Items25The creator’s order
  1. 1Michelle YeohMichelle YeohBorn 6 Aug 1962The Malaysian-born star's career makes a useful bridge between film industries. Pair Police Story III: Supercop (1992), from her Hong Kong action years, with Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), where an exhausted mother becomes a multiverse traveller. The physical precision connects the two,…0i
  2. 2Bront PalaraeBront PalaraeBorn 27 Sept 1978Bunohan introduces the Malaysian actor as Deng, a fight organiser caught in a troubled world of family loyalties and kickboxing. Follow it with the Indonesian horror film Satan's Slaves (2017), where he plays the family's father. His career offers a useful reminder that language and production…0i
  3. 3Sharifah AmaniSharifah AmaniBorn 10 Jun 1986Start with Yasmin Ahmad's Sepet (2004), where Amani plays Orked, a Malay schoolgirl whose romance with a Chinese boy confronts the assumptions around them. Her directness and quick shifts of feeling make the relationship accessible without smoothing away its particular Malaysian setting. The…0
  4. 4Yeo Yann YannYeo Yann YannBorn 20 Feb 1977The Malaysian actor has built a particularly rewarding collaboration with Singaporean director Anthony Chen. In Ilo Ilo (2013), she plays a mother negotiating household and financial strain; in Wet Season (2019), she is Ling, a teacher whose private life is coming apart. Watch the difference…0i
  5. 5Mark Lee (Singaporean actor)Mark Lee (Singaporean actor)Born 16 Oct 1968Singaporean comedy and television are the starting point for Lee's screen identity, but Number 1 (2020) is a revealing detour. He plays a retrenched manager who finds work in a drag club and becomes a performer himself. The role lets comic awkwardness develop into vulnerability and earned…0i
  6. 6Koh Chieng MunKoh Chieng MunBorn 16 Dec 1960Koh's Dolly Tan in the Singaporean sitcom Under One Roof is the place to begin with her comic timing. Then look for her as Neena Goh in Crazy Rich Asians (2018), where that skill works within a very different production and ensemble. The career connection matters more than the change in scale: a…0
  7. 7Chin Han (actor, born 1969)Chin Han (actor, born 1969)Born 27 Nov 1969The Singaporean actor's route from local theatre and television to international films is worth following through his supporting roles. The Dark Knight (2008) uses him as the calculating Lau; Mortal Kombat (2021) gives him the more theatrical menace of Shang Tsung. Pair them to see how he adjusts…0i
  8. 8Christine HakimChristine HakimBorn 25 Dec 1956Leaf on a Pillow (1998) is a strong starting point for Hakim's work on both sides of the camera. She produced the film and plays Asih, a woman sheltering street children in Yogyakarta. Her presence helps hold the film's adult and young performers together without making poverty into a simple…0i
  9. 9Dian SastrowardoyoDian SastrowardoyoBorn 16 Mar 1982Compare Cinta, the schoolgirl at the centre of Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (2002), with Dasiyah in the period series Cigarette Girl (2023). The later character's ambitions unfold within Indonesia's clove-cigarette industry and its restrictions on women's work. Moving between the two gives a better sense…0i
  10. 10Reza RahadianReza RahadianBorn 5 Mar 1987Habibie & Ainun (2012) and My Stupid Boss (2016) make a deliberately wide-ranging pairing. Rahadian plays B. J. Habibie in the romantic biographical drama, then becomes the exasperating Bossman in a workplace comedy set in Kuala Lumpur. His changes in voice, gesture and physical presentation are…0i