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
The American Friend
Wim Wenders' take on Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game is the real deal, an authentic mittel-European neo-noir, with Dennis Hopper as the original American psycho, Tom Ripley. This Film Studies screening is introduced by Patricia Gruben.
Turner & Constable
Filmed as a supplement to a blockbuster exhibition at Tate Britain happening right now, this doc in the popular Exhibition on Screen series allows us to view these competitive, complementary English landscape artists side by side.
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.