use utf8;
binmode(STDOUT, ":utf8");

my $string = "azsc";
while( $string =~ /(\w)/g ){
  print $1;
}
print "\n";
__OUTPUT__
azsc

##</code><code>##

open(my $fh, "<:encoding(UTF-8)", "filename")
    || die "can't open UTF-8 encoded filename: $!";