Chain - Award-Winning Animated Short

As far as grisly ends go, I quite like being a human being.  The chances are I’m not going to be gobbled up by a member of another species because I’m the one doing the gobbling (which, frankly, sounds a little rude).  I was reminded of this when watching Chain, the award-winning animated short directed by Ling Han.  It works on the old Chinese proverb “The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind” – or 螳螂捕蟬,黃雀在後 in other words.

Of course, taken as an extended metaphor, this proverb encompasses all life.  How many times does one pursue goals only to find that there are forces far stronger standing in the way?  Chains appear in every place, in every time and impact all of us. This does make Chain sound awfully serious, when in fact it is more often than not gloriously silly. 

It’s no surprise to discover, however that it has won more than 80 international awards including Best Animated Film at the Paris Art and Movie Awards.

Watch Chain below – and thank your lucky stars that you’re human (but, you know, watch out for those creeps at work).