Cannes Critics' Week: Thai Director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke on Possessed Vacuum Cleaners and Dust Pollution in ‘A Useful Ghost'
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.
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'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 ghost of a worker whose death shut down operations.
The film ingeniously reimagines the ghost story as a satirical romantic comedy, a deliberate departure from Thailand's renowned horror cinema traditions. 'Thailand is well known for horror cinema, and we also have a genre that might not travel abroad very much – horror comedy,' explains Boonbunchachoke. 'But with this film, I try not to follow the conventions of both paths. One of my first ideas was wondering how a ghost could exist in contemporary society. Do they need to work? Because cost of living here is now very expensive.'
This unique approach reflects the director's preference for humor over horror. 'I'm a kind of funny guy more than a guy who wants to scare people,' he says.
The film addresses pressing environmental concerns in Thailand, particularly dust pollution, which has become a severe issue over the past decade. 'We have dust pollution every winter. People will start complaining about the dust quality in the neighborhood, especially in Bangkok and in the north,' Boonbunchachoke explains. The film's Thai title carries a dual meaning in local slang, where 'dust' also refers to 'people with no power.'
'Dust is something that we don't want in our house. And people don't want ghosts in the house,' he observes. 'Ghosts are someone who died and supposed to be gone already, but they still linger in the present.'
The industrial workspace in the film functions as a compelling allegorical backdrop for broader societal issues. 'The factory itself is a very visual setting for labor exploitation and industrialization, and it says a lot about how pollution could be caused by manufacturing itself, and how laborers could risk their lives due to working conditions,' notes the director.
A co-production between Thailand (185 Films), France (Haut Les Mains), Singapore (Momo Film Co), and Germany (Mayana Films), the film benefited from international collaboration, though not without challenges. One unexpected boon was working with a Singaporean industrial designer on the film's crucial vacuum cleaner. 'I never actually considered working with an actual industrial designer because I thought they might emphasize functionality more than aesthetics,' Boonbunchachoke admits. 'But he came up with some very weird designs, and I was amazed.'
The film stars Davika Hoorne as Nat, Wisarut Himmarat as March, Apasiri Nitibhon as Suman, and Wanlop Rungkumjad as Krong.
Boonbunchachoke, who is of Teochew-Hainanese descent, graduated from Chulalongkorn University's film department. His short film 'Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall' won the Junior Jury Award at Locarno in 2020. In his day job, he works as a scriptwriter for television.
'A Useful Ghost' represents Boonbunchachoke's first feature film. He hopes it will challenge perceptions of Thai cinema. 'I hope people will pay more attention to Thailand again. This film is quite different from what people expect Thai cinema to look like. This film could expand how people see what Thai cinema is and what kind of stories it could tell.'
As for what's next, Boonbunchachoke is already gathering ideas for his second feature. 'If this one is successful to some extent, maybe the second film would be easier to get made,' he says.
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