Japanese intelligence agent Tani Yutaka, a member of the F agency, one of Japan’s intelligence agencies in the 1940s, spoke fluent Malay. In 1911, he was born in Fukuoka, Japan, and later moved with his parents in northeastern Malaysia, where he became a bandit to avenge his younger sister’s death. Tani Yutaka’s story has been filmed in 1943 and 1989 and adapted into the television series “Bandit Harimau” (快傑ハリマオ)in 1960 and 1961. “Harimau” (ハリオ) is known as Malay word for “Tiger.” The series re-imagine Tani Yutaka’s journey on the sea and in his life. As a reference to the South, the tiger is also Japan’s mental appearance attached to its human figures on the map of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. During the Japanese occupation, Taiwan was considered the northernmost spot of the South, and how did Taiwan view the further South? A sleeping tiger is like the sleeping South, the hot, lazy, and unprogressive periphery. “Malayan Tigers” in the tropical rainforest are still named after the colonists, and they drowsily continue their journey to the uncharted fields in their human forms.

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Animator and 3D Animator: WU Ting-Yi
Music and Sound: CHEN YowRuu
Sound Design for Sleeping Tiger: Vicky OU

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