British Vogue: Michelle Yeoh Juggles 5 Characters In A Poetic Love Letter To Penang
Han Chong grew up in Penang, a small island off the coast of Malaysia. “I had a happy, carefree childhood,” recalls the fashion designer, who went from working in his father’s store selling pork jerky to moving to London, where he would go on to found the contemporary womenswear label Self-Portrait in 2013. “Penang is so small, so I grew up with a really strong sense of community.”
Now Chong is paying tribute to those childhood memories with Sandiwara, a new short film that premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival last week. Named after the Malay term for a theatrical performance, the 10-minute film was written and directed by Sean Baker, whose film Anora won big at the 2025 Oscars. It stars another Oscar-winner, the Malaysian-born actress Michelle Yeoh, juggling multiple accents and hairstyles and playing five different characters – a pink haired “macro” influencer, an imperious food critic, chef, waitress, and singer, all dressed in Self-Portrait – whose stories intersect at one of Penang’s renowned night food courts. “As I get older, I feel a sense of pride in where I came from,” says Chong of his decision to set the film in his hometown. “But I wanted to show Penang through Sean’s eyes.”
The film marks the second project in Self-Portrait’s Residency programme, following a successful Christopher Kane-designed capsule collection that was released in 2024, based on the designer’s iconic CSM Graduate MA collection. By dipping a toe into moviemaking, Chong’s label joins brands like YSL and Miu Miu in commissioning or producing films by directors, but Chong sees the Residency programme more as an initiative for creative expression from artists of all different disciplines. “Inspiration can come from a book, a movie or music. The Residency project is about putting different creative people together and seeing what magic happens.”
It also provided him with a dream opportunity to work with Yeoh – or “Miss Malaysia” as Chong refers to her – who in 2023 became the first actress of Asian descent to win the Best Actress Oscar, for her role in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Amazingly for Yeoh, who was born in the neighbouring state of Ipoh, her performance in Sandiwara marks only the second time she’s appeared in a feature film set in Malaysia (the first being 1992’s Supercop, with legend Jackie Chan). Chong first met Yeoh when he made a black velvet and lace dress for her to wear to the UK premiere of her movie, Wicked: For Good last year, and they swiftly hatched a plan to work together. “Michelle stands for possibility in our Asian community, and I wanted to tell that story so people can see and be inspired,” he says. “I wanted her to showcase her abilities and to represent something for our Asian culture on a global stage.”
For Baker, whose oeuvre of low-budget independent films – ranging from 2021’s Red Rocket about a down-and-out porn star to 2024’s Anora about a Brighton Beach sex worker who tangles with the Russian mafia – often depict people on the margins of society in America. Signing onto this project was a chance to do something completely different, and to work with Yeoh, an actress he had long admired.
Following the whirlwind success of Anora, Baker jumped straight into co-producing, writing and editing a Taiwanese film, Left-Handed Girl, before getting to work on researching and writing Sandiwara. He spent three weeks exploring Penang and getting to know the island, throwing out an initial script that revolved around a “gangster caper”, and writing a new story that centred on Penang’s famous food courts, inspired by its burgeoning reputation as a foodie capital in Southeast Asia.
Shooting on iPhone with a variety of non-actors was something of a return, for Baker, to the scrappy roots of his earlier films. But it also allowed him and his team to navigate the crowded food courts with ease. “At first, I was worried how people were going to treat such a big star like Michelle,” says Chong. “But people were very respectful and supportive and treated her almost like a big sister.” Despite the long, hectic shooting days, it felt like a family affair for Chong, who brought Yeoh to his dad’s store to introduce her to his family. “I kept it a surprise because on a small island, the minute someone knows, everyone knows!”
The short film melds Yeoh’s chameleonic acting abilities with Baker’s intimate, fast-paced aesthetic to create a perfectly condensed love letter to Chong’s hometown. “Sean has a special way of making ordinary moments into something poetic, alive, unpredictable and emotional,” says Chong. “I couldn’t be more proud as I wanted to avoid making a fashion film. I wanted something more heartfelt.”
