiao-yuan at a karaoke bar. However, they are outgunned when Lin Tzu-ching shows up and reveals herself as the mole. All this while, she has been helping Hsiao-yuan escape.
Marry My Dead Body ending explained in detail:
Why does Tzu-ching betray Hsiao-yuan?
Tzu-ching stays by Hsiao-yuan’s side for a while before betraying him. She attacks him the moment she gets her hands on his money. When Tzu-ching was a kid, her mother died of a drug overdose, and Hsiao-yuan’s drugs were responsible for this.
Tzu-ching waited for Hsiao-yuan’s plan to skip this town. Her patience paid off. She will now leave with the money, and Hsiao-yuan will be arrested.
Before leaving, Tzu-ching bids Ming-han goodbye. Tzu-ching is surprised to learn that Ming-han knows her story, thanks to Mao-mao, who saw the exchange between Tzu-ching and Hsiao-yuan.
Does Ming-han die?
Ming-han and Captain Chang are cornered by Hsiao-yuan and his goons. Mao-mao possesses Hsiao-yuan and frees Ming-han and Captain Chang.
Mao-mao fails to be in a human body for long. When he escapes Hsiao-yuan’s body, fights break out, with cops arriving as well. The fights end with Ming-han severely injured by a gunshot from Hsiao-yuan, who is then killed by Captain Chang.
Bringing Ming-han to the hospital in time is almost impossible with the traffic around. Ming-han attempts to say his goodbyes to Mao-mao, who uses the last bit of his energy.
He possesses every driver on the road one by one and makes way for the ambulance. Hence, Ming-han is brought to the hospital in time and is saved.
What does Mr. Mao tell Ming-han?
Mao-mao is still there, but he has very little energy left. Ming-han can barely see him. Mr. Mao visits Ming-han to thank him for finding the person responsible for Mao-mao’s death.
Ming-han knows Mr. Mao had a fight with Mao-mao before his death. He urges Mr. Mao to tell him what he would say to Mao-mao if he does get to see him. Ming-han assures Mr. Mao that Mao-mao can hear him; he should speak his heart out.
Mr. Mao apologizes for getting him killed. Mr. Mao was homophobic, but he understood his son and loved him. He had gone to visit his son and his boyfriend. There, he saw Chia-hao cheating on Mao-mao with his current boyfriend.
Mr. Mao didn’t agree to this marriage because he didn’t want this kind of man in his son’s life, not because Mr. Mao was homophobic. Mr. Mao feels guilty for not handling this better. He just didn’t have the guts to tell his son the truth about his boyfriend.
After Mao-mao’s death, Mr. Mao visited Chia-hao and punched him. He regretted this, and the next time he visited Chia-hao, it was to get the passcode to his son’s phone so that he could investigate the death.
What happens to Mao-mao?
Through Ming-han, Mao-mao also apologizes to his father for causing him so much worry. He also thanks his father for showing him so much unconditional love. He wishes to reincarnate in his next life as his son again.
Mao-mao feels content and disappears. Mending things with his father turns into his last dying wish. Mao-mao is no longer around. However, Ming-han continues to stay in touch with Mao-mao’s family as their son-in-law.
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