A Useful Ghost

I did not really connect with the deadpan humor or the understated romance; I felt no attachment to the characters, or the motivations driving their respective arcs which made their journeys feel emotionally distant and flat.

Also the story's eventual transition towards political commentary, worker exploitation, societal corruption, and the moral decay rooted in generational trauma didn't quite come together for me, it all felt hollow and lacking in rhythm.

I wouldn't call it pretentious, as I'd still like to think the creators had naive intentions; it's just that their message didn't hit home for me at all.

The bizarre situations or specifically the oddity surrounding the core subject is what kept my interest throughout this frustratingly long ordeal.

Many of us have probably heard of the notion of "the ghost in the machine." And now director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's debut feature brings entirely new meaning to that concept, literally, in this impressive, offbeat comedy-drama-fantasy. The film tells the unusual story of March (Wisarut Himmarat), the widowed young son of Suman (Apasiri Nitibhon), the cold, stone-faced, inflexible owner of a vacuum cleaner factory and an embittered widow herself. One might think that their mutual circumstances give them something in common, but such is not the case. Suman never cared much for her late daughter-in-law, Nat (Davika Hoorne), and doesn't exactly miss her now that she's gone. But those feelings become exacerbated when Nat's ghost reincarnates, coming back to life by inhabiting the machinery of one of her factory's vacuum cleaners, a development that Suman finds wholly unnatural and unacceptable but that March welcomes when he's reunited with his departed beloved. Nat's reason for returning is to care for her husband, who appears to be suffering symptoms of the same respiratory illness that killed her, one attributable to excess exposure to dust, a growing problem affecting the public in general, including the workers at Suman's plant. In fact, this burgeoning environmental and public health issue has already killed one employee and soon leads to the factory's shutdown by government officials, a development for which Suman blames Nat's reincarnated spirit by drawing attention to the condition. And, in turn, much to March's chagrin, Suman and her family do everything they can to get rid of the pesky ghost so they can reopen the plant and restore their severely diminished income stream. But can Nat be eliminated that easily? What's more, this incident turns out to be just the beginning of an all-out war on ghosts by a public frustrated by their return (both in mechanical and human form) and the nagging, unwanted consequences that, for various reasons, generally accompany their unforeseen reincarnation. The question thus becomes, who will triumph in such an interdimensional war of wills, especially when it becomes apparent that ghosts can actually prove to be useful and not universally menacing? If the foregoing sounds like a highly unusual premise for a movie, you'd be right, but the filmmaker skillfully pulls off this quirky project in truly fine fashion, one replete with hilarious deadpan humor, heartfelt moments of touching revelation, creative special effects, and an array of symbolic references that metaphorically cover topics ranging from public health matters to alternate lifestyle acceptance to incidents of karma and forgiveness, among others. To be sure, this release packs a lot of material into its 2:10:00 runtime, and, admittedly, the narrative occasionally verges on getting out of control with too many ideas and recurring material whose impact can run a little thin at times. In general, though, most everything the director strives to say manages to come through, providing viewers with much to ponder in the picture's wake. Because of that, this is the sort of offering that probably requires several screenings to appreciate its full impact, but that's fine considering how much there is to like here. If nothing else, "A Useful Ghost" is certainly a memorable cinematic experience, an impression very much in line with one of the picture's primary themes - the role that remembrance plays in sustaining the existence of departed loved ones in our hearts, minds and reality. Indeed, as has often been contended, those who have left us truly do live on as long as we remember them - whether in the shell of a vacuum cleaner or otherwise.

Absurd plot of a ghost reincarnation into a vacuum cleaner; dust pollution, selfish family dynamics, queer relationships. All that and more come together to bring this humourous tale to life. But at its core A Useful Ghost is about belonging, death and remembrance.

Director Ratchapoom makes this movie work with unusual choice of heavily underplaying by all actors. They express so little most of the time and at times gasp and act bemused. It could have backfired and made it look boring. Fortunately, it holds your attention because there is active screenplay, visual art, dialogues and those eyes & facial expressions which are doing remarkable job.

The second half of the movie drags with extra scenes. While I understood what was happening, during Q&A session at the end of movie some viewers did express their confusion about it. Otherwise, they liked it.

The music deserves it own mention. It supports the actors by not going overboard. And when the climax comes... Damn! The increasing tempo and arrangement of instruments. I'm in love. I can go back to this sequence whenever I get a chance.

I'm certainly looking forward to more work by Ratchapoom. And of course, my longtime favorite Mai Davika.

Watched at IFFI as Festival Closing Film.

A Useful Ghost is not just about ghosts-it's a razor-edged fantasy satire of Thai politics.

The "ghosts" are those disappeared, silenced, erased by a system that remembers only what it wants.

For LGBT+ people, the metaphor cuts deeper: we are the living ghosts forced to prove our "usefulness" just to survive-when human dignity should never hinge on utility.

The film throws our own cruelty back at us: a country that pushes some into silence and oblivion, yet their power lingers, haunting, demanding justice.

This is no horror film. It's a political question: how long will we live with loss, repression, lies-and even PM2.5 choking us-before we listen?

Ghosts never vanish. They hover, restless, waiting to be heard.