{"id":74,"date":"2025-04-22T16:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T08:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.144.183.115:206\/?p=74"},"modified":"2025-05-13T16:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:11:15","slug":"after-watching-this-hit-movie-starring-two-leading-men-i-no-longer-understand-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/after-watching-this-hit-movie-starring-two-leading-men-i-no-longer-understand-comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"After watching this hit movie starring two leading men, I no longer understand comedy."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With themes of comradeship, ghost marriages, and featuring stars like Greg Hsu and Austin Lin, and with director Cheng Wei-hao\u2014renowned in Taiwan for hits like “The Tag-Along,” “Who Killed Cock Robin,” and “The Soul”\u2014how could anyone not be intrigued and excited?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I finally watched it at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Although the theater atmosphere was excellent, I found myself neither genuinely laughing nor moved to tears by the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on this afterward made me wonder if it was my problem. However, I believe that director Cheng Weihao might lose himself in climbing box office numbers due to the movie’s overall plastic feel and slogan-like core.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

01
Character Stereotyping<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Hsu plays an incredibly “dumb” straight man whose character arc only shifts from being homophobic to understanding minority groups better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Austin Lin’s role as the “soul” lacks individuality; he’s merely a weeping ghost longing for eternal love\u2014a tool for advancing the plot with poorly written lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaron Yan plays a cold-hearted scumbag while Mao’s father portrays a verbally harsh but internally caring dad. All characters are annoyingly stereotypical\u2014aside from its gimmick of a gay ghost marriage\u2014there’s nothing new here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even compared with other Taiwanese LGBTQ+ films like Dear Ex<\/em> or Your Name Engraved Herein<\/em>, this movie falls short significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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02
Forced Humor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good comedies need solid setups and character relationships before developing plots where humor naturally arises\u2014not relying on puns or slapstick comedy alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, in Norway\u2019s recent film Sick of Myself<\/em>, humor stems from narcissistic personalities rather than forced gags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Marry My Dead Body<\/em>, scenes like Greg Hsu dancing feel purely designed for laughs without any contextual character relationships\u2014making audience laughter feel awkwardly forced like slapstick comedy or puns would do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

03
Crowd-Pleasing Plot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From casting choices onward efforts were made to please audiences: choosing popular young actors like Greg Hsu & Austin Lin; using songs by LGBTQ+ icon Jolin Tsai extensively during fight\/disco scenes; including scenes showing Greg Hsu\u2019s buttocks or attempting masturbation\u2014all catering towards viewer preferences yet leaving anti-gay discrimination themes shallowly addressed through mere slogans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How exactly did Mao’s father’s attitude change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did seeing his son fall madly in love with such an unfaithful scumbag suddenly make him realize he should respect\/give freedom towards his gay son instead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wouldn\u2019t that increase homophobia instead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or did understanding come posthumously after losing his son altogether?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These contradictions render everything twisted\u2014similar feelings arise regarding Wang Jing\u2019s female cop role too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greg Hsu & Austin Lin remain friends throughout\u2014the so-called CP (couple pairing) shipping thus feels one-sidedly wishful thinking only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover isn\u2019t forcing straight men into same-sex ghost marriages equally anti-human compared against forcing gays into heterosexual marriages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why criticize one while praising another novelty-wise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed homophobia needs addressing\u2014but forcing straight men into same-sex ghost marriages disrespects LGBTQ+ communities likewise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course one might argue fictional settings shouldn\u2019t face real-world value judgments\u2014but presenting concept-driven scripts featuring popular actors prematurely blurs concepts further instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supporting gender\/racial\/sexual orientation equality reflects humanity\u2019s evolving civilization continuously\u2014but not through coercing straight men into same-sex ghost marriages nor portraying gays promiscuously heartless either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When everything serves script purposes alone\u2014this film feels cheaply consumerist akin its opening car chase effects full-on cheapness reflecting today\u2019s consumerist era instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With themes of comradeship, ghost marriages, and featuring stars like Greg Hsu and Austin Lin,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-shows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78,"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/78"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/televisionnews.live\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}