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Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s feature A Useful Ghost has been selected as Thailand’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 98th annual Academy Awards.

The film follows March, who is mourning his wife, Nat, who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing a vacuum cleaner. Disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker’s death shut down their factory, his family rejects their unconventional human-ghost relationship. Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she must first get rid of the useless ones.

The film debuted in the Critics’ Week sidebar at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The cast includes Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjud, and Wisarut Homhuan.

Boonbunchachoke is a Bangkok-based filmmaker. He is best known for his short Red Aninsri; Or,...

Thailand has selected supernatural dark comedy A Useful Ghost (Pee Chai Dai Ka) as its submission for the international feature film category at the 98th Academy Awards, Variety reports today.

Bloody Disgusting’s parent company, Cineverse, recently acquired A Useful Ghost, which won Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize earlier this year and will release the film theatrically in early 2026.

Writer/Director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke makes his feature debut on the international co-production between Thailand, France, Singapore, and Germany.

The film follows March as he is mourning his wife, Nat, who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing the vacuum cleaner. Being disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker’s death shut down their factory, his family rejects the unconventional human-ghost relationship.

Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she...

Bloody Disgusting’s parent company Cineverse has acquired A Useful Ghost with plans for a theatrical release.

The Thai supernatural dark comedy won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes.

Writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke makes his feature debut on the international co-production between Thailand, France, Singapore, and Germany.

March is mourning his wife Nat who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing the vacuum cleaner. Being disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker’s death shut down their factory, his family reject the unconventional human-ghost relationship.

Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she must first get rid of the useless ones.

Davika Hoorne (Pee Mak) and Witsarut Himmarat star with Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjad, and Wisarut Homhuan.

“What makes A Useful Ghost such a singular thrill isn’t just its wickedly inventive premise,...

Exclusive: Thai dark-comedy A Useful Ghost, which won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at Cannes, has been picked up by Cineverse for North America.

The deal marks a rare foray into foreign-language content for Terrifier outfit Cineverse, which is lining up a theatrical run for the movie at a later date.

A Useful Ghost tells the story of Nat, a woman who dies from dust pollution and returns to her husband March—reincarnated as a vacuum cleaner. Their love is reignited in the most unlikely form, but not everyone welcomes her return—especially March’s family, still unsettled by a ghostly presence that appeared after a factory worker’s death forced their business to close.

The film stars Thai star Davika Hoorne alongside Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjud, and Wisarut Homhuan. Emerging Thai writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke makes his feature debut.

The feature is produced by Cattleya Paosrijaroen and Soros Sukhum at Bangkok-based 185 Films,...

There are so many delicious quotes one is tempted to pick from Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke‘s delightfully bonkers ghost comedy “A Useful Ghost” that a whole review could be filled with them. But if we were to settle for one, that would probably be “please stop screwing your vacuum”, a clever advise from loving mother to her son March (Witsarut Himmarat), a grieving widower whose late wife Net (angelic Davika Hoorne) returns as a ghost that possessed a vacuum cleaner. We are not talking metaphors here. There is a real romance involved, including an actual sexual intercorse, and it is somethijng you won’t forget.

A Useful Ghost is screening in Cannes International Film Festival

But “A Useful Ghost” is more than a comedy with unusual, spicey ingredients. It is a clever, irresistible feature debut by a talented filmmaker and a multiple award winner. In Cannes, his film is shown in the Critics’ Week,...

Unlike the logic-defying supernatural phenomena that drive its plot forward, Thai feature A Useful Ghost (Phi Chidi Kha) should not work, with its jarring shifts in tone and cray-cray mix of genres — and yet it does. Writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s feature debut, which premiered in the Critics’ Week sidebar at Cannes, writes its own rule book.

It starts off farcically with household and industrial appliances possessed by dead spirits seeking their still-living loved ones; morphs into nesting sets of surprisingly sincere love stories, some of them lustily queer; and ends with the dawn of a violent class war spanning both spiritual and earthly planes. Boonbunchachoke’s skillful toggling between comedy, melodrama and polemic helped to spark interest on the Croisette where camp Thai content goes over well. A long afterlife on the festival circuit awaits.

For all its playfulness, there’s an intellectual heft to A Useful Ghost that exerts its own gravity.

Imagine a vacuum cleaner that coughs up more than dust—a quiet intruder that brings a widow back to life through its whirring hoses. A Useful Ghost premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week as Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s striking debut, marking Thailand’s arrival on the supernatural-romance map.

At its heart is a framing device worthy of a narrative-driven indie game: an “Academic Ladyboy” orders a high-powered hoover to combat Bangkok’s choking dust, only to discover it’s haunted. The story then shifts to March, the grieving son of a factory matriarch, whose late wife Nat has returned as a sentient vacuum. Their reunion sparks a series of emotional and moral puzzles, as Nat uses her new form to cleanse lingering spirits born of workplace tragedy.

Tonally, the film oscillates between deadpan comedy and tender romance, punctuated by moments of social reckoning. Its humor feels as precise as a well-designed game...

A woman dies, only to return in the form of a vacuum cleaner to stay close to, and intimate with, her husband. Yes, you read that right! Thai writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost, world premiering in the Critics’ Week lineup in Cannes during the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, is a ghost story but also so much more.

After Nat dies from dust pollution, her husband, March, is consumed by grief. “His daily life is turned upside down when he discovers his wife’s spirit has been reincarnated in a vacuum cleaner,” reads the synopsis for the debut feature from Boonbunchachoke, who makes his living writing for TV and has made short films (Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall). “As absurd as it seems, their bond is rekindled, stronger than ever. But it is hardly to everyone’s liking. His family, still haunted by...

While ghosts and spirits have long been the conduit for cinematic scares and jolts, from The Innocents to Poltergeist to The Ring, a relatively recent wave of films exploring the supernatural has been more concerned with the tangible, emotional effects these specters can have on the living. In that sense, a spiritual cousin to the likes of Uncle Boonmee, Personal Shopper, A Ghost Story, and Light from Light, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s directorial debut A Useful Ghost is a strange, tranquil, humorous exploration of the conundrums that would emerge were ghosts an accepted occurrence in everyday life, and what such phantoms could illuminate about the social and political troubles of modern Thailand and industrialization at large.

“Dust is a necessary evil. There is no progress without dust.” These early words set the stage for the rampant commercialization in the aim of increased profits that afflict the characters, both corporeal and phantasmic,...

A ghost-possessed vacuum cleaner might sound like standard horror fare, but in the hands of Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, it transforms into a sly commentary on pollution, power dynamics, and the cost of living crisis in Bangkok.

Boonbunchachoke’s debut feature, selected for Cannes Critics’ Week, marks Thailand’s return to the prestigious festival after a decade-long absence.

“I’m really excited. I’m very delighted, but also nervous as well, because it’s such a big event for me,” Boonbunchachoke tells Variety. “Critics’ Week is a very ideal platform for the film for the world to discover it.”

“A Useful Ghost” follows March, who is mourning his wife Nat after she dies from dust pollution. When her spirit returns by possessing a vacuum cleaner, their unconventional human-ghost relationship faces resistance from his family. To prove her worth and their love, Nat offers to cleanse a factory haunted by the...

There are many kinds of ghosts in Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s witty, cheeky A Useful Ghost. They range from avenging and embittered to pleasant, generous and helpful. The film makes a plea for ghosts not as rude interruptions but aiding presence who, however, might upset plans. When an ‘academic ladyboy’ (Wisarut Homhuan) has his vacuum cleaner acting up, coughing, he’s rattled. The repairman Krong (Wanlop Rungkumjud) arrives, bearing a string of stories around the haunted appliance. Beneath this frame narrative lies nestled a progressively wacky, deliriously charming concoction of events.

A family saga, threaded to the factory wherefrom the appliance came, rolls out. Suman (Apasiri Nitibhon), who now runs the factory after her husband’s death, is distraught over her persistently depressed son March (Witsarut Himmarat). He’s grappling with his wife Nat’s (a placid Davika Hoorne) death. When she returns as a ghost occupying a vacuum cleaner, he’s overjoyed.

There are many kinds of ghosts in Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s witty, cheeky A Useful Ghost. They range from avenging and embittered to pleasant, generous and helpful. The film makes a plea for ghosts not as rude interruptions but aiding presence who, however, might upset plans. When an ‘academic ladyboy’ (Wisarut Homhuan) has his vacuum cleaner acting up, coughing, he’s rattled. The repairman Krong (Wanlop Rungkumjud) arrives, bearing a string of stories around the haunted appliance. Beneath this frame narrative lies nestled a progressively wacky, deliriously charming concoction of events.

A family saga, threaded to the factory wherefrom the appliance came, rolls out. Suman (Apasiri Nitibhon), who now runs the factory after her husband’s death, is distraught over her persistently depressed son March (Witsarut Himmarat). He’s grappling with his wife Nat’s (a placid Davika Hoorne) death. When she returns as a ghost occupying a vacuum cleaner, he’s overjoyed.

A spirit possesses a vacuum cleaner in A Useful Ghost, a Thai film that combines supernatural fantasy, dark comedy, and romantic drama.

Writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke makes his feature debut on the international co-production between Thailand, France, Singapore, and Germany.

March is mourning his wife Nat who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing the vacuum cleaner. Being disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker’s death shut down their factory, his family reject the unconventional human-ghost relationship.

Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she must first get rid of the useless ones.

Davika Hoorne (Pee Mak) and Witsarut Himmarat star with Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjad, and Wisarut Homhuan.

Belgium-based Best Friends Forever is handling international sales at Critics’ Week at Cannes this month.

The post ‘A Useful Ghost...

Brussels-based company company Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights to “A Useful Ghost” ahead of its world premiere at Cannes Critics’ Week.

“A Useful Ghost” marks the feature debut of Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke who previously directed the short film “Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall” which competed at Locarno in 2020.

The film tells the story of March, who is mourning his wife Nat after she dies due to dust pollution. When he discovers that her spirit has unexpectedly returned in the form of a vacuum cleaner, he embrasses it and the pair form an unconventional human-ghost love story. But March’s family, which has seen their factory turned upside down by the ghost of a former employee, rejects the relationship. Eager to convince the family of her and March’s love, Nat sets off to become a useful ghost and offers to cleanse the factory.

“Despite...