[This review contains spoilers.]
A young woman dies, and returns as a ghost to reunite with her husband. This Thai legend, the story of Mae Nak, has been retold dozens of times, including in the blockbuster Pee Mak (พี่มาก .. พระโขนง) starring Davika Hoorne. (I wrote about the various Mae Nak adaptations for Encounter Thailand magazine.)
Davika also stars in A Useful Ghost (ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ), though there’s a bizarre twist to the tale: she plays Nat, a ghost that returns to her husband March not as a traditional spectre, but as a haunted vacuum cleaner. (The names Nat and March evoke those of Mae Nak and her husband Mak.)
In A Useful Ghost, the spirits of the dead possess electrical appliances, either to be near their loved ones or, in most cases, to torment the people responsible for their deaths. Inhaling airbourne dust particles seems to be a common cause of death, hence the possessed vacuums, and this is a reflection of real life: Bangkok and Chiang Mai are notorious for their air pollution.
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s film begins as an absurd comedy, as the haunted Hoover trundles around. (A Useful Ghost shares a deadpan humour with the short films of Sorayos Prapapan.) In a hilarious early sequence, a monk calls Nat’s ghost a cunt, prompting a debate among his fellow monks about whether they should use such an offensive word.
A young woman dies, and returns as a ghost to reunite with her husband. This Thai legend, the story of Mae Nak, has been retold dozens of times, including in the blockbuster Pee Mak (พี่มาก .. พระโขนง) starring Davika Hoorne. (I wrote about the various Mae Nak adaptations for Encounter Thailand magazine.)
Davika also stars in A Useful Ghost (ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ), though there’s a bizarre twist to the tale: she plays Nat, a ghost that returns to her husband March not as a traditional spectre, but as a haunted vacuum cleaner. (The names Nat and March evoke those of Mae Nak and her husband Mak.)
In A Useful Ghost, the spirits of the dead possess electrical appliances, either to be near their loved ones or, in most cases, to torment the people responsible for their deaths. Inhaling airbourne dust particles seems to be a common cause of death, hence the possessed vacuums, and this is a reflection of real life: Bangkok and Chiang Mai are notorious for their air pollution.
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s film begins as an absurd comedy, as the haunted Hoover trundles around. (A Useful Ghost shares a deadpan humour with the short films of Sorayos Prapapan.) In a hilarious early sequence, a monk calls Nat’s ghost a cunt, prompting a debate among his fellow monks about whether they should use such an offensive word.
In its second half, A Useful Ghost becomes much darker. We discover that some appliances are haunted by victims of political violence: Dr Paul, a minister in an unspecified government department, complains that he can’t sleep due to the sounds of gunshots replayed by the ghosts of those who died at Ratchaprasong in 2010 and Thammasat University in 1976. It’s this noise, not his conscience, keeping him awake at night.
The film shifts in tone from comedy to dystopian satire, as the state uses electroconvulsive therapy to erase the memories of the ghosts’ living relatives. (If people can’t remember the deceased, then the ghosts will disappear.) The ECT not only eliminates the ghosts, it also ensures that any memories of state atrocities are wiped, and March challenges this brainwashing by reading books about the events the government is trying to erase.
The whitewashing and forgetting of political violence is also a key theme in the sci-fi film Taklee Genesis (ตาคลี เจเนซิส), the short film Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts (วงโคจรของความทรงจำ), and the video installation Delete Our History, Now! (อำนาจ/การลบทิ้ง). The Thammasat killings inspired the supernatural horror films Colic (โคลิคเด็กเห็นผี) and Haunted Universities (มหาลัยสยองขวัญ). There are three short films featuring the ghosts of Ratchaprasong massacre victims: This House Have Ghost [sic], We Will Forget It Again (แล้วเราจะลืมมันอีกครั้ง) — which also deals with the theme of forgetting the past — and Hush, Tonight the Dead Are Dreaming Loudly.
A Useful Ghost’s initial focus on dust particles and vacuum cleaners is given an additional resonance in its second half. In Thailand, the idiom ‘dust under the feet’ refers to people swept under the carpet like specks of dust to be vacuumed up. The film’s cathartic ending hints at this metaphorical meaning of ‘dust’, as the ghosts wreak their revenge on Dr Paul while dust particles are shown glittering in the air.
The film shifts in tone from comedy to dystopian satire, as the state uses electroconvulsive therapy to erase the memories of the ghosts’ living relatives. (If people can’t remember the deceased, then the ghosts will disappear.) The ECT not only eliminates the ghosts, it also ensures that any memories of state atrocities are wiped, and March challenges this brainwashing by reading books about the events the government is trying to erase.
The whitewashing and forgetting of political violence is also a key theme in the sci-fi film Taklee Genesis (ตาคลี เจเนซิส), the short film Transmissions of Unwanted Pasts (วงโคจรของความทรงจำ), and the video installation Delete Our History, Now! (อำนาจ/การลบทิ้ง). The Thammasat killings inspired the supernatural horror films Colic (โคลิคเด็กเห็นผี) and Haunted Universities (มหาลัยสยองขวัญ). There are three short films featuring the ghosts of Ratchaprasong massacre victims: This House Have Ghost [sic], We Will Forget It Again (แล้วเราจะลืมมันอีกครั้ง) — which also deals with the theme of forgetting the past — and Hush, Tonight the Dead Are Dreaming Loudly.
A Useful Ghost’s initial focus on dust particles and vacuum cleaners is given an additional resonance in its second half. In Thailand, the idiom ‘dust under the feet’ refers to people swept under the carpet like specks of dust to be vacuumed up. The film’s cathartic ending hints at this metaphorical meaning of ‘dust’, as the ghosts wreak their revenge on Dr Paul while dust particles are shown glittering in the air.
