In the first chapter of his book Memories of Silence, Thongchai Winichakul, a Thai historian, outlines his thrust for remembering and forgetting of historical happenings, particularly the massacre of October 1976: Silence is not an act of forgetting. It marks the struggle to either recall or release the past, the difficulty of shaping memories into meaning or escaping them altogether. He called it the “unforgetting” which is the in-between state of neither remembering nor forgetting.

Opening this review with Thongchai’s book will become meaningful as this review progresses, since much of Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s works engage with the same project of unforgetting. Like his 2020 short Red Aninsri, the film strategically manipulates shifts in voice to reveal the corruption and inherent contradictions within the law, while also revealing the ways in which such vocal transformations shape modes of self-expression and inform one’s interpretation of history.

Ratchapoom’s debut feature-length film, A Useful Ghost (2025) first premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Critics’ Week section, where it won a Grand Prix, followed by its local theatrical release. It was brought to the Philippines through the 13th QCinema International Film Festival under the Asian Next Wave programme. The film also won Best Picture and Best Production Design for Rasiguet Sookkarn from the festival.

The film underscores the tension between historical memory and contemporary development from its opening scene: it draws from the mural, creating an imagery associated with the People Party of the 1930s. This motif later gives way to a depiction of transformation, marked by the construction of a luxurious mall with the tagline “the future is now” on the very site where the mural once stood.

In the following scenes, an important object is reintroduced into the narrative, one that will serve as a narrative device: the vacuum. Because of the dust brought about by the ongoing construction, the academic kathoey (Wisarut Homhuan) bought one to solve the problem. However, the strange happening that seems to come from the vacuum drove them to investigate what unusual events are occurring. In these moments, all the strangeness occurring in the first few minutes of the film pulls us toward where the narrative will lead us: a queer way to revisit the history and irony of the ever-changing society.

With Krong’s (Wanlop Rungkumjad) appearance as the vacuum fixer, the narrative takes a complete turn, loosely based on the folk legend Mae Nak. By making sense of the problem, he leads the audience into another layer of the narrative. We get to know the story of a grieving March (Wisarut Himmarat) and his wife, Nat (Davika Hoorne), who died from a chronic illness during childbirth. 

Aside from it, we get to know another conflict when Tok, a worker who died in the factory of Suman (Apisara Nitibhon), March’s mother. He became vengeful, leading to the factory’s closure. Later, March discovered that Nat possessed a red vacuum. Through this retelling, Ratchapoom manipulates the temporalities of the film as it progresses into Krong’s story. With the film’s surrealism, it reconstructs the fabric of society, imagining a world where ghosts live alongside the living seamlessly as part of everyday life. And these ghosts are both benevolent and malevolent, like Nat who is labeled as a good and better ghost by Dr. Paul and his wife. 

Queering inanimate objects as an integral part of the narrative, challenging how individuals interact and negotiate power dynamics in a society where there are no laws that include such ways of living.

However, as Krong’s story continues, the bureaucracy becomes apparent. With the calculated gestures of the actors and their deadpan expressions, it highlights the imperative not only to follow the rules of society but also to act in accordance with what is deemed morally or ethically right for an individual. This bureaucratic rule is highlighted in Nat’s scene with the nurse at the hospital where March is. Their conversation exposes the contradictions and ironies of having to follow rules and behave in order to maintain a false sense of harmony. 

And when we think that this is already haunting, the film also strongly draws attention to how the workers in Suman’s factory are treated as fungible labor. For her, workers are easily replaceable, and keeping the business running is more important. Thus, even though the factory bears responsibility for Tok’s death, greater emphasis is placed on giving donations and assistance so that Tok can be mourned and properly buried.

The same treatment happens to Nat when she possesses the vacuum. From life to death, she is constantly sidelined and unaccepted by March’s family; however, when she becomes useful, they eventually give her attention and respect. Especially when she works for Dr. Paul, who even manipulates the law so that Nat can have the baby she dreams of.

On a deeper level, it reveals that the conferral of power is closely tied to an individual’s perceived merit. When an individual is viewed as lacking any potential to contribute to labor or production, they are rendered placeless within society. Moreover, in the case of figures like Suman, while their actions are also shaped by a history of imposed expectations from their spouse’s family, this does not absolve them of responsibility for the inhumane treatment of their workers. Within this circulation of power dynamics, what ultimately holds value is usefulness to a society that simultaneously controls and constrains one’s ability to live fully.

As Nat works for Dr. Paul, it is revealed how dreams can be used to forget history. Especially as the ghosts of the past return in the form of a dream, becoming a memory for each individual connected to them. Ratchapoom renders this dream as a mode of unforgetting, as Dr. Paul and his comrades are haunted by the spectres of the past. Particularly the bloody Massacre of 2010 and the Thammasat Massacre of October 1976, to which the film references.

There were at least 98 people killed and 2,000 injuries happened between April to May of 2010, according to Human Rights Watch. The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, also known as the “red shirts”, held various massive protests against the then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy, Suthep Thaugsuban. Meanwhile, the Thammasat Massacre took place on 6 October 1976 during a student-led protest. The demonstration sparked by the return of former dictator Thanom Kittikachorn, who had previously been ousted from power. Many students and activists opposed his comeback, demanding either his expulsion or prosecution, as reported by Khaosod English.

“Do you think that dreams are images of tragic memories?” Krong asked.

Through the historical context it references, Ratchapoom traces and interrogates history through acts of unforgetting, presenting a once-bloody collective experience as a moment to resist erasure. He also challenges the consciousness of both the characters and the audience by making Nat the agent of the powers that be, tasked with surveilling the dreams of those connected to these historical events which eventually lead to electroshock in order for them to forget.

As Nat erases these memories of the history, March reads to remember them. The contradictions lie between these two as March challenges Nat as she continues to serve Dr. Paul in surveilling the dreams of the people. There are now two sides of the same coin: one that tries to be useful while benefiting from the state, and one that questions every change.

And when the greedy and fascists exploit our dreams, the question arises: where do we find the strength to reclaim our agency against the state’s growing surveillance, in order to finally end the control of those in power over our imagination of a just society?

Here lie the memories of the unforgotten: even if they are always on the brink of being forgotten and erased, there are still moments when they return and continue to haunt the present. The temporalities of the film masterfully execute this: in the final act, the ghosts reclaim their power. They are stronger as a collective, and their only language is their emancipation and justice served, refusing to be buried. 

When memory is taken from us by force, it will, as always, continue to return and emerge in our minds as a reminder of the history we have endured at the hands of oppressive forces. Ratchapoom’s use of memory functions not only as an act of remembrance but also as a form of resistance against the collective amnesia that the state seeks to impose in order to sustain the fantasies it has constructed.

Ultimately, A Useful Ghost, chosen as Thailand’s entry for the Oscars, is not only masterful in its form and narrative but also intricately traces history, romances the audience into a crisis of collective amnesia. The film becomes a study of memory in itself, with the director acting as historian, using dreams as both fantasies and aspirations of the characters. Culturally tied in making sense of the contradictions that shape the attitudes and behaviors of individuals living in a society that treats people as fungible labor. It is both cinematically grounded and historically situated.