Netflix's Marry My Dead Body ending explained (2024)

Marry My Dead Body ending spoilers follow.

Cheng Wei-hao's Marry My Dead Body is a lot of things. It's a gay romcom turned murder mystery with supernatural action and even social critique thrown into too, but most importantly of all, this Taiwanese box-office hit is an absolute must-see that deserves a spot in your Netflix queue this weekend.

The film starts with a hom*ophobic police officer named Wu Ming-han (Greg Hsu) who accidentally winds up getting married to another man, but the catch is he's dead. Yes, the premise really is as wild as that sounds, but what follows is far more entertaining and heartfelt than an idea this absurd has any right to be.

At first Ming-han and his new "hubby", Mao Mao (Austin Lin), don't get on, so the cop does everything he can to help his "ghost husband" move on and reincarnate. But to do so, Ming-han must find the culprit who killed Mao Mao in a hit-and-run, plus there are some more personal issues to deal with too.

Marry My Dead Body ending explained

Ming-han's investigation into Mao Mao's death is also tied up with another case concerning a local drug cartel. Ghost hubby tries to help out but sometimes ends up making things worse.

No matter though, because Ming-han still needs to help Mao Mao find peace so he can reincarnate. And it's during this part of their quest that they end up on the doorstep of Mao Mao's boyfriend, who he wanted to propose to right before he lost his life.

But when they arrive, they discover that his boyfriend has already moved on with someone else. In fact, the guy didn't want to marry Mao Mao at all, so he refuses to even engage in the idea of a new ghost marriage to take him off Ming-han's hands.

Ming-han sees how hurt Mao Mao is by this revelation, so he loses his temper and hits the guy. Mao Mao wants to know what he did wrong to deserve this rejection, but Ming-han tells him that this ex was never good enough for him in a rare moment of solidarity.

The ghost leaves then, and Ming-han follows because he no longer sees Mao Mao as a nuisance, or a gay stereotype for that matter either. He sees his "hubby" as a human being who is kind and sweet and worthy of love, even if Ming-han himself is straight.

The pair connect by a beautiful river where they discuss love and how to be fulfilled in life. It seems then that Mao Mao is able to let go and find peace, so he tells Ming-han to take care of his dog, Mao Jr, and visit Granny for him as he floats up to the sky.

We then see a nicer version of Ming-han, someone who has been changed for the better thanks to the time he spent with Mao Mao. But there's still 40 minutes left in this film, so it should come as no surprise that ghost hubby returns, just as Ming-han is about to finally enjoy some privacy with just him and his laptop, if you catch our drift...

Mao Mao didn't really leave for good because he still wanted to help Ming-han solve the case, and he did find out two vital pieces of information: 1) Lin Hsiao-yuan (Tsai Chen-nan) is skipping town and 2) Chang Yung-kang (Ma Nien-hsien) has been the police mole all along, even though he's supposed to be the boss.

Ming-han calls this information in and arrives at cartel HQ in the middle of a shoot-out between the criminals and his fellow cops.

Yung-kang runs off during the fight, so Ming-han tracks him down only to discover that Mao Mao was wrong all along. The mole was never his boss; it was actually policewoman Lin Tzu-ching (Gingle Wang), who's been working both sides this whole time.

Ghost hubby misunderstood a key phone call, but there's no time to worry about that now because Tzu-ching knocks Ming-han and his boss out before handcuffing them both together.

Tzu-ching kind of mothers the whole situation when she also double crosses the cartel boss too. And her revenge against him is far more pointed. We mean that in a literal sense because she's literally pinned the man to a wall with two knives through both palms. It turns out that Tzu-ching's mother died of a drug overdose when she was just a kid, and it was the mobster's fault.

Her plan is to steal all his money and escape while he gets arrested for Mao Mao's hit and run, plus all the other crimes the police are after him for as well.

Meanwhile, Ming-han is about to be killed by one of the henchmen who he encountered earlier on in the gay bar. The mob guy stops him just in time though after his people rescue him from the wall. He wants to know where Tzu-ching has gone, and when Ming-han doesn't have an answer, the ghost steps in just before the mobster tries to shoot his husband in the head.

By possessing the crime boss, Mao Mao is able to free Ming-han and the police chief without anyone getting hurt. But then more police show up and in his shock, Mao Mao accidentally kills one of the other henchmen, which leads to another big shootout.

Ming-han is outnumbered, so Mao Mao keeps possessing various criminals to give him an upper hand. That's dangerous though, because if a spirit possesses people for too long, mortal bodies can start to disrupt the ghost's soul and even destroy it completely.

With most of his strength now sapped, Mao Mao is unable to warn Ming-han that the crime boss is still alive and about to shoot him from behind.

The film then cuts to Ming-han fighting for his life in an ambulance. There's too much blood loss from his bullet wound and if he doesn't make it to the hospital soon, he'll die. The problem is that the highway's backed up full of traffic, which means Ming-han's bullet won't be removed in time.

A fading Mao Mao cries by Ming-han's side: "Even though I'm already dead, I won't allow you to join me." And when one of the paramedics ask who Ming-han's talking to, he replies, "My husband."

This hom*ophobic cop has come such a long way, but his journey's about to end because he flatlines and the defibrillator isn't working.

Using the very last of his strength, Mao Mao possesses all the drivers in the road ahead, forcing them to move their cars to the side so the ambulance can drive through and get Ming-han to intensive care in time.

Ming-han wakes up in a hospital bed, alive but alone. He frantically looks around the room for Mao Mao, who's nowhere to be seen. And then his husband suddenly appears, but he's almost faded completely now. Ming-han gets up to burn some incense and give him strength, but Mao Mao says it's too late for that.

Ghost hubby's father comes in then to thank Ming-han for finding the man who killed his son and for bringing him to justice.

Knowing that he didn't see Mao Mao again after their big fight, Ming-han asks him to say out loud what he'd say to his son if he was still alive today: "Trust me. He can hear you."

"I would tell him I'm sorry," says Mao Mao's father. "Actually, I know I'm the one who got you killed. I'm the one who got Mao Mao killed."

We flash back then to him arguing with the Granny over Mao Mao's "unnatural" queerness. At first, the father struggles with it, but then he mulls things over and buys some food to take up to his son's flat as an apology. When he arrives, the father finds Mao Mao's boyfriend cheating on him with the guy who he actually ends up with after the hit-and-run accident.

We then jump forward again to Mao Mao telling his family that he wishes to marry his boyfriend who he still doesn't know is a lousy cheater. The father doesn't agree with it — "If you marry that guy, don’t ever call me dad again" — but we realise now that he wasn't being hom*ophobic.

He was simply trying to stop his son from marrying a man who was already unfaithful to him: "I should have talked to him nicely that day, but I couldn't really tell him what I saw. Who knew he'd get into an accident that night?"

After Mao Mao died, the father beat up the boyfriend and then visited him again a second time to apologise in order to get the passcode for his son's phone. He was unsuccessful, as we already know, but that's okay, because Mao Mao has heard everything now.

When the father says Mao Mao would have been lucky to have met someone like Ming-han, the straight hubby asks if he would have hosted their wedding, to which the father replies yes, "I'd definitely be there". And Mao Mao hears that too.

Ming-han tells the dad what Mao Mao's spirit wants him to hear, that he's proud of his father, and to thank him for "letting him know what unconditional love is like".

No, no. We're not crying. You're crying.

It turns out that what Mao Mao really needed was his father's acceptance all along. Hearing the truth helps heal his soul in a very literal sense, pulling him back together from the brink of oblivion. And he's not just saved either. With his life fulfilled, Mao Mao is ready to finally reincarnate and move on too.

Through tears and a smile, Mao Mao does exactly that as Ming-han hugs his father who's also found some peace of his own at last.

The film ends with Ming-han grabbing some tissue and sitting by his laptop once more, but not for the reason you think. He simply has a runny nose, so he blows it quick as he jumps on a video call with Mao Mao's granny and father. The medicine they gave him has started to help, and Ming-han also plans to swing by for dinner the following Wednesday.

With the call ended, Ming-han looks around his room, as if to see Mao Mao. The ghost husband is no longer there, of course, but his presence still lingers in the way that Ming-han sees the world. Yes, he's even using a reusable drink container now, and Mao Jr is there too.

In this film's final moments, we see that Ming-han has kept up a shrine to Mao Mao in the living room. He might not have loved Mao Mao in a romantic sense, but he did love the ghost in his own way. Ming-han will forever be changed by their time together, and we're also better off for watching this heartfelt tribute to gay healing and acceptance as well.

Marry My Dead Body is available to watch on Netflix.