Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen delves into the histories, politics, and spiritual traditions of Southeast Asia. At GIAF25, Ho presented a curated screening program under the theme “Shapeshifters,” featuring five of his works. Through hybrid figures such as creatures and agents—entities that reside at the boundaries of categories—the artist examines how stories are created, circulated, and transformed. These figures serve as lenses through which the artist investigates overlapping forms of Asian modernity, revealing how histories are layered, fragmented, and continually rewritten.

By highlighting the complex interplay of identity, history, and narrative, Shapeshifters aligns with the festival’s thematic focus on old stories. Just as the Silla-era ballad Myeongju-ga evolved into the myth of Lady Yeonhwa in Gangneung folklore, stories continuously morph through generations. Ho’s films capture this phenomenon, showing how past and present are always in flux, shaped by the countless voices that carry stories forward.

Screening list
1. The Nameless, 2015, 21min. 50sec.
2. The Name, 2015, 17min. 20sec.
3. 36 Ghosts, 2021, 20min.
4. 1 or 2 Secret Agencies, 2021, 20min.
5. 1 or 2 Tigers, 2021, 20min.

Korean translation and screening commissioned by Gangneung International Art Festival 2025 (GIAF25).

1. The Nameless, 2015, 21min 50sec.

Synopsis

The Nameless is about a person known as Lai Teck, which was one of the 50 known aliases of the Secretary-General of the Malayan Communist Party from 1939 to 1947, when he was killed in Thailand, after being exposed as a triple agent—working first for the French then British secret forces, then with the Japanese Kempeitai during the years of the Malayan Occupation.

But The Nameless is also about cinema, and acting. Of all the great cinematic cultures of the world, it is perhaps Hong Kong cinema that has shown a most intense fascination with “compromised” individuals, as evident from the constant stream of Hong Kong films about “stool pigeons”, “double-agents”, “informers” and “traitors”.

A film about a shapeshifter, told through a series detourned images, featuring an actor from a land of manifold allegiance, told through multiple languages.

Credits¹
Sources²

2. The Name, 2015, 17min 20sec.

Synopsis

Gene Z. Hanrahan was the first writer who attempted to compose a comprehensive historical account of the Malaysian communist party, and also produced a wide variety of other writings, including “historical” as well as “literary” works. His diverse interest imbues his overall oeuvre with the impression that they comprise pieces written by disparate individuals using a shared alias rather than a single author. Today, there are substantial reasons to consider Gene Z. Hanrahan as a ghost-writer, with links to the CIA.

The Name is constructed out of footage appropriated from various Western films showing actors engaged in the act of writing. The spoken text that accompanies The Name consists of excerpts from various books “written” by Hanrahan, and are recited by professional American voice actors, who infuse Hanrahan’s character with life by reading excerpts of his writings.

The Name was originally configured as a single channel video projection, installed along with books edited or written by the author Gene Z. Hanrahan, many of them rare, out-of-print books that were collected by Ho Tzu Nyen since 2014.

Credits³
Sources (image, sound)⁴
Citations (text)⁵

3. 36 Ghosts, 2021, 20min.

Synopsis

36 Ghosts explores the associations of Japanese Yokai with war, particularly the new tales that emerged with the Pacific War. These creatures remained firmly embedded in everyday imagination, with wartime fears and desires of the masses unconsciously spilling out into the world as Yokai. In 36 Ghosts, some tales of Yokai are informed by Japan’s invasion of Malaya and other Southeast Asian countries: Two ‘Tigers of Malaya,’ General Yamashita Tomoyuki and vigilante Tani Yutaka, are present as weretigers; the Bake-neko (Monster Cat) and the Himamushi-nyudo (Firebug Monk), two Yokai traditionally believed to have the habit of licking oil from lanterns, are tied to the search for resources such as oil through the invasion of Southeast Asia during the war. Together, the tales woven about these creatures illuminate attempts to understand the self through monstrosity.

Cast & Credits⁶

4. 1 or 2 Secret Agencies, 2021, 20min.

Synopsis

In 1938, Japan established the Nakano Army School as a place to educate and train potential agents in intelligence, counter-intelligence, and propaganda. Only the most gifted were recommended by various army units and universities for possible entry into the Nakano School, and those who passed the barrage of difficult tests were seen as geniuses. Graduates from the Nakano School would later head the F-Kikan (F-Agency), a secret service founded in 1940 in South and Southeast Asia. 1 or 2 Secret Agencies overlays animation and live-action to blur boundaries between the fictional and the historical narratives surrounding the shifting identities of the spies that progressed through the Nakano School. The numerous spies that appear follow varied pathways, some giving up their lives for their country or their government, while others become agents of their own lives.

Cast & Credits⁷

5. 1 or 2 Tigers, 2021, 20min.

Synopsis

1 or 2 Tigers delves into the narratives of two Japanese individuals each known as the ‘Tiger of Malaya.’ General Yamashita Tomoyuki, commander of the 25th Army, was known as the ‘Tiger of Malaya’ for his defeat of superior forces during the 1942 invasion of Singapore. The other ‘Tiger of Malaya’ was Tani Yutaka, a Malaya-raised Japanese bandit known as ‘Harimau’ (Malay for ‘Tiger’), regarded by some as a hero who sided with the poor and the weak. Tani was later persuaded by Kamoto Toshio, a Nakano School-trained spy from the F-Agency, to become a spy to oppose the British army. Tracing the historical emergence of tiger imagery in East Asian paintings up till contemporary Japanese animation, tigers recur in 1 or 2 Tigers as the phantoms of wartime histories.

Cast & Credits⁸