“Helpful Spirits”

Image credit: Critics Weekly

A woman dies,
only
to
in
the form of
a
vacuum cleaner
return,
to
their
man
closes
and
closes
stays.

Yes,
you read that right!

Helpful Ghosts, a film by Thai writer-director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke that made its world premiere on Saturday during Cannes Critics’ Week during the Cannes Film Festival, is a ghost story, but it’s also much more.

After Nat died from dust pollution, her husband, Machi, fell into deep grief. “It is
everyday
turning
in
this
head
place,
as
he
discovers,
that
this
spirit
his
lady
in
a
vacuum
reincarnates
into
becomes”
reads
this
summary
of
the
debut
from
Boon Bonchuck,
who
earns
his
livelihood
and
TV
writer
and
short
film
turns
there
(Red
Anin Sri;
or
on
tiptoe
at
the
always
still
trembling
Berlin
Wall).

As ridiculous as it may seem, their friendship is rekindled and stronger than ever. But not everyone likes this. His family, still grieving the accidental death of a factory worker, refuses to accept this supernatural relationship. To prove her love, Nat offers to clean the factory and prove herself as a useful ghost, even if it means exterminating a few lost souls…

Thailand
actors,
influencers
and
models

Davika
Horn
and
Vishalut
Himalat
play
the
couple
in
Democracy
Movies
from
185 movies from Bangkok,
for
the
international
distribution
from
Best
Friends
Forever
takeover.
To
the
ensemble
belongs
also
Apasiris
Nitiben
Wanlop
Lengkumjud
and
Vishalut

This
film
was
inspired
from
Mae
No,
a
known
ghost story
out
of
Thai
folklore.
The story is about a young woman who is madly in love with her husband. When she gets pregnant, he is drafted into the Thai army. After being injured, he needs someone to nurse him back to health, while his wife and child die in childbirth. When the man returns home, his beloved wife and child are waiting for him. They ignore the warnings of their neighbors and think he is living with ghosts.

“It is an iconic character in Thai pop culture, and there are stories about it on TV, in dramas, and in other forms,” ​​Boonbunchachoke told THR. “I am interested in sociopolitical issues. So I tried to look at the story again and figure out what I could say. I was curious about how ghosts could still exist in today’s society. Do they have to work like humans to earn a salary? One of the first images that came to my mind was a ghost entering an office. This legend fits well in today’s capitalist world.” a-font-body-m”>
The film also calls on people not to cover up the past.
“A lot of history of ordinary Thai people has been forgotten,” Boonbunchachoke explains. People
try
often
ghost
to
get
away
or
experiment
as
want
her
a
disturbing
past
to
eliminate.
But
maybe
should
we
speak
more
than
this
past
and
more
than
this
marginalized
story,
because
she
can
return
in
a
more
malicious
form.
As
people
are
our
ghosts
maybe
something
guilty.
We
must
them
listen
and
act
on
her
react. “

The shooting of this
scene and the
democratic
vacuum cleaner required
a lot of
planning.
“We had two models of vacuum cleaner,” explains the supervisor. One of them had a motor, so we could control it remotely. However, he could only move on the ground, not on the hose. In a regular scene, we simply chose one of two torso positions: with the head up (or not). However, the movement of the hose had to be done manually by three people, which was removed in post-production.

Boonbunchachoke decided to use the vacuum cleaner to continue telling the story. “At first I thought she would appear as a humanoid ghost,” he recalled. Usually, the poses that people ghost in movies take are in different forms. She floats simply about or has no feet. Or she appears human, but translucent. Sometimes she appears not at all, but rather manifests herself only through her consent. And in one other tradition, the spirit appears not at all, but rather is invisible and moves things around the house. “

He liked the last manifestation, that the spirit in a piece of furniture or an appliance was possible. “This
chosen
vacuum
hangs
and
a
very
Thai
context,” Boonbunchachoke explains.
“Dust pollution
is
real
in
Thailand.
This
people
talk
since
about
ten
years
about
it.
But
‘dust’
has
another
meaning
in
Thai
slang.
If
a
someone
so
called,
the
meaning
he
insignificant
is,
how
dust
–
he
can
get
from
people
and
may,
and
authority
move,
swept,
annihilated.
It
specifies
so
a
person,
that
the
power
has
to
control
her
life. “