Corpse Pride

I watched Corpse Bride last Friday at Times Square.

The movie was good, though a tad below expectation. Perhaps it was because I have expected it to be much darker.

Anyway, the story goes about how Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) ended up marrying a corpse instead of a live person on the eve of his wedding and then brought to the Underworld. How the bride-to-be, Victoria Everglot had to marry Lord Barkis instead as a replacement, as her parents insisted that she has to marry someone on her wedding day, that things must go according to plan.

The living world was portrayed as dark, grey and liveless whereas the dead were having fun and parties. The people in the former were grumpy and joyless while the latter were happy and happening.

Immediately, the contrast brought to mind the differences between the breeders and us. Why, even the living was referred to as “breathers”.

Or was it just me who read too much into the movie?

When the bride, Emily (Helena Bonham Carter) was rejected on the reason that she is dead, the Black Widow spider and Maggot broke into a song and chorused that being alive is “overrated and overblown”.

You got that right, sistah (the Maggot wears make-up and lipstick. How tranny is that? ;P). Being straight is definitely overrated and overblown.

In the same song "Tears to Shed", Emily achingly expressed
Yet I feel my heart is aching.
Though it doesn't beat, it's breaking.
And the pain here that I feel,
try and tell me it's not real.
I know that I am dead,
yet it seems that I still have some tears to shed

Oh yes, although we are attracted to people of the same sex, it doesn't mean that we are any less of a person. We still feel and hurt inside like everybody else.

The songs in the movie, especially Remains of the Day, reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Obviously, we all know why.

Spoiler alert

In the end, when Emily proved that she was the bigger person, that even though she loved Victor yet he was not hers and he was free to marry Victoria instead, she showed how love means not to hold on but to let go.

End of spoiler.

A lesson which is important to learn, yet so difficult to do when it comes down to it.

To many gay men, they know that the man they love and together with today, could easily have a change of heart tomorrow. Thus, in the meantime, they just enjoy what they have and savour every moment, because when it’s time to let go, it’s time to let go.

When that time comes, it’s best to move on. There’s no point holding on to the past.

Needless to say, there’s also the lesson of good triumphs over evil, every time.

And so, it turned out to be a very gay movie for me, hence the title of this post.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (it would have been 4.5 if it were darker)