A Useful Ghost (Thai: ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ, romanized: Phi Chaidai Kha) is a 2025 supernatural black comedy-drama film directed and written by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, in his directorial debut. It stars Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjad, and Wisarut Homhuan. The film is a co-production of Thailand, France, Singapore, and Germany.
The film had its world premiere at the Critics' Week section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 17 May, where it won the Grand Prize. It was theatrically released in Thailand on 28 August by GDH 559.
It was selected as the Thai entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards, but it was disqualified.
Boonbunchachoke has voiced his hope that the film would spark political debates in his home country. Written as an indirect metaphor for the political environment of Thailand following the 2014 Thai coup d'état, the film explicitly references the 2010 massacres carried out by the Democrat Party-led government of Abhisit Vejjajiva. Furthermore, the movie was made to shine a spotlight on the conditional acceptance of queer people in Thailand and the pressing issue of air pollution in Bangkok.
Contents
Plot
A self-described "academic ladyboy" is overwhelmed by the dust stirred up by his city's renewal projects and purchases a vacuum cleaner to tidy his apartment. At night he overhears his new vacuum coughing, and in the morning finds that it has expelled the dust it had cleaned. The Ladyboy calls for a repairman, who arrives almost instantly. The repairman, Krong, tells him that the vacuum is physically fine but haunted by a ghost, and that many ghosts haunted the factory that produced it. Smitten with the handsome Krong, the Ladyboy allows him to tell the tale of the haunted factory.
Suman, the heir of her late husband's electronics factory, is troubled by the vengeful spirit of Tok, an employee who died on the factory floor after hours of coughing up blood, which Suman's experts later diagnose as "congenital heart disease". Tok blames the factory for having catalyzed his death and interrupts work by possessing machinery and angrily complaining. Tok is anchored to the physical world because someone close to him remembers his life. Tok's haunting causes Suman to lose her license to operate the factory and forces it to close.
March, the younger of Suman's two sons, is mourning the recent loss of his wife Nat and their unborn child to respiratory disease. While attending an investigation into Tok's haunting of the factory, March sees the spirit of Nat walking into an inventory warehouse and follows her. Nat possess a vacuum cleaner and seduces March. His family and religious authorities are disturbed to discover the young man sexually engaging with an appliance and March is taken to a hospital.
Nat, still in the vacuum cleaner, travels to the hospital to visit March. On the way, she befriends the Prime Minister of Thailand, Dr. Paul, by cleaning the dust irritating his eyes. March now sees Nat as a human, and the two happily reunite in his room. Nat remains with March for the duration of his stay, to the distress of Suman and his other older relatives. The two lovers discuss restarting their family using Nat's frozen eggs.
Under pressure from her conservative in-laws, who never liked Nat, Suman unsuccessfully attempts to end the relationship by having Buddhist monks exorcise the vacuum and by having the police confiscate the "stolen" vacuum. Dr. Paul intervenes, citing Nat as a "good ghost" who should be supported. Frustrated, Suman has March committed to a psychiatric institution where he receives electroshock therapy designed to damage his memory; if he forgets Nat, her bond to the physical world will be severed and she will disappear.
Cast
Davika Hoorne as Nat
Witsarut Himmarat as March
Apasiri Nitibhon as Suman
Wanlop Rungkumjad as Krong
Wisarut Homhuan as Academic Ladyboy
Production
The project participated in the 2021 Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors program, where it won the top prize and received a production grant of 35,000 CHF. In October 2022, the project was announced as part of Singaporean production company Momo Film Co.'s slate. In May 2023, it was reported that French production company Haut Les Mains would co-produce the film. In July 2023, it was selected as one of the recipients of Hubert Bals Fund+Europe: Minority Co-production Support during the International Film Festival Rotterdam. In November 2023, it received a €35,000 production grant from Berlinale's World Cinema Fund.
Release
A Useful Ghost had its world premiere on 17 May 2025 at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in the Critics' Week section. It won the section's Grand Prix. In April 2025, Best Friend Forever had acquired the film's international rights.
The film competed at the Asian Next Wave section of the 2025 QCinema International Film Festival and won the Best Picture. On 28 November 2025, it will close 56th International Film Festival of India.
GDH, under their Out Of The Box label, acquired local distribution rights and it was released in Thailand on August 28, 2025.
Reception
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 45 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Putting a bracingly unique spin on poltergeists, A Useful Ghost is a refreshing genre-bender that distinguishes debut writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke as a filmmaker to watch." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100 based on 11 critics, which the site labels as "universal acclaim".
Accolades
Although selected as the Thai entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards, it was disqualified due to a submission error. Production company 185 Films later confirmed that a coordination failure led to incomplete materials being filed, rendering the film ineligible despite an unsuccessful appeal to the Academy.