Jump to the good stuff: The Story | Some Thoughts | The Final Verdict
The Story:
Bodyshop is a drama that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. It’s about a young soldier (Tank Liu) who is found peeking at another man in the shower and subsequently raped four times. Unable to deal with the rape, he kills himself.
After his death, his ghost visits his mother to say goodbye. He then stays with his transgender sister, who is one of the few people who can see him. And while visiting his sister, he possesses unfaithful lovers and travels the world with them.
Some Thoughts:
As with other movies I’ve reviewed by Scud (Adonis and Amphetamine), Bodyshop puts message and style before story. It also includes beautiful images of naked men, which is what I’ve come to expect from Scud.
The movie will be discouraging to watch if you try to make sense of the plot instead of concentrating on its central theme of how we honor the dead. This theme begins after the young soldier dies and visits his mother, seeing how he’s being mourned. It also carries on throughout the film with imagery of people remembering the dead in various ways.
The title refers to a business that allows people to eat their dead relatives to honor them. It’s a ceremony that a person chooses prior to their death, and the participants agree to. While the business fits in the narrative thematically, it often feels forced and unnecessary. Cannibalism is also illegal, so it also brings in the police, which isn’t handled very well.
Other themes in the film are shame, mourning, death, and ceremony. The actors use their real names, and interviews with Adonis He are spliced in to blur the lines between fantasy and reality. And much like the disjointed narrative, it’s all done intentionally to make the viewer concentrate on the message.
The Final Verdict:
Bodyshop is an art house film full of beautiful imagery of naked men that places substance over story. If you’re looking for a film with a narrative structure that’s easy to follow, this is not for you.