You are here:

Make Up

Name: Make Up
Director: Lien Yi-chi
Released: 2011
Duration: 107 min

Representation Score

5.3/10

Fair

2011

Director

Lien Yi-chi

Runtime

107 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

Make Up (2011) blends genres to explore themes of grief and identity. It deviates from typical dramatic structures by using a fantasy-mystery lens to examine the boundary between life and death. The film provides professional ability to act to its female lead and offers a culturally specific Taiwanese perspective, challenging Western cinematic clichés. However, it remains anchored in traditional romantic structures and conventional gendered emotions, without engaging in explicit identity politics or addressing disabilities.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does Make Up have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The story focuses on a traditional romantic relationship between a man and his deceased wife. There are no explicit LGBTQ narratives or non-cisgender identities in the plot.

How does Make Up portray gender?

Fair

Min-Hsiu, a professional mortuary cosmetologist, plays a significant role in the story. However, the central emotional weight revolves around the male lead's grief.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Make Up?

Good

As a Taiwanese film, it offers a non-Western perspective. By focusing on local social structures and cultural attitudes, it avoids Anglo-centric homogeneity.

How does Make Up represent religion and culture?

Good

The film explores metaphysical themes, suggesting that death marks a new beginning. This spiritual approach challenges strictly secular storytelling clichés.

Does Make Up include disability representation?

Minimal

There is no evidence of physical or neurodivergent disability representation in the provided narrative details.

Present on Screen

The female lead, Min-Hsiu, has professional expertise and drives key plot points.
The Taiwanese setting provides a culturally specific perspective that avoids Western cinematic homogeneity.
The metaphysical approach to death offers a nuanced, non-secular perspective.

Limited or Absent

The narrative centers on a traditional romantic structure focused on male grief.
There is a lack of explicit representation of LGBTQ+ identities or queer narratives.
The story does not address physical or neurodivergent disabilities.

Official Synopsis

Being a mortuary cosmetologist, Min-Hsiu is used to seeing dead bodies until she accidentally spots a female corpse – her high school teacher Miss Chen Ting. Nie Cheng-Fu, Chen Ting’s husband, loves his wife profoundly and tries to find more memories of her with Min-Hsiu’s help. At that point, a detective, Kuo Yung-Ming, senses that the truth behind this case may not be as simple as it seems. Death is not the end of life, but another beginning of it...

How are these scores produced? →