Thai ghost comedy makes Cannes history
'A Useful Ghost' wins the Grand Prix in major breakthrough for Thai cinema
A possessed vacuum cleaner, a grief-stricken husband, and a ghostly wife have just swept Thai cinema into the global spotlight.
A Useful Ghost, a bizarre yet moving political horror-comedy directed by Ratchapoon Boonbunchachoke, has made history as the first-ever Thai film to win the Grand Prix at Critics’ Week, a parallel section of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
The independently produced feature stars Davika “Mai” Hoorne as a deceased wife who returns in spectral form, by possessing a vacuum cleaner. What sounds like slapstick nonsense turns into something strangely profound.
Part comedy, part political allegory, the film critiques Thailand’s legacy of political violence and mistreatment of workers, cleverly cloaked in the absurd premise of a haunted household appliance.
The plot thickens as a grieving widower, “March” (played by Witsarut Himmarat), mourns his wife, who died of dust poisoning, only to discover she’s come back—as his vacuum cleaner.
Alongside him is a seductive repairman, setting off a surreal and darkly humorous exploration of love, class struggle, and familial tension.
The story playfully mocks Thai societal norms while sneaking in sharp jabs at political complacency. The ghost, now “Vacuum Nat,” tries to gain acceptance from her disapproving in-laws by becoming “a useful ghost,” helping them exorcise spirits of other workers who died under hazardous conditions.
The satire deepens as it exposes how victims of injustice are pressured to serve their abusers, even in the afterlife.
Despite the outlandish concept, the film lands with emotional depth. Critics have praised the elegant performance of the vacuum cleaner itself, imbued with an uncanny mix of grace and melancholy that mirrors Davika’s physicality as the ghost’s former human form.
At one point, a group of monks hurling insults at the vacuum cleaner provides a scene that is as hilarious as it is surreal, and reveals the film’s layered commentary on respect, power, and disposability, reported Bangkok Post and Variety.
A Useful Ghost’s Cannes victory comes 15 years after Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives won the Palme d’Or, cementing a new era for Thai indie cinema.
The main Cannes awards will be announced on Saturday, May 24, but Thailand is already celebrating this ghostly gem’s international recognition.
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