Bodyshop is the latest, and final film by acclaimed queer Hong Kong filmmaker Scud (Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung), who is retiring. A front-runner in Asian queer film-making, his previous films include Voyage, Utopians, Amphetamine and Adonis. Scud is a unique filmmaker, and here combines extreme sex, nudity, and rape scenes with documentary-type interviews, camp elements, and suicide references, even clips of his previous films – with an out-there plot. He indicates that elements of the film may or may not be based on reality. So be prepared for a rather intense ride.
We are thrown into the deep end within the first few minutes of the film. A young man is caught spying on two naked men having a shower in a changing room. They grab him and throw him into the cubicle before both brutally rape him. Later that evening the distraught man is walking home through a park when another two men assault him, tie him to a pole, and gets raped again. Distraught by these events the young man later commits suicide.
He becomes a ghost, a naked ghost at that, and attends his own funeral. He also develops the power to possess other people. After his funeral he decides to go and visit his trans sister in Hong Kong. His trip takes him via Taiwan, Spain, Thailand, and Japan. As he passes through each country he possesses the bodies of other people, mostly beautiful gay men, causing mayhem with their sex lives. The resulting chaos is quite hard to follow but scene after scene of hot completely naked men in crazy high production-value situations makes the film easy to watch. There is more full-frontal male nudity in this film than in any other film ever I imagine.
An intriguing subplot is the Bodyshop of the film’s title. This is an establishment in Hong Kong where dead bodies can be taken and carved up. A dinner of the body parts is then prepared and different body parts are served up to nominated friends and relatives of the deceased. Quite a unique, albeit horrific, idea although I wasn’t sure how this story linked into the rest of the film’s narrative.
This is a crazy, sexy film – very easy on the eye, somewhat harder on the brain. Food for thought though and I’m glad I watched it.
Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
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