Adrianna TanFeb 27

Michelle Yeoh plays several characters in this short film set in Penang.

The codeswitching (language and body language) based on status / environment / character is nuanced and reflects a broad range of the Malaysian Chinese city life experience that I have been a part of.

I also love that most of it is filmed in food places, and now I am terribly homesick.

https://youtu.be/7Lo8WTBuHDg

#MichelleYeoh #Malaysia #TootSea

SANDIWARA: THE FEATURE FILM

YouTube
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 27

I think sometimes when I say I’m homesick, it’s partly that I miss family, friends, food, home; even the weather

But it’s also, in watching this short film

I miss being in an environment that I 100% get. All of the characters in the film are composites of people I probably know. I know how all of the food in the background tastes. I know how it sounds.

I don’t think it’s easy to convey how good the food is. And how that’s central to life over there. Think of the best Chinese food you’d ever had and then 10x it. And that’s just every street corner in Penang and Ipoh. And you’re in a community that centers all of this celebration of joy and food and that speaks in multiple languages in the same sentence.

I miss all of it.

Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 27

If all of my life experiences were on a scale of 100, the person that I am in America, even in a part of it that is very Asian, where I don’t really feel like an outsider at all, feels like just 20.

Living away from *that* environment (Singapore / Malaysia / India, my homes feels like the missing 80.

Show threadAdrianna Tan

I miss being surrounded by people who understand that every single meal in your life ought to be the most delicious thing you will ever eat. Who understand that we don’t have to accept anything less

And that the expectation of good food is not a classist thing in the same way it is where I am now. There, it seems like everyone expects it. I don’t want to feel like a weirdo. In Penang, I am the least intense foodie in comparison to random aunties on the street.

Feb 27 at 8:10amWeb
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 27

I never lived in Penang but I spent a lot of time there. I lived many years in KL but Penang feels more like a place that I ‘know’. Perhaps linguistic: the language of the streets of Penang is Hokkien and Malay and English, not Cantonese and Malay and English.

Hokkien is a language I speak quite well, understand extremely well, and more importantly it is the only language my mother seems to emote in, so it feels much closer for me than the Cantonese of KL and Klang Valley (outside of Klang)

Show threadAnders von Hadern 🐦‍🔥Feb 27
@skinnylatte Mila agrees <3
Show threadmorachbeagFeb 27
@skinnylatte omg I remember eating in Singapore and Malaysia and it's like how can everything be this delicious
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 27
@morachbeag going from that food culture to most others has been deeply disappointing
Show threadmorachbeagFeb 27
@skinnylatte It must be! I found myself sitting there going "I'm sure it'll be tasty" (5 seconds later) "this is the greatest thing I have ever eaten ever"
Show threadAdrianna TanFeb 27
@morachbeag I have had the opposite reaction in some countries, and I remember feeling immensely confused that food could.. be not amazing all the time
Show threadmorachbeagFeb 27
@skinnylatte I can certainly think of a few like that 😅