NARRATIVE SHORT
AUGUST 13, 2021
USA | 15 minutes | 2015
Thriller, horror, drama short film directed by Elaine Xia
Starring Cici Lau
Content Warning:
The following film contains graphic material that may be disturbing to some audiences. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
Metamorphosis
A woman in 1990s Hong Kong accidentally kills her alcoholic husband in self-defense, and finds a unique way to dispose of the evidence.
Director’s Statement
I want to tell a story about karma. The main character, May Wong is a woman who does not know how to deal with her current life. Facing all the stress and the naked evidence of her husband’s cheating, she makes her first decision, suicide. However, everything changes when her daughter accidently kills her husband. In her world, she has nothing but her daughter so she decides to cover her daughter up.
She chooses a unique but cruel way to dispense of the evidence. This is not only for covering her daughter up, but also release the stress from her life. This is the second decision she makes. Comparing with the first one, the second one shows that May is changing from a weak one into a powerful and strong one.
The third decision she makes is to leave her daughter at home and kills the lover, Phoebe. If we see the second decision as something she does for her daughter, the third one is the one that she does only for herself. She dresses herself in Phoebe’s dress and thinks that she is going to be someone better.
However, at the end of the story, she is doing the same thing in the beginning but her entire look has already changed. And we can tell, the situation of her family is even worse because she also lost her daughter. Her daughter goes dementia after staying home alone. We can see this as the retribution for May Wong. Comparing with death, May’s retribution is absolutely worse.
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Credits
Director: Elaine Xia
Writer: Feiyang Sun
Producers: Yang Lv, Brendan Davis
Cinematographer: John Honoré
Starring: Cici Lau, Wilky Lau, Monica Cho, Jiin Jang
CineAsian Films 