diff --git a/tests/integration/test_requests.py b/tests/integration/test_requests.py
index 148607f..02900d9 100644
--- a/tests/integration/test_requests.py
+++ b/tests/integration/test_requests.py
@@ -282,3 +282,17 @@ def test_filter_post_params(tmpdir, httpbin_both):
         requests.post(url, data={'key': 'value'})
     with vcr.use_cassette(cass_loc, filter_post_data_parameters=['key']) as cass:
         assert b'key=value' not in cass.requests[0].body
+
+
+def test_post_unicode_match_on_body(tmpdir, httpbin_both):
+    '''Ensure that matching on POST body that contains Unicode characters works.'''
+    data = {'key1': 'value1', '●‿●': '٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶'}
+    url = httpbin_both + '/post'
+
+    with vcr.use_cassette(str(tmpdir.join('requests.yaml')), additional_matchers=('body',)):
+        req1 = requests.post(url, data).content
+
+    with vcr.use_cassette(str(tmpdir.join('requests.yaml')), additional_matchers=('body',)):
+        req2 = requests.post(url, data).content
+
+    assert req1 == req2
diff --git a/tests/integration/test_wild.py b/tests/integration/test_wild.py
index ee1eafa..33f1edb 100644
--- a/tests/integration/test_wild.py
+++ b/tests/integration/test_wild.py
@@ -81,16 +81,23 @@ def test_amazon_doctype(tmpdir):
     assert 'html' in r.text
 
 
+def start_rpc_server(q):
+    httpd = xmlrpc_server.SimpleXMLRPCServer(('127.0.0.1', 0))
+    httpd.register_function(pow)
+    q.put('http://{}:{}'.format(*httpd.server_address))
+    httpd.serve_forever()
+
+
 @pytest.yield_fixture(scope='session')
 def rpc_server():
-    httpd = xmlrpc_server.SimpleXMLRPCServer(('', 0))
-    httpd.register_function(pow)
+    q = multiprocessing.Queue()
     proxy_process = multiprocessing.Process(
-        target=httpd.serve_forever,
+        target=start_rpc_server,
+        args=(q,)
     )
     try:
         proxy_process.start()
-        yield 'http://{}:{}'.format(*httpd.server_address)
+        yield q.get()
     finally:
         proxy_process.terminate()
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_vcr.py b/tests/unit/test_vcr.py
index 5a6bb6e..f473db3 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_vcr.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_vcr.py
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ def test_vcr_path_transformer():
         # and it should still work with cassette_library_dir
         vcr = VCR(cassette_library_dir='/foo')
         with vcr.use_cassette('test') as cassette:
-            assert cassette._path == '/foo/test'
+            assert os.path.abspath(cassette._path) == os.path.abspath('/foo/test')
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
diff --git a/vcr/matchers.py b/vcr/matchers.py
index 1714018..8a04f7c 100644
--- a/vcr/matchers.py
+++ b/vcr/matchers.py
@@ -68,9 +68,12 @@ def _transform_json(body):
 _xml_header_checker = _header_checker('text/xml')
 _xmlrpc_header_checker = _header_checker('xmlrpc', header='User-Agent')
 _checker_transformer_pairs = (
-    (_header_checker('application/x-www-form-urlencoded'), urllib.parse.parse_qs),
-    (_header_checker('application/json'), _transform_json),
-    (lambda request: _xml_header_checker(request) and _xmlrpc_header_checker(request), xmlrpc_client.loads),
+    (_header_checker('application/x-www-form-urlencoded'),
+        lambda body: urllib.parse.parse_qs(body.decode('ascii'))),
+    (_header_checker('application/json'),
+        _transform_json),
+    (lambda request: _xml_header_checker(request) and _xmlrpc_header_checker(request),
+        xmlrpc_client.loads),
 )