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Unique concept behind Malaysian series Kisah Bawah Tanah
MALAYSIAN folklore has enough ghosts to fill a screen. The harder task is turning them into characters in a fully animated world.
That is what Kisah Bawah Tanah attempts to do. Created by Hendra Wardi and Arzuan “Alet” Anuar, and directed by Wong Kuan Loong, better known as Ah Loong, the 2D animated series follows two young jerangkung, Sam and Zack, as they try to survive work, city life and supernatural chaos in Bandar Bawah Tanah.
Around them are zombies, pontianak, pocong, orang minyak, jiangshi and other creatures drawn from local and regional folklore. But the show is not built as straight horror. Its monsters have jobs, bills, bosses and personal problems.
Built for older viewers
For Hendra, the foundation of Kisah Bawah Tanah was clear from the beginning. First conceptualised in 2015, the show was aimed at a space he felt Southeast Asian animation had not fully explored.
“When Kisah Bawah Tanah was first conceptualised in 2015, it did not stray far from what we wanted. We wanted an animated series in that Simpsons category, 13 and above, because we felt Southeast Asia did not have that. There were primary school cartoons for children, but nothing for teenagers,” Hendra told theSun.
That direction was not easy to protect. Hendra said broadcasters initially wanted the show pushed towards younger children, but the team felt it lost its identity when treated that way.
Folklore with new lens
Kisah Bawah Tanah is not set in the afterlife. Hendra said the characters are beings in another universe where everyone resembles the hantu Malaysians grew up hearing about.
“It is not set in the afterlife. The characters are not dead. They just happen to be in another universe where everyone looks like the hantu that we know. They have jobs, friends and rent to pay, so they face the same situations we face on earth.”
That idea lets the show treat folklore as everyday life. An orang minyak can become a businessman abusing natural resources. A ghost story can become a workplace problem or a joke about growing up.
“Even when we talk about folklore, we never make fun of it. It is more about how we retell that story for our Gen Z audience. The stories we were told as kids by our parents, friends and grandparents, we are taking those same stories and putting a Gen Z lens on them.”
Drawn by hand
Although much of local animation has moved into 3D, Kisah Bawah Tanah was always planned as a 2D series.
“It has always been 2D. That is the kind of cartoons I grew up watching, from Cartoon Network to Ninja Turtles and Futurama. I always preferred 2D to 3D,” said Hendra.
For Ah Loong, style still had to serve production. He said 2D and 3D require different skills, with 2D relying heavily on traditional artists and drawing ability.
Running the show
The first season has 26 episodes of about 11 minutes each. According to Ah Loong, production took around 18 to 20 months and involved roughly 80 to 100 people.
For him, the most demanding part was making sure each episode worked before it entered production.
“I think the story, the writing and the storyboard took the longest. The storyboard and animatic set the tone of that particular episode, the flow and the pacing. If the story or storyboard in pre-production is not right, then the whole thing is going to collapse,” Ah Loong told theSun.
That focus on structure shaped the show’s tone. Kisah Bawah Tanah uses horror imagery, but Ah Loong said it is driven mainly by story and comedy.
“We will not make the show very scary because Hendra and I believe story and comedy come first. I am not too worried about it being too silly for adults because it is story-driven and comedy-driven. It is not slapstick.”
Beyond season one
Season two is expected to bring in more Southeast Asian folklore, with storytellers from other countries helping to represent their own myths more accurately.
For a Malaysian animation industry often measured against larger foreign studios, Kisah Bawah Tanah shows another route forward. It builds from familiar local stories, keeps its language and humour recognisably Malaysian, and treats folklore as material that can still travel.
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