Why fierce mothers and violent monsters star in Joe Hsieh’s animated films
Taiwanese director Hsieh reflects on the strength of women, preferring hand-drawn animation over AI, and using violence in 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.
“I think women are really something,” Hsieh tells the South China Morning Post in a Zoom interview ahead of the film’s Hong Kong premiere.
“My mother is a tough woman and she raised me to chase my dreams. So all my films feature mothers and their children. Women are tough; they have power.”
Born in Taipei in 1980, Hsieh developed a fascination with cinema, and particularly horror movies, at an early age. He admits to being an unhappy child who was bullied at school, but he found solace in the comforting glow of the television screen.