A Useful Ghost is a Brilliant Romantic Fantasy
Til death do us part
4.5/5 stars
Over the last decade, Thailand has become (with the possible exception of Romania) the most interesting film country in the world. This fact has naturally led me to seek out Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's film A Useful Ghost, whose concept alone was enough to pull me in. But it was so much more than I expected. The film manages to be a funny and heartbreaking story of love (both straight and queer) while also being a terrific political satire, capitalist critique, and fantastical ghost story simultaneously.
The story centers on Nat (Davika Hoorne), the recently deceased wife of the heir to an electronics company, whose spirit possesses a vacuum cleaner to help her husband, March (Witsarut Himmarat), with his dust allergy. While Nat and March are blissfully reunited, the company feels they can use Nat to get rid of the troublesome ghosts of slain factory workers to help productivity. With the promise that they will not separate her from her husband, Nat begins exorcising other ghosts from the company, but in the process, starts to disconnect from March.
The absurd premise is really just a Trojan horse to get to the real meat of the story. Much like Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cemetery of Splendour, the film uses fantastical elements to talk about the control that authoritarians exert over their people, even after death, and how governments erase their uncomfortable histories by disappearing the "ghosts" of the past. We follow various characters and how Thailand's most powerful elements have tried to erase their memories, and watch as Nat goes from oppressed to oppressor in the name of self-preservation.
You'll never guess a film about a haunted vacuum could make you cry by the end.
A Useful Ghost is currently available on Hoopla, Kanopy, Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, and YouTube. Written and directed by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke // Starring Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjad, Gandhi Wasuvitchayagit, Ornanong Thaisriwong, and Witsarut Homhuan // 130 minutes // GDH 559 // Unrated (R equivalent)
