Review of Bold LGBTQ Arthouse Drama Ghosts Just Want To Have Fun

So I really wanted to love Ghosts Just Want to Have Fun, the latest film from Director Scud Cheng.  But to be honest, a lot of the movie gets in the way.    The premise of the film is actually pretty straightforward: after a soldier is raped four times in one day, he takes his own life.  Due to his suicide, he is unable to pass on and instead lingers in our world. He finds he can possess living people and undertakes a hedonistic trip around the world searching for the love and pleasure he did not have when he was alive.  The film is a reimagined and enhanced version of Scud’s 2022 Bodyshop. 

So first, let me start with the good stuff.  The movie communicates primarily through vibes, and it projects those in volumes dealing with death, loss, love, and our relationship to the dead, and does a wonderful job of making you feel rather than understand what is going on.   And if you like seeing good-looking people naked, then this film has you covered in spades, not in an exploitive way, but more like you are getting a glimpse into an intimate moment.  The movie also creates a surreal environment, where you are never entirely sure what is coming next.

Unfortunately, this also means that many times in the movie, you will not be sure of what is going on, even in the moment.  Also, the version I watched had some issues with its translation to English, which further hampered things.  That might not be an issue for people who can watch it in its native language. There is no clear demarcation of when a person is being possessed, and the soldier also discovers he can influence people’s minds even when he is not directly in control. Which gave me some pause about the level of consent in almost the whole movie.   There is also a subplot about the body shop, which is an alternative to traditional corpse handling, where the person’s friends and relatives consume their loved one’s remains. 

All of these things said, if you are looking for a visually striking movie that is more about beauty, pain, and transcendence than plot. This might be the perfect movie for you.

Content warning for the film – Lots of Suicide, sexual violence, Cannibalism