‘Left-Handed Girl’ (左撇子女孩) Review: Shih-Ching Tsou’s Solo Debut is a Vibrant Mother-Daughter Miracle [A-] TIFF
Minutes into Shih-Ching Tsou’s solo debut Left-Handed Girl, I knew I was in good hands. Watching our three female leads sitting at a small cramped table eating the seafood flavor 來一客 instant noodles, while the garbage truck jingle rings outside, I felt memories of my childhood summers in Taipei rushing back.
Taipei is a place of great contradiction. The food is amazing, the nightlife is vibrant, and the sense of family and community can make you feel safe. But it’s also a place of great economic struggles and generational gaps. Shih-Ching Tsou is a filmmaker who has long collaborated with Sean Baker on films like Take Out, Tangerine, and The Florida Project. With Left-Handed Girl, she wears the handheld camera sensibilities and socio-economic themes on her sleeve, but with bits of the film being based on her own childhood, this story feels as personal as ever.
Our family of three women starts with Shu-fen (Janel Tsai), the single mother who opens up a noodle stall in the night market, in an attempt to pay back her debts. Occasionally helping her out but constantly rebelling against her is I-Ann (newcomer Shih-Yuan Ma), the eldest daughter who decides to make money on her own. Lastly is the titular left-handed girl I-Jing (Nina Ye), the five-year old with a lot of wonder and curiosity in her eyes.
Though a significant portion of the film is told through the child’s eyes, the script treats each family member like a protagonist in the story. We’re given an incredible amount of intimate access to mother and eldest daughter – each character has time alone in the film, as we watch them make mistakes and deal with their struggles in their own unique way. I-Ann is rebellious and stubborn. She sees things the way they are, bluntly, because it’s the truth. She can’t comprehend why her mother would behave in certain ways, and that creates a growing distance. Shu-fen, on the other hand, still upholds a sense of tradition. Or maybe it’s honor and dignity. Certainly, it’s not pride, but the stubbornness comes across just as clearly. Like mother like daughter.
It also doesn’t help that Shu-fen has other problems in her family of origin, amongst her fellow siblings, who are much more financially successful than her, as well as her parents. This is where the grandfather tells our left-handed girl I-Jing that she needs to stop using her left hand to do stuff, because the left hand is the Devil’s hand. What follows next is a series of events, or I guess I should say life vignettes, as we watch I-Jing internalize that family instruction into a sense of confusion and rebellion. It’s a brilliant combination of the Asian experience of repressing one’s emotions along with the struggles of a child trying to make sense of what they feel vs. what they’re being told.
Left-Handed Girl is a film that asks us to be in the moment. We are with these characters at every one of their low points, as they do or say things that are not pretty but are a product of their pain and depression. This raw empathy is further elevated by the handheld iPhone camerawork – it’s crude and unpolished but also real and honest. We watch I-Jing through unfiltered close-ups, as she sits quietly and witnesses an argument that only adults understand. Though we naturally know what the adults are fighting about, part of us would feel terrible that a child of all people would be witnessing it. Most of all, we start to wonder whether the child understood any of what was just said.
Nina Ye is no doubt the joy of the film, as our left-handed girl I-Jing resorts to petty theft to deal with the idea that her dominant hand is supposedly evil. Ye, in a Q&A after the screening, mentioned that her favorite part in shooting Left-Handed Girl was filming all the scenes with her character stealing, saying that “It’s exciting to do because you can’t do that in real life.” Funny how she said that, given how she literally steals every scene she’s in.
But much respect and admiration needs to be given to Shih-Yuan Ma as the eldest sister. She brings such a lived experience to the character of I-Ann. From her dialogue delivery to her body language, you wouldn’t be able to tell she’s a newcomer as an actress. As for Janel Tsai as the mother, it’s always inspiring to watch an already-well-known actress take on a more subtle, nuanced role. Though Shu-fen doesn’t speak too much – she usually fights with her daughter whenever she does – she’s such a compelling character to observe. Tsai presents a torrent of guilt, responsibility, and hopelessness in her eyes. While we look at the youngest daughter with a glimmer of innocence and curiosity, we look at the mother with a sense of worry and sympathy.
With Sean Baker in the editing room, the film still builds towards a sense of climax, and that’s when you realize that despite having all these vignettes or tangents or small random details of everyday struggles, the very act of spending time with characters will make you care about what happens to them when the emotions are finally boiled over. Secrets are revealed and long withheld emotions are spilled; one particular reveal was so powerful, it quite literally took my breath away.
It’s easy to tie Left-Handed Girl with many of Baker’s previous works. At some point, the film could’ve been renamed The Florida Project 2.0: Taiwan Edition. Or call it The Taipei Project. But Shih-Ching Tsou brings an equally incredible balance of tone to her story. She knows when to be gentle and when to be unflinching. The truths are hard and the confrontation will be more than hard, but there is always that lingering sense of optimism that things will get better. Truly, an authentic portrait of contemporary Taipei, its vibrant joys, its imperfections, and all the honest hard-working people trying to get by.
Grade: A-
This review is from the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival where Left-Handed Girl has its North American premiere. The film will be in select theaters beginning November 14 and on Netflix November 28.
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