One of the highlights of this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) is a collection of five animated short films from Taiwanese director Joe Hsieh Wen-ming. Awash with vivid imagery of an often erotic and violent nature, Hsieh’s work also channels a palpable sense of compassion, not least in its depictions of mother-child relationships.
Co-directed by Hsieh and Yonfan and with touches of David Cronenberg’s 1986 horror The Fly, Praying Mantis is a brightly coloured body horror fantasy that tells the story of a cursed insect woman who seduces men to feed her ailing son.
