A USEFUL GHOST

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March (Witsarut Himmarat) is mourning his wife Nat (Thai superstar Davika Hoorne) 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.

A USEFUL GHOST—which world premiered at Cannes, winning the top prize at Critics Week—is a revenge film disguised as a dark comedy. With incredible control of tones, pace and characterization, writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke blends comedy, sci-fi and even horror to deliver a genre-bending gem that keeps on giving until the end, when all of a sudden, everything makes sense. One moment we are laughing when a little girl notices a hoover wandering about; the next, there’s talk of electrocution and memory erasure, and just when we think we know where the film is headed, Boonbunchachoke defies our expectations once more, be it with an awkwardly sweet sex scene or with a political twist.