< Back to main Festival page

A man stands in a warehouse, looking down at a red contraption with white tubes coming out of the top.

A Useful Ghost Pee Chai Dai Ka

  Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

  Thailand     130 minutes

Synopsis

A vacuum factory is under pressure when a string of fatal workplace accidents leads to an unlikely phenomenon: deceased workers possessing machines and wreaking havoc on their operations. One particular soul—Nat, the young wife of the factory’s heir, killed by dust poisoning—is able to reunite with her grieving husband as a vacuum, reigniting their love stronger than ever. But faced with the fierce disapproval of her husband’s powerful family, Nat strives to be a polite and useful ghost, agreeing to help her in-laws exorcise the vacuum factory of its pesky lost souls. Her compassion for her fellow ghosts, however, illuminates the dark side of her work and the implications of forgetting those who are lost too soon.

A dazzling visual design, a penchant for deadpan whimsy, and an incisive focus on society’s marginalized are just a few of the colorful threads that form this genre-defying cinematic tapestry. An earnest exploration of loss and memory, this delightfully absurd phantasmagoric fable is equal parts witty, poignant, and heartbreaking.

 Thai with subtitles

Content Considerations

Screenings & Events

There are currently no upcoming screenings of this film.

Media

Film Credits

  •   Cattleya Paosrijeroen, Soros Sukhum
  •   Chonlasit Upanigkit
  •   Pasit Tandaechanurat
  •   Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wisarut Homhuan
  •   Momo Film Co.

Tickets on sale now!

See your most-anticipated screenings at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival.

GET YOUR TICKETS
close-link