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Grief and ghosts aren’t new territory for any national cinema — and this is perhaps particularly true of Thailand. But, “A Useful Ghost” is an entertaining and moving – if also somewhat sprawling – fable of love and loss that isn’t quite like anything you’ve seen before. The action in the Cannes Critics’ Week selection starts when a self-declared “Academic Ladyboy” (Wisarut Homhuan) buys a vacuum cleaner, only to discover that the appliance appears to be possessed. A hot repair guy (Wanlop Rungkumjud) then shows up, but this isn’t a porno. He’s there to introduce the main narrative: the tragic tale of the widower March (Witsarut Himmarat) lost in grief for his wife who has recently died of dust poisoning. It becomes apparent that the spouse is still very much present, albeit reincarnated in the form of a possessed vacuum cleaner.

From “Vertigo” to “Birth,” the idea of...

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...

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.

The 27th Taipei Film Festival today (May 15) announced the nominees for the 2025 Taipei Film Awards during a press conference. The nominations were led by Dead Talents Society with 14 nods. Yen and Ai-Lee and Mongrel followed closely with 12 and 10 nominations respectively. Also revealed were the nominees for the Taiwan Film Marketing Awards, which recognize outstanding marketing efforts, and the contents of this year’s exclusive celebrity gift bags, filled with refined and practical goodies to thank the filmmaking community.

Known for its million-dollar grand prize, the Taipei Film Awards is Taiwan’s most prestigious competition dedicated to local cinema. This year, a total of 274 entries were submitted: 46 narrative features, 57 documentaries, 138 short films, and 33 animations. After an intense second-round jury deliberation, 32 works were selected for the final nomination list: 15 narrative features, 6 documentaries, 6 short films, and 5 animations. Dead Talents Society emerged as the frontrunner with nominations including Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay,...

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...

Mongrel was named best film at the 35th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff), with Viet And Nam taking the best director prize for Truong Minh Quy.

The former marks the feature debut directed by Singapore’s Chiang Wei Liang and Taiwan’s Yin You Qiao and stars Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad. It explores the struggles faced by migrant workers in Taiwan as they are caught between the need to earn overdue wages and to retain their integrity and humanity.

Mongrelhas previously wonmajor awards including the Camera d’Or special distinction award at Cannes and best new director at the Golden Horse Awards.

In this review, we dive deep into Mongrel (2024), the powerful Golden Camera-winning film by Wei Liang Chiang and You Qiao Yin. A raw, unflinching portrait of marginalized communities in Taiwan, the movie follows Oom, a Thai immigrant worker caught in an intense moral and social struggle. With stunning performances, particularly by Wanlop Rungkumjad, and Michael Capron‘s haunting cinematography, Mongrel captures the darkness and humanity of life on the fringes.

While the film’s themes resonate, its extended runtime and controversial final act leave us questioning its impact. Watch as we break down the highs and lows of this hard-hitting festival favorite, fresh from its Five Flavours Film Festival screening.

What did you think of Mongrel? Share your thoughts in the comments!

The nominations for the 61st Golden Horse Awards were announced last week. Considered the “Chinese-language Oscars,” the awards showcase films made in Mandarin, Cantonese, or other Chinese dialects. This year’s nominations included a diverse range of movies from Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Singapore.

John Hsu’s supernatural comedy “Dead Talents Society” topped the nominations with eleven total nods. The film tells the story of ghosts competing to haunt humans in an imagined afterlife. It received nominations for Best Feature Film, Best Director for John Hsu, and Best Original Screenplay. “Dead Talents Society” has already won audience awards at festivals like Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the runner-up in the Midnight Madness category.

Two other films, Tom Lin’s “Yen And Ai-Lee” and Geng Jun’s “Bel Ami,” followed closely behind with eight nominations each. These movies, along with Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well...

John Hsu’s Taiwanese supernatural comedy Dead Talents Society has scored 11 nominations for the 61st Golden Horse Awards, followed by Tom Lin’s Yen And Ai-Lee and Geng Jun’s Bel Ami, with eight nods each.

Dead Talents Society and Bel Ami are among the five films competing in the best film category, along with Ray Yeung’s All Shall Be Well, Yeo Siew Hua’s Stranger Eyes and Lou Ye’s An Unfinished Film. The same five films are also running in the best director category.

They reflect the overall representation at this year’s Golden Horse Awards, with the participation of Hong Kong,...

John Hsu’s horror comedy Dead Talents Society heads the race for this year’s Golden Horse Awards with 11 nominations, including Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Sandrine Pinna.

The film, set in a fictional underworld where ghosts can linger in the mortal realm by competing to haunt humans, is produced by Taiwan’s Activator Co, Sony Pictures International Productions and several other local companies.

It was followed in the awards race by Tom Lin’s Yen And Ai-Lee and Geng Jun’s Bel Ami, which both received eight nominations.

Dead Talents Society and Bel Ami are both nominated for Best Narrative Feature, along with Ray Yeung’s All Shall Be Well, Yeo Siew-hua’s Stranger Eyes and Lou Ye’s An Unfinished Film. All five of these films are also nominated for Best Director.

Best Leading Actor nominations include King Jieh-wen (A...

Comedy-horror “Dead Talents Society” picked up 11 nominations for the Golden Horse Film Awards, making it the most acclaimed title among the 169 films in contention for the prestigious Chinese-language prizes.

“Yen and Ai-Lee” and “Bel Ami” both received eight nominations, putting them in a tie for second place. Recent Venice competition film “Stranger Eyes,” from Singapore’s Yeo Siew Hua received six.

Five films compete for the best narrative features award: John Hsu’s “Dead Talents Society,” Ray Yeung’s “All Shall Be Well,” Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film,” Geng Jun’s “Bel Ami” and “Stranger Eyes.” The same five also contest the best director award.

Nominees for best leading actor are: King Jieh-wen (“A Journey in Spring”), Chang Chen (“The Embers”), Yau Hawk-sau (“The Way We Talk”), Wanlop Rungkumjad (“Mongrel”) and Zhang Zhiyong (“Bel Ami”). Chang is a previous winner in the category.

Nominees for best actress are: Patra Au Ga-man...

Even though we do not like to admit it, many of us depend on the sweat of immigrant workers to maintain the living standard we have grown accustomed to. Whether we are talking about the thousands of migrant workers crossing the US-Mexican border into the United States to work as nannies or gardeners or whether they are the hundreds of migrant workers taking care of elderly people in many Asian cultures, immigrant workers often do the kind of jobs others will not touch anymore. For many years, Singaporean director Wei Liang Chiang has tackled the subject of immigrant workers, their status and their daily struggles in short features such as “Jin Zhi Xia Mao” (2015) and has teamed up with fellow filmmaker You Qiao Yin for “Mongrel”. The story about a group of immigrant workers in Taiwan deals with many of the issues we know from Chiang's other features, while...

“Don’t you trust me?” It’s a routine question from the man they call Boss, a ruthless character operating at the lower levels of the immigrant trade in Taiwan, adopted home of director Chiang Wei Liang. Nobody trusts Boss (Daniel Hong Yu-Hong), least of all his Thai sidekick Oom (Wanlop Rungkumjad). Perhaps because he is decent and reliable, Oom has been charged with keeping the other workers in their miserable hostel in order. It falls to him to explain why Boss’ own boss, the vile Brother Te, has failed to pay anybody their wages.

Fairly predictably, nobody trusts Oom, either. Oom works as a carer for disabled people whose families are too poor or too mean to pay professionals. If he is alone in a workplace, he is locked in. Like everyone else, he has surrendered his passport and never been paid. They are often hungry. Meals in the...

The social mistreatment of caregivers is interrogated in indie film “Mongrel,” which will debut at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.

Written and directed by Chiang Wei Liang, “Mongrel” follows Oom (Wanlop Rungkumjad), a professional caregiver who has no papers or formal training but is good at caring for the elderly and disabled. When his situation as a caregiver in the mountains becomes too much for him, he has to choose between survival or dignity.

Kuo Shu-Wei and Atchara Suwan also star.

Chiang told IndieWire that the inspiration for “Mongrel” came from his own personal experiences working as a caregiver in Taiwan.

“The film came from a convergence of personal experiences and societal observations,” he said. “My own journey as a caregiver, alongside encounters with migrant caregivers, laid the groundwork.”

In a press statement, Chiang reflected on how “Mongrel” is unfortunately a universal story that enters on the “precarious, invisible lives of undocumented migrant workers,...

Paris-based sales company Alpha Violet has come on board as representative of “Mongrel,” the debut feature of Taiwan-based Singaporean filmmaker Chiang Wei Liang. The film will have its world premiere next month at Cannes in the Directors Fortnight section.

Set in the mountains of Taiwan, “Mongrel” stars Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad as Oom, an undocumented migrant and on-demand caregiver for rural families, who struggles to preserve his humanity as he cares for the elderly and disabled.

Rungkumjad is joined by newcomer Kuo Shu-wei, who plays Hui, a patient with whom Oom develops a bond. On hearing of the film’s Cannes selection, Kuo said, “I never thought this film would have the opportunity to be seen by so many people. As I live with athetoid cerebral palsy, we worked hard to achieve this. Hui is a character whose abilities are weaker than mine, so I thought of the friends I...

“Mongrel,” a Taiwan-set drama film that has done the round of project markets, will appear at the International Film Festival Rotterdam as a work in progress.

In addition to the screening of 15 minutes of footage, Taiwan-based Singaporean director Chiang Wei Liang has confirmed the film’s cast as being headed by Thai actor Wanlop Rungkumjad alongside Taiwanese female actor Lu Yi-ching and rapper Hong Yu-hong from Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One. Other key cast include Atchara Suwan (“By the Time It Gets Dark”), and Guo Shu-wei in his debut role.

Set in the mountains of Taiwan, the film follows Rungkumjad’s character Oom, an undocumented migrant and on-demand caregiver for rural families, who struggles to preserve his humanity as he cares for the elderly and disabled.

The project, which represents Chiang’s debut feature film, was previously developed at TorinoFilmLab ScriptLab, Talents Tokyo and the Cannes Residence, where it received the Cnc Development Award.

By Siria Falleroni

Winner of the “New Currents Award” at the Busan International Film Festival (2012), “36” is Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit's brilliant feature film debut. It also won the “New Asian Cinema” section of the Five Flavours Asian Film Festival in Warsaw, the “New Talent Award” prize at the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, and the “Best Director” award at the Cinemanila International Film Festival.

The story revolves around Sai – played by Koramit Vajrasthira – a location scout whose job is to catch potential settings in which to shoot movies with her digital camera. One day, her career becomes intertwined with that of artistic director Oom, portrayed by Wanlop Rungkamjad. The two will not only establish a professional collaboration but also a genuine relationship that lies between love and friendship. Photography surely is the common thread that runs through both of their lives. Oom likes to capture people on film but does not like being photographed,...

Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s sophomore feature film could have easily been called something like “The Anatomy of Silence” since dialogues appear only scarcely, and when they do, they don’t contribute much to the film’s plot with only one lonely exception. When we are finally faced with a longish conversation between the father and daughter in which the world religions are being discussed, it doesn’t even matter that the man doesn’t get all facts right (Christians believe in Jehova) because he makes a point about the humankind being stuck in its systems of beliefs regardless of race, nation or religion. It’s a scene that bears a huge importance for the storyline, because being stuck is what the young woman Maem (Prapamonton Eiamchan) listening to her father, will eventually be.

“Anatomy of Time” Screened at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

“Wela-Anatomy of Silence” is a film that relies...

Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s sophomore feature film could have easily been called something like “The Anatomy of Silence” since dialogues appear only scarcely, and when they do, they don’t contribute much to the film’s plot with only one lonely exception. When we are finally faced with a longish conversation between the father and daughter in which the world religions are being discussed, it doesn’t even matter that the man doesn’t get all facts right (Christians believe in Jehova) because he makes a point about the humankind being stuck in its systems of beliefs regardless of race, nation or religion. It’s a scene that bears a huge importance for the storyline, because being stuck is what the young woman Maem (Prapamonton Eiamchan) listening to her father, will eventually be.

“Wela-Anatomy of Silence” is a film that relies on the performance of its four principal actors playing an...

When the Thai actress Prapamonton Eiamchan got her first role in Prabda Yoon’s entangled, but visually strong live-action movie “Motel Mist” in 2016, she was a design student curious to experience something new. Five years and three other feature films later, she is on her way to become a star. With her latest role in Jakrawal Nilthamrong’s drama “Wela-Anatomy of Time” which has just had its world premiere in Orizzonti competition of Venice Film Festival, she proves to be the name to watch for.

The film focuses on one woman whose loyalty to a rough husband with dark past at first seems incomprehensible. We experience Maem borh as a young person (Eimchan) and as the elderly lady (Thaveeratana Leelanuja) in different phases of submission to the man she fell for, and while she mainly remains silent, her actions are louder than vocalized thoughts or emotions, although difficult to explain.

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng's Manta Ray, which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from September 26 – October 25, 2019 in Mubi's Debuts series.The debut feature of writer-director Phuttiphong Aroonpheng, Manta Ray is an intoxicating and ostensibly oblique commentary on a pressing contemporary issue that weaves a genuinely otherworldly and bewitching spell. Evocative of the sensual and woozy aesthetic of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, comparisons to whom Aroonpheng, who cites David Lynch and especially Eraserhead (1977) as his rudder, will no doubt very quickly tire, it’s a film whose spirituality gently masks a genuine interrogation of more corporeal matters. Though initially beginning as a dreamlike allegory, the kernel of the film is the plight of Rohingya refugees and migrant workers, a great number of whom perished in the Moei River, a small body of water marking a frontier between Thailand and Myanmar.

Halfway through Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s hypnotic feature debut, Manta Ray, two men put up Christmas lights around an unadorned riverside shack. They’ve known each other for a while, but seldom speak: one (Wanlop Rungkumjad) is an unnamed Thai fisherman with dyed blonde hair; the other (Aphisit Hama) is a mute man whom the fisherman has found agonizing in a remote stretch of mangroves by the border with Myanmar, and has taken home to look after. The lights are to serve as decoration for a party the two are throwing that same night, but the sun is still high on the horizon; smiling ecstatically at the makeshift disco, the fisherman suggests the two should nap to make the day go by faster. And so they do.

Watching the two young men fall asleep side by side and later sway to a mesmeric electronic tune, their eyes agleam with happiness as...

The 75th Venice International Film Festival has finally announced the line-up in a press conference in Rome, hosted by the President of the Biennale di Venezia Paolo Baratta and by the Director of the Cinema department Alberto Barbera.

The Venice International Film Festival has been welcoming in the past many Asian movies especially under the previous Director Marco Muller (2004-2011), a dedicated advocate and promoter of Asian Cinema, but this year the Asian presence is particularly poor. A bit surprising after the success in Cannes of Palme d’Or director Hirokazu Kore’eda with “Shoplifters” and Lee Chang-dong with “Burning”.

Only one film – Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto’s new movie “Zan” – is in the Official Competition and few more “usual suspects” are scattered in the other sections. Chinese director Tsai Ming-Liang – a regular of the festival – is in the Out of Competition Section with his “Ni De Lian“, where other...

The Los Angeles Film Festival has announced the world premiere of Richard Linklater's Bernie as the opening night film for the 2011 festival.

The film will kick off the festival on June 16 at Regal Cinemas Stadium 14 at L.A. Live. It is written by Skip Hollandsworth and director Linklater and stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey.

The film follows a beloved mortician (Black) from a small Texas town, even winning over the town's richest, meanest widow (MacLaine). Even after Bernie commits a horrible crime, people still will not utter a bad word against him.

"We're thrilled to be opening the Festival with the world premiere of this delicious black comedy - a treat from one of the most original and exciting voices in independent film, Richard Linklater," said Festival director Rebecca Yeldham. "With its fabulous all-star cast, Bernie is a perfect stage setter for the incredible line-up of...