Left-Handed Girl (dir. Shih-Ching Tsou)

by Jack Martin | Nov 28, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 109 mins

UK Distributor: Netflix

UK Release Date: 28 November 2025

WHO’S IN LEFT-HANDED GIRL?

Janel Tsai, Shih-Yuan Ma, Nina Ye, Brando Huang, Akio Chen, Xin-Yan Chao

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Shih-Ching Tsou (director, writer, producer), Sean Baker (writer, producer, editor), Mike Goodridge, Alice Labadie and Jean Labadie (producers), Ko-Chin Chen and Tzu-Hao Kao (cinematographers)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In Taiwan, a single mother (Tsai) and her two young daughters open a night market stall in the city of Taipei…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON LEFT-HANDED GIRL?

It might seem random that Sean Baker, coming off his record-breaking Oscar haul with Anora, would suddenly shift his focus to a Taiwanese family drama operating on a comparatively smaller scale, but it in fact marks a union that’s been a long time coming. Baker and filmmaker Shih-Ching Tsou have collaborated many times in the past, with the two co-directing the 2004 film Take Out and Tsou producing many of Baker’s later films including and up to Red Rocket, but Left-Handed Girl is the first time that Tsou is solely occupying the director’s chair with Baker on co-writing, producing and editing duties.

While it is ultimately Tsou’s project, and a pretty strong one at that, you can definitely sense Baker’s fingerprints all over it. Luckily, Baker knows when to step back and allow the director’s own vision to shine, for her gentle and compassionate tone mixed with Baker’s unique brand of gritty naturalism creates a charming and engrossing film that brings out top qualities in both filmmakers.

Set in the city of Taipei, Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai) is a single mother who, along with her sullen teenage daughter I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) and wide-eyed youngster I-Jing (Nina Ye), relocates to a market street where she opens up a noodle stand, serving hungry customers as they wander down the promenade during the evening hours. The small family unit deals with numerous hurdles during their time together, with Shu-Fen struggling to financially support herself and her wider family, some of whom are clearly engaging in a covert human trafficking operation, and I-Ann taking a job in a seedy betel nut shop where scantily-clad clothing and casual sex with the boss are regular occurrences. Meanwhile, the impressionable I-Jing is callously told by her deeply conservative grandfather that her left-handedness is a sure sign of the devil, triggering a miniature identity crisis for the young girl as she begins committing a series of misdemeanours, including casual shoplifting, using her apparently cursed left hand.

The iPhones on which the film is shot, recalling Baker’s similarly-made Tangerine, present this world with glistening pixelation, following this family through the streets and hallways with as much of a curious fascination for it all as young I-Jing has. Tsou brings zest to numerous slice-of-life scenes as these characters experience a wide range of emotions as they attempt to build a life for themselves, only to be met with harrowing realities that will ring true for anyone who’s ever become stuck in a cyclical loop of economic frustration and uncertainty about oneself. The director grounds the drama, some of it bordering on soapy territory, with a genuine sweetness where you can tell this three-person family, as much as they give each other a hard time – especially I-Jing and I-Ann, as sisters tend to do – really cares about one another and wants to keep them safe from everything else going on in their lives, whether it be their own issues or their extended, much more prying and self-centred relatives.

Baker’s touches are impossibly easy to spot, from the focus on marginalised characters doing whatever they can to survive to the very frank and honest yet entirely sympathetic portrayal of sex work (the latter represented by this betel nut shop, which while not necessarily a brothel-like establishment still heavily incorporates sexuality into its business model). But given its slice-of-life nature and child perspective, Left-Handed Girl goes much more hand-in-hand with Baker’s The Florida Project than something like Red Rocket or Anora, with Tsou’s film sharing a few other similar quirks such as fast-paced editing designed to match the speedy mentality of its young protagonist to, of course, an extraordinarily lively turn by young Nina Ye whose remarkable self-poise adds warmth to the character’s innocence. As you see her wandering around and interacting with neighbouring stall owners as well as her mother and sister, both of whom you can tell (in part thanks to equally compelling turns by Janel Tsai and Shih-Yuan Ma) have had that sense of childlike wonder ripped from them at some point in their lives, little I-Jing’s curiosity and mischievousness fuels so much of the film’s charm that it rubs off onto some of the less child-friendly aspects of the story.

On that subject, there are certain issues that the film deals with well enough but sometimes struggles to contain in the slightly overpacked story. Such strands as a pregnancy scare and a missing envelope of passports, all somehow connected to a family meal that serves as the backdrop for an emotional climax, come to a head in typically (for Baker, anyway) stressful and chaotic fashion, which despite adding plenty to certain characters’ arcs feels a bit too convenient in their timing, like it’s the final scene in an episode of a much wackier sitcom where the A and B narratives finally merge. It does make the film feel a little longer than it actually is, which I remember being a slight issue with The Florida Project as well (even though both movies are roughly the same length, give or take a couple of minutes) since there are parts where you’re not entirely sure how far into the story you are, and the note that it ends on, while pretty satisfying, leaves a fair amount on the table waiting to be touched upon but never is.

While not as tightly constructed as some of the filmmakers’ past collaborations, Left-Handed Girl contains plenty of heart and solid drama that Tsou can comfortably claim as her own, with Baker and his own contributions happily cheering from the sidelines as he allows his former co-director the chance to shine on most of her own terms.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Left-Handed Girl is a charming and heartfelt Taiwanese family drama that sees director Shih-Ching Tsou nurture a sweet slice-of-life narrative with occasional assistance from co-writer Sean Baker, whose own touches are hard to ignore but help compliment the striking narrative voice of his regular collaborator.