'I like putting incompatible stuff together and seeing how it works'

March (Wisarut Himmarat) in A Useful Ghost with his haunted vacuum. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke: 'She’s a useful ghost so she’s a people-pleaser'

Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke announces himself as a distinctive voice with his debut feature A Useful Ghost, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival last year and is released in US cinemas on January 16. It mixes the fantastical and the everyday to sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious effect, as March (Wisarut Himmarat) discovers his wife Nat (Davika Hoorne) has returned as a ghost which is inhabiting a vacuum cleaner. This is just one element of a film that offers character-driven laughs but also considers more serious themes such as the nature of memory and political revisionism of history. With strong production design and practical effects that give it a textured feel, it’s only a shame that it missed being considered for the international feature Oscar because of an administrative error. Ahead of the US release, we caught up with Boonbunchachoke to talk about the film’s themes, the design of its ‘ghost’ and what he has planned next.

In A Useful Ghost you combine real world issues, such as the environmental problems in Thailand with dust, with more fantastical elements. Tell me about that?

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke: 'I want to have a fantastical element and humour and silliness in a film and then talk about some serious issues'

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke: I'm intrigued. I'm attracted to both fantastical elements and the issues of the real world. For me, at least for me, it works best if they're combined. There's something about filmmakers who want to make a drama about a serious issue. I appreciate those films and I respect them as filmmakers but I find that kind of approach uninteresting. The fantastic element is something I’m attracted to but it needs to be grounded. I try to accommodate both. I want to have a fantastical element and humour and silliness in a film and then talk about some serious issues. It plays with the audiences’ expectations.

I'm happy every time I see comments or reviews, saying, “Who would have thought that a film about a haunted vacuum cleaner could also be about that?”

You seem to love to add layers in your films, you did that in your short film Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing On The Still Trembling Berlin Wall as well and the feature is eleven more ambitious.

RB: With the short film, it could be gimmicky. There’s a lot of short films that use a dubbing technique but which don’t convey a historical layer. I like putting incompatible stuff together and seeing how it works. I want to see things that are not supposed to be together but they end up together.

This film revolves a lot around memory and forgetfulness, some of which is forced and some of which isn’t, it’s almost Orwellian in places. Was that a response from you to the political situation in Thailand in recent years?

RB:Yes. One of the things that triggered me a lot is the demolition of some architecture and monuments across the country because Thailand was changed from absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 1932. After that, the People's Party became the government for a few years and they built a lot of stuff across the country but nowadays like I think like the current government or ruling class, they secretly, discreetly dismantle or destroy this architecture and replace it with something else. It’s like they’re trying to erase the legacy of the revolutionary era.

Also, in 2020, the Covid year, there were a lot of young protests against the military regime that we were living under. They weaponised the past, using figures from the revolutionary era as a kind of example that there was a generation before us that tried to fight against the establishment in 1930. So they tried to weaponise this part of the past against the current regime and I found it heartening, in a way, to see them doing that. So I think the past could help us in a way, when we look at it and see there’s some people who tried to fight before us and we can just continue fighting the same battle. So, I was inspired by this but now I feel people have started to forget again. I think in the Covid year people had more free time so they fought against the regime but now they need to resume those other things so they don’t.

Can we talk about the design of the vacuum cleaner that your ghost inhabits and how you incorporated it into the film?

RB:The Singaporean designer is an actual industrial designer. He designed vacuum cleaners for real that would go to market. Initially I thought we were going to work with an artist to design it but then my Singaporean co-producer knew someone, who knew someone on the team of the industrial designer, so she introduced us to Sim Hao Jie. I was worried that he might not get it because he’s from the industrial world and didn’t watch many films. So I had a chat with him and gave him some of my ideas and a few weeks later he came back with six options and they were all wonderful. I finally chose the one that we see in the film. It also has a nickname – “soft obedience” because it looks like she’s always moving or bending. She’s a useful ghost so she’s a people-pleaser.

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke on the electroshock room: 'My location team discovered it and I was really impressed because you can’t think of this room when you’re writing the screenplay if you never saw it'

Then I felt lucky that I worked with him because, since he's an actual industrial designer, he knew about the size and how big the model should be. In the film, we control her by remote control like a toy car so that she could move through the hospital or street. But in the close up of the tube and nozzle she’s being controlled by a puppeteer in a green suit who can be deleted afterwards in post-production. It’s mostly practical effects. That was intentional on my part because CGI would make the motions too smooth. I like the jerking when the machine moves across the street and it also makes a sound [Boonbunchachoke mimics a squeaking sound]. I felt CGI would be boring. It was also better to have concrete stuff in the scene.

The costuming is also distinctive, the family is often colour-coded and Nat’s outfit is also very unusual.

RB:We had two teams of costume designers. One looked after Nat’s costume and the other characters were being taken care of by another team. With the family, they always appear with the same colour scheme and I think it’s so funny. I tried to create a specific universe in the film, not just in terms of how it looks but how people behave. They have deadpan or understated expressions through the film. I like artificiality. I like reminding you that you’re watching a film, you are watching a construction in a way.

One of the more distinctive pieces of production design is the room where electroshocks are given. Is it right that it’s a real room that exists and you found it?

Yes, it really exists in Thailand. It’s located in a university just an hour’s drive from Bangkok. It’s a room to test electric cars. My location team discovered it and I was really impressed because you can’t think of this room when you’re writing the screenplay if you never saw it. So when I saw it, I was like, “Oh my God!”. It really helped the film and is a kind of character.

A Useful Ghost poster

It’s almost a year since your film had its festival premiere in Cannes, are you working on something new now?

RB:I’m developing something in my head now and have been for a few months already. I used to ask my Singaporean producer Tan Si En – because she produced a lot of films and she also produced second and third features as well – if it's going to be easier and she said, “No, it’s not going to be easier because for the new film you’re going to be more ambitious, you’ll want to try something more challenging and you don’t want to repeat something that you’ve already done.2

So, okay… the first one was already difficult for me, so I thought it was going to get easier for the second one. But no. I hope I can finish the screenplay this year and that it will take less time than A Useful Ghost to make. I think it will be in a similar style. It is an adventure film that also draws on some fantastical elements and, of course, humour as well but I’m still not sure what it’s going to look like.

A Useful Ghost is released in US cinemas on January 16. Watch the trailer below