And now for something completely different: an absurdist comedy about ghosts inhabiting home appliances that is simultaneously a rousing, radical work of historical excavation. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s film is a wacky, whimsical look at Thai politics, from the distant past to its recent history. The film opens with the purchase of a vacuum cleaner revealed to contain a dead man’s spirit; soon, a repair man is explaining its backstory, which unfolds in flashbacks recalling worker exploitation, subversive ghosts, and a government program devised to investigate citizens’ minds while they sleep.
Ratchapoom seeks sometimes to amuse, sometimes to galvanize, and always to entertain. His film is eclectic enough to merit many comparisons: his choreographed physical humour evokes the spirit of the silent era; bizarre scenes of deadpan humour carry a whiff of sketch comedy; and the allegorical rendering of Thai history recalls that nation’s reigning arthouse auteur, Apichatpong Weerasethakul. From its sardonic opening to its slam-bang conclusion, this is a jaunty, captivating work of cinema.
Grand Prix: Critics’ Week, Cannes 2025; Oscar Submission: Thailand
Supported by
Media Partner
Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjad, Wisarut Homhuan
Thailand/France/
Singapore/Germany
2025
In Thai with English subtitles
At International Village & VIFF Cinema
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Chayamporn Taeratanachai, Kip Tiaviwat, Annie Yang, Tanat Tananivit, Rachel Y. Wu, Kris Eiamsakulrat, Nopadol Srikieatkajohn
Producer
Cattleya Paosrijaroen, Soros Sukhum
Screenwriter
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Cinematography
Pasit Tandaechanurat
Editor
Chonlasit Upanikit
Production Design
Sim Hao Jie
Original Music
Chaibovon Seelukwa
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke is a filmmaker of Teochew-Hainanese descent who was born and raised in Bangkok, where he currently resides. He works as a full-time scriptwriter, writing commercial features and television series while also teaching university film theory and scriptwriting. In 2020, he was selected to participate in Berlinale Talents program. His short film Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall was selected for Locarno in 2020 and won the Junior Jury Award — Leopards of Tomorrow (International Competition). Most recently he has been nurturing a film series investigating the colonial history of Thailand.
Filmography: Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall (2020)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
All That's Left of You
Jordan's submission for the Academy Awards, All That's Left of You makes the most of its epic format to chronicle seven decades of Palestinian history while tracking the psychological impact of cycles of exile and oppression on three generations.
L'Étranger
Recreating 1940s Algeria in vivid, high contrast black and white cinematography, L'Etranger is erotic, enigmatic and brutal in equal measures, a masterful screen version of Albert Camus's insoluble classic of existential alienation.
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
Islands
In this sly, engrossing mystery, a dissolute English tennis coach in a Canary Islands holiday resort falls under suspicion when the husband of a beautiful guest disappears after a night of heavy drinking...