The Thai film My Boo on Netflix is no less than adorable. Is it the year of ghost and human romances? Because this is the second one I’ve seen in the last few weeks, and both, despite not bringing anything radical to the table, have been pleasantly enjoyable to watch. It feels like only yesterday I watched Girl Haunts Boy, and now I’m here watching yet another Girl Haunts Boy film. Of course, they’ve got completely different vibes, but I’d like to add that if you like one, it’s likely you’ll like the other because they’re both absolutely adorable. The film tells the story of Joe, a good-for-nothing young man who claims himself to be a video game streamer. The man spends 200,000 baht on computer equipment after taking a loan from one of your regular street-side loansharks and then realizes he’s got no way of paying them back. What does Joe do to get this money, and how does he meet the love of his life? Let’s find out in My Boo.
Spoiler Alert
How Does Joe Start Anong’s House?
Joe finds himself completely stunned when he learns that he hasn’t received anything from his dead rich granddad because the poor old man couldn’t finish writing his will. So while Joe thought his grandfather’s inheritance would financially support him, he now has no money, no career, and no one to really help him either. But it seems a cousin takes pity on him and offers him a faraway home that nobody cares for. This is because this house is haunted and in the middle of nowhere, but of course, Joe doesn’t know this, and he happily accepts it. Joe decides to take a broker there with him to scout out the possibility of selling this house. However, the broker gets scared by the vibes of the house and runs away before they can even make any plans. But it’s not simply creepy vibes that the house possesses; in fact, it’s actually haunted by three ghosts. Anong, Thong Gon, and Thong Yip. Earlier, Joe’d dreamt of a girl dying horribly, and he thought it was because he was playing a horror game; however, it seems the girl from his dream was now in front of him, and getting killed in the same scary way. Also, every night at the same time, the three ghosts have to relive their deaths.
Soon Joe learns that the three people he’s just witnessed are ghosts, and he gets a Buddhist priest to exorcize the house in the hope he won’t see ghosts anymore and he can sell it to make his money and pay back the local loan sharks. But that doesn’t work, and soon Joe finds himself face-to-face with the three ghosts and having an actual conversation with them. You’d imagine this would lead to him freaking out and running away, but after learning that the three people disappeared many years ago without a trace, Joe decides he wants to try and help them cross over to the other side, so to speak. It seems Anong was a young woman whose parents owned that house before his family got it. Gon and Yip were her housekeepers, and one day the three of them disappeared, which left her parents completely devastated. So much so that her dad was sentenced to death after he had everyone who was suspected to have hurt his daughter killed. Watching her husband die was too much, so his wife ended up passing away soon enough too.Anyway, Joe decides that since the ghosts are visible at night and look pretty terrifying, he should start a haunted house and make all the money he can to pay back the loansharks. Then he can find the physical remains of the three ghosts and eventually sell the house for a fortune because it wouldn’t be haunted anymore.
How Do Joe and Anong Fall in Love?
Guess it’s easy to fall in love with someone unattainable because it doesn’t take long for Joe to fall for Anong after they start their fancy haunted house. The haunted house actually ends up being a huge success, probably because a headless ghost, a woman with her intestines sticking out, and a beautiful girl who can rotate her head 360° are going to scare anybody. For some time the house flourishes, and Anong and Joe get closer until he realizes he’s in love with her. Anong learns she can possess unconscious people when some robbers show up at the house and hit Joe in the back of his head. To help him, Anong possesses him and nearly kills the two men, but this is when she has a small vision of what had happened to her all those years ago, and she doesn’t want to turn into the monster that killed her, so she lets them go. But this helps the lovebirds with an interesting idea.
Anong can’t go out of the house or touch Joe, but if she possesses a human, she’s able to touch people, so Joe decides to drug one of his friends, Kong, for the task (yikes). The plan works, and Joe and Anong spend the entire night together, happy and in love. But of course, the night comes to an end, and Kong wakes up the next morning with Joe trying to hug him and completely freaks out. Joe tells Kong the truth, and Kong says their love isn’t going to last, and Joe’s making a big mistake. This gets Joe thinking, and he even Googles “What happens when you fall in love with a ghost (genius, I know)?” but this furthers his fear of being taken to the grave with Anong, so to speak. On the other hand, Anong gets jealous when one of Joe’s exes, Miw, shows up at the haunted house. She also realizes that she can’t be with him since she’s a ghost, but Joe makes a massive decision when he realizes she’s upset. Joe promises Buddha as his witness that he will love Anong until the day he dies, and Anong promises to love Joe despite not being mortal anymore.
How Does Joe Learn The Truth?
But life isn’t perfect, and things always get messed up. Joe’s cousin goes bankrupt because of crypto and decides to sell the land that the house was built on or build a new place there or something. Joe watches in sadness as the house is bulldozed and spends his nights there in the hope of seeing Anong, Gon, and Yip again. One day, Joe digs a little under the soil and finds Anong’s remains. At this moment, he gets a vision of what really happened to Anong all those years ago. It seems it was Joe’s ancestor who killed the trio and buried them under the house for what looks like some sort of dark ritual. Joe opens his eyes to see Anong in front of him, and instead of being furious with him, she simply thanks him for reminding her what it’s like to be alive again. Joe tries to hold onto Anong, but she’s already got her closure at this moment and ends up disappearing as he tries to hold her. Joe gives Anong, Gon, and Yip the proper cremation they deserve and promises to bring Anong’s favorite flowers.
In My Boo’s ending, Joe finally realizes he has to do something with himself, and inspired by Anong’s story, he plans a video game. The video game is sold to a big company and becomes a massive hit, making Joe rich and famous, but he continues to remain sad and lonely. 60 years later, Joe sits by the same plant, the flower that Anong loved, and drifts off in what seems like a deep slumber. It seems someone really knows how to keep a promise, and he truly loved Anong for the rest of his life, never moving on. Joe’s either dead at this point or it’s a dream, but we see a young Joe and Anong finally have their first dance in a dreamy sequence. I suppose in a way it almost seems like Anong and Joe were always meant to be, and their destiny would eventually bring them together when they’re reborn. Watching the ending of this film, I’m reminded of Past Lives and the concept of “inyeon.” One could believe Joe and Anong will be together in a next life because it seems, in an odd way, that they’ve had many layers in their relationship from past lives (though technically for Anong it’s the same one). But I guess what I’m trying to say is that at the end of the day, these two were meant to be, and all we can do is hope.
