BITE OF THE TAIL | Omeleto Animation

A woman has stomach pains.
BITE OF THE TAIL is used with permission from Song E. Kim. Learn more at vimeo.com/user....
A young wife experiences excruciating abdominal pains, but her doctor doesn't take her complaints seriously. Her own husband seems distracted by his strange obsession with capturing a snake, widening a gulf between the couple, even as they hope to start a family soon.
But when her husband's captured snake breaks out, it disappears into their shared home, seeming to escalate the wife's gastric distress. Feeling increasingly invisible in the world, she seeks out relief, but as her attempts continue to fail, she struggles to find an answer to what ails her.
Writer-director-animator Song E. Kim's Sundance-featured short animation uses the detailing possible with its style of line-heavy drawing to capture an alienated, isolating world that characters drift in and out of, wrapped up in their own concerns. Its slightly distorted way of portraying human characters also captures how the wife turns and twists in upon herself as she grows more and more apart from the people in her life, which includes an intrusive sister and a doctor who seems to barely notice his patient at all.
The storytelling exists solidly within a subgenre of domestic dramas examining marital or familial discontent -- of people who are supposed to be connected and yet are not, and whose disconnection makes them feel lonelier than ever. Both the main characters of the story are searching for something elusive, whether it's truth, meaning or connection, and can't seem to walk alongside one another in their quests.
Instead, they are both alone in their existential journeys, lost in a world that seems both empty and overwhelming. This world is constructed not just in the animation style, but also with a rich, almost dense sound design. Though there's little dialogue, the sound of the world is full, even bustling, which offers a contrast between the spare, minimal lines of the visual style. The discordant, ominous musical score also adds to the film's emotional register and escalates as the wife comes to realize just how far her husband is from her psychologically.
The couple is connected, though, by the evocative symbolism allowed for by animation, particularly in the form of the snake, which here often appears foreboding and unpredictable as it appears throughout the film. As the wife becomes even lonelier and more wracked with pain, the film takes a turn towards the surreal -- and the snake and the wife become intertwined as she faces the depth of her aloneness in the world and her marriage.
BITE OF THE TAIL is modern in look, ancient in its symbolism and relatable in its evocation of how we feel alone, even when we are surrounded by the people we love. Serpents are symbols of wisdom, healing and transformation, and of course, a snake biting its own tail is an ouroboros, which represents eternity and continual renewal of life. The complex unraveling of this symbol at the film's end and the emotional low point actually may offer a flicker of hope for the husband and wife -- although how it may play out remains ambiguous, as are most of life's difficult realizations and transitions.

[@Odieodius]

The snake has something to do with carnal living and evil. A snake eating a snake, Ouroboros, has to do with life and death, like Ying and Yang. The man, then, chasing after worldly desires or fantasy, finds the two snakes, Ouroboros, revealing death. The endoscope inserted into the wife is one snake, and the second snake is her large intestine. The man seeing this, runs back fearing his wife might die.

[@alexiskarle2174]

Thank you for this, i think you summarized this short up beautifully!

[@dumpster_infern0837]

Full metal alchemist ouroboros?

[@steventolerhan5110]

Him and her prioritise different kinds of snakes and it's slowly eating their relationship up

[@steventolerhan5110]

Wow, the style, the emotion, short eye catching scenes, and that climax, just wow

[@priyankakinnake8260]

At first I thought he is searching for the snake so he could replace it with her damaged intestine and it would save her .

[@merylbonderow5993]

Interesting idea! I don’t think her husband cared enough about her pain to even do that, though....

[@ajbethel9371]

to me it seems like the husband is said to want two things. He wants a child and he wants the snake. Maybe this is equating the two, she doesnt want a baby so when he comes home and she thinks about it again, this is the snake coming in the door and peeking at her. It then goes away when she avoids it. The sister then is the other snake, this may be because the wife may be imagining the pains and such as a form of avoidance and the sister is enabling this rather than helping her face the real issue, that she needs to address completely that she doesnt want a child so that she doesnt have to feel the guilt. The sister catching him chasing the other snake is then maybe the height of conflict and the sister than feels by then that the husband is the enemy when its possible he just isnt aware that his desire for a child is causing guilt/pain and it becomes a separate war between the two that leaves the wife to be eaten alive by her guilt and maybe the snakes eating one another is the sister and husband being so lost in the conflict that they fail to realize when they have pushed away/lost the wife; that she no longer wants to be around either of them. Tbh i usually am able to understand deeper symbolism and decipher these things but this animation is really perplexing to me and i find it even more interesting because of that. It's one of those animations that make you wonder if its based deeper around the authors' personal experience/feeling and its genuinely something that isnt easily rasped by the audience because its more meant for the author than the audience; but that makes it all the more amazing

[@Tadpole_Plyrr2]

2:50 can your head even move like that irl??

[@cleversushi8428]

Read the description guys

[@galaxymaxter]

The animation is unique and I enjoyed the asmr!

[@whoisharo4689]

Great animation. Great ASMR...

[@asitisj]

I like how 12:13-> 12:14

[@jaredf6205]

And then what....

[@krultepes7334]

Actually I don't get it

[@FunkyChunkss]

Same. I don't get it either. What happened at the end. What's the moral? I get man's point, he's busy for no reason. But what's was the lady's problem? What happened to her? Explain anybody

[@kikuokuroki6939]

@@FunkyChunkss maybe depressed because of her husband's behavior and lead to physical sickness?

[@bazzel1059]

What I think is that the guy was looking for the snake that has been ruining his relationship with the woman. I think it was her sister that had the tongue twitches so I understood it as her being the reason for the distance. When the man at the end finds two snakes eating one another I thought that he was maybe a snake to the woman's sister so in the end they were both trying to get closer to the woman and were sabotaging each other. No idea about the surgery or whatever though.

[@laobozu549]

I know I'm late but still,, read caption. Everything is explained.