The Semaine de la Critique (Critics Week) is a crucial sidebar at the Festival de Cannes. It focuses on debut and sophomore films. A Useful Ghost (Pee Chai Dai Ka) by the Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke is another hyped first-time directorial effort. The semaine is responsible for unveiling buzzy titles as Aftersun by Charlotte Wells, Raw by Julia Ducournau, and The Tribe by Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi. The parallel section presents new names with fresh filmmaking ideas. The latter concept applies to A Useful Ghost.
The film mixes a story about death and an absurd approach to the afterlife. In Thailand, a tragic passing can attach a person’s soul to an inanimate object. The film’s structure relies on characters narrating other characters’ stories. A man buys a vacuum cleaner that coughs at night. When he asks for maintenance support for the device, a mysterious man appears to perform the service. He denies that something is wrong with the cleaner and tells the story of souls present in vacuum cleaners. Director Boonbunchachoke approaches a complex tale of death, vengeance, and exploitation through the absurd. The character’s death connects to troubled events. A ghost died during an accident in a domestic device factory, and another drowned in a lake. Their death happens tragically, and they still inhabit the world because someone remembers them. There is also a fascinating concept behind how the souls are still in the material world and present in human forms.
However, the film employs an intricate storytelling structure to develop its concepts. A character narrates about others, and their stories are connected somehow. The intention is to culminate in an explosive, eat-the-rich third act. The director uses multiple subplots about class clashes, even applied to the dead. The rich harm the poorer societal members, even in the afterlife. It is an engaging idea to comment on the inequalities of Thailand. Also, the politicians and the elite are exploring even the dead, and the elite members betray others even in death. Still, all of the director’s concepts bloat into a film that opens plenty of boxes and decides to return to them in the last ten minutes. The film is better at presenting concepts than at developing them. The results are a significant debut film lost somewhere in multiple subplots.
In this sense, the 130-minute length feels much longer for the constant presentation of new narrative bits – its crescendo depends on revealing new portions of past events. Meanwhile, when it works best is exploring the rules of a world where souls and the living coexist. The production design creates a plausible ambiance for them to live together. In this sense, A Useful Ghost thrives when it dives into a fantastical reality. The government opens a clinic to make the living people forget and make ghosts disappear. Visually, it is a clever metaphor for the government deciding in favor of its own and not exercising individual liberties. It provides a different complexity to the story. Yet, it does not get enough participation to add depth to the themes the director tries to convey.
In all fairness, A Useful Ghost has moments of genuine comedy, both textually and visually. The sarcastic jokes regarding sexual acts with ghosts are welcome and effective. It plays with the traditional comedy in cinema by using editing to create juxtaposition and comedy. The comedy side works better than the melancholy regarding the loss of those we love. Additionally, the gags with vacuum cleaners being lovers with humans are the highlight of a first act that presents a lot to the audience. Still, it hits better than the dramatic elements involving family and accepting unconventional couples.
Ultimately, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke is a talented first-time director with an outstanding sense of humor to create textual and visual comedy. Yet, his first feature is a bloated grief drama mixed with fantastical elements. It has plenty of moments of visual fascination and the construction of a universe where life and death coexist. Unfortunately, the overwhelming number of subplots drags the length and interest as the film unfolds. Still, there are plenty of fresh ideas to praise. In a sense, A Useful Ghost is a testimony to how the Semaine de la Critique commits to presenting new voices to the world.
Boonbunchachoke is an artist to keep an eye on in the forthcoming projects. Beneath the grand portion of ideas in the film’s duration, there is much to admire. It may not be a heavy hitter, but it is a solid debut endeavor from a fascinating new Thai voice.
A Useful Ghost recently screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the Cannes site for the title.
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