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.

His latest film, Praying Mantis (2025), marks the animator’s second collaboration with celebrated Hong Kong art-house auteur Yonfan, following the award-winning No 7 Cherry Lane (2019), which was presented with the best screenplay award at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival. Hsieh served as an animator on that film.

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.

Read my full South China Morning Post interview here