“Marry Dead My Body" by Chen Weihao: A Case Study of Queer Subjectivity in Heteronormative Narrative

Several studies have been done on how queers are objectified as exotic and/or sinful spectacles in cinema, and how the embrace of queerness offers new angles of storytelling, which emphasize the importance of subjectivity in queerness representation. However, queer characters in these films often serve as a token character without a reflection of their own subjectivity. Taking the Taiwanese film Marry My Body(2023) by Cheng Weihao as an example, this paper examines how queerness is narrated in East Asian commercial cinema. It focuses on storytelling, mise-en-scène, cinemalogy, and narrative construction, exploring the redefinition of queerness by heteronormativity, and offering a critique of threats to the self-expression of queer community imposed by a heteronormative narrative. The paper thus argues that to represent queerness does not necessitate a definition of queerness, but a possibility of living differently from the binary-gendered, heterosexual majority.