DIRECTOR: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
STARRING: Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjad, Witsarut Homhuan
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 10 minutes
LANGUAGE: Thai
PLOT: After succumbing to a respiratory illness, a mother returns in an unexpected form: her spirit inhabits a vacuum cleaner within the family home. From this unlikely vessel, she watches over her grieving husband, who has begun to show the same troubling symptoms. Both haunting and tender, the story transforms a household object into a conduit of love and protection, exploring themes of mortality, devotion, and the fragile bond that lingers between the living and the dead.
GENRE: Comedy
FILMING LOCATION: Bangkok, Thailand
To check out all previous submissions for Thailand, click HERE.
STARRING: Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjad, Witsarut Homhuan
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 10 minutes
LANGUAGE: Thai
PLOT: After succumbing to a respiratory illness, a mother returns in an unexpected form: her spirit inhabits a vacuum cleaner within the family home. From this unlikely vessel, she watches over her grieving husband, who has begun to show the same troubling symptoms. Both haunting and tender, the story transforms a household object into a conduit of love and protection, exploring themes of mortality, devotion, and the fragile bond that lingers between the living and the dead.
GENRE: Comedy
FILMING LOCATION: Bangkok, Thailand
To check out all previous submissions for Thailand, click HERE.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“Their return is an act of protest in itself."
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost mixes ghost story, social drama, and dark humour in a way that feels both original and thought-provoking. By giving the spirit of a dead wife a new “body” in the form of a household vacuum cleaner, the film turns something ordinary into a symbol of love, sacrifice, and survival. What first sounds like an absurd premise quickly reveals itself as a clever way of asking what really makes a life, or even a ghost, useful in a world that often overlooks care and compassion.
The film works as a commentary on how families are left to deal with illness and hardship with little support from larger systems. The husband’s worsening health reflects real concerns about healthcare and survival in uncertain times, while the ghost’s protective role highlights how love can step in where institutions fail. The balance of quiet, intimate scenes with moments of strangeness makes the story feel grounded but never predictable.
What makes A Useful Ghost powerful is not its supernatural twist, but how it ties the personal and the political together. A simple household object becomes a reminder of everything we take for granted, memory, care, and connection, and how fragile these things are when structures around us collapse. By the end, the film leaves us thinking about how the smallest acts of care can stand against even the biggest forces of neglect.
The film’s true message is that love, even in the strangest forms, is the most powerful form of resistance. In the end, the film reminds us that what is truly “useful” is not the ghost itself, but the persistence of love beyond death.
(This review contains spoilers.)
“Their return is an act of protest in itself."
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost mixes ghost story, social drama, and dark humour in a way that feels both original and thought-provoking. By giving the spirit of a dead wife a new “body” in the form of a household vacuum cleaner, the film turns something ordinary into a symbol of love, sacrifice, and survival. What first sounds like an absurd premise quickly reveals itself as a clever way of asking what really makes a life, or even a ghost, useful in a world that often overlooks care and compassion.
The film works as a commentary on how families are left to deal with illness and hardship with little support from larger systems. The husband’s worsening health reflects real concerns about healthcare and survival in uncertain times, while the ghost’s protective role highlights how love can step in where institutions fail. The balance of quiet, intimate scenes with moments of strangeness makes the story feel grounded but never predictable.
What makes A Useful Ghost powerful is not its supernatural twist, but how it ties the personal and the political together. A simple household object becomes a reminder of everything we take for granted, memory, care, and connection, and how fragile these things are when structures around us collapse. By the end, the film leaves us thinking about how the smallest acts of care can stand against even the biggest forces of neglect.
The film’s true message is that love, even in the strangest forms, is the most powerful form of resistance. In the end, the film reminds us that what is truly “useful” is not the ghost itself, but the persistence of love beyond death.
