118. SGIFF36: A Useful Ghost (2025) - Interview with Director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

Ben got a chance to interview director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke for his film A Useful Ghost (2025) that played at the 36th Singapore International Film Festival, where it also won the Special Mention Prize for the Asian Feature Film Competition. Learn about Boonbunchachoke’s creative process, how he developed the story, and his approach to filmmaking as a whole that tends towards artificiality, deadpan humour and an engagement with history.Special thanks to the SGIFF team for helping us with securing an interview time/location, and to Momo Film Co, the film’s Singapore co-production team for helping to coordinate the interview. Suck less at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com Timestamps:00:00 Intro02:47 Reception04:00 Queer readings07:39 Developing story and themes12:02 Political / historical references13:24 History, memory, surveillance18:19 Artificiality, worldbuilding, craft25:36 Spoilers: Frame story27:25 Spoilers: Ending31:43 Other appliance candidates33:42 Upcoming work34:35 Outro