Girl Power, GO! GO! GO!
Once upon a time, in a Taipei, far, far away…
But first to America, where Saul Bass was one of the most famous graphic designers and filmmakers to have ever existed. You may not know his name, but it’s highly improbable that you have not seen his work. He worked with Alfred Hitchcock on numerous title sequences such as the stunning North by Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958), Psycho (1960) and countless other famous films including Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995). He even designed the yellow poster for Kubrick’s The Shining (1980).
He believed in the missed opportunity to enhance the movie-going experience in a relatively simple, yet stunningly effective way, saying “My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film’s story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it.” Basically the spirit and personality of the film should be instilled from the very first frame.
From the opening seconds of the film, such an approach has been lovingly and warmly embraced by director Shih-Ching Tsou in her absolutely beautiful solo debut feature Left-Handed Girl (2025). With a vibrant spinning colourful kaleidoscope filling the entire screen, we are dropped into the magical child’s eye perspective of I-Jing (Nina Ye) as she travels with her older sister and mother in a small van, who out of financial necessity are moving from the countryside back to the city.
Adding to the swirling colours are the bright and playful fairy-tale-like music of the track Ouch Potato by Bleeding Fingers (a film composer collective set up by Hans Zimmer), which in combination with sight and sound transport the audience to a truly magical far away land, Taipei, capital city of Taiwan.
The spinning shapes exude joy but also an element of sweeping chaos, a fine balance of adventure, beauty and random turmoil, whisking into a sort of spell, even bewitchment, and as it transpires, a not so healthy dose of generational superstition mixed into the incantation.
And the film has only started.
Despite this being a solo debut, Tsou has been involved in film since the early 2000s. In the greatest way possible it becomes immediately clear that she has been friends and working with director Sean Baker (Anora, 2024, which won five Oscars) for decades. It was actually back in film college where they met and directed the feature Take Away (2004) together. She has also produced many of his films and acted in three of them.
That is in no way to diminish her voice in the directing of Left-Handed Girl, quite the opposite, it is astonishingly clear they have always had a shared vision in favouring a vérité-style of storytelling, where the actors and events are deeply life-like, real, and regardless of what bizarre sequences may be unravelling on-screen, are absolutely relatable to ordinary people around the world. There’s an extra ingrained vitality to both the story and the performances, often from people who are not actors.
Baker and Tsou also wrote the film together over many years, based on her own memories and stories from family, friends and general experiences of growing up in a bustling Taiwan, an energy and turmoil that is saturated in every frame of the film. It is both tantalisingly foreign, and hypnotically enticing, encouraging us to drop our complacent predominantly Western perspectives, as this is another world in so many ways.
But it is also deeply familiar too. The mantra travel broadens the mind, initially meant physically going to a place to absorb its essence. But you can also visit via film, and this is where the film soars. Not only in the wonder of the city itself, its unique dynamic fluorescent neon fuelled life force, but also the grounding of the financial stresses the characters are having to endure, a suffering that is woefully universal by design, and all too potent of daily life for increasing millions.
Single mother Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai) moves back to the city with her eldest daughter I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) and as mentioned I-Jing. Moving into a tiny flat and setting up a food stall in the local night market, times are tough, from every angle possible. The pressures are relentless, always increasing, attempts at salvation get blind sided by life events crashing in, yet despite it all Shu-Fen perseveres, in striving love for her children, nurturing tolerance and kindness for others, regardless of her precarious situation.
I-Ann meanwhile out of necessity works as a Betel nut beauty, a well-known lower-class profession that is effectively wearing not much clothing and selling betel nuts and cigarettes out of a garish kiosk. Betel nuts have stimulant and narcotic effects when chewed, and wouldn’t have the most affluent of customers, nor the most positive of environments for getting out of this situation, but needs must.
Meanwhile I-Jing joins her new school and hangs out with her grandparents in between meandering solo adventures through the city at night. It is here with the grandparents (also trying to make ends meet) that the title of the film comes from. Being of an older generation with highly superstitious beliefs not only about having daughters, but especially being left-handed, which it transpires I-Jing is, much to the abject horror of grandad.
Being left-handed is apparently the sign of the devil, a belief that was often propagated to varying extents around the world by Christianity, but other local cultural leanings would add fuel to the ire. Granddad is very upset about this revelation, which instigates a myriad of misadventures that only add to the drama of the families’ already hectic life.
It’s not all chaos though, as much as there is plenty. There is so much colour, life, adventure, beautiful resilience and profound kindness mixed into it all. Like the popular meals Shu-Fen makes for her customers, some elements are sour, some sweet, but it’s all tasty, fulfilling and deeply satisfying, like a great meal, made with pure love should taste like.
Baker also did the editing of the film, and with lush cinematography by Ko-Chin Chen and Tzu-Hao Kao, it really does feel like a foreign language Baker film, but again it’s important to know that Tsou and him are absolutely cut from the same cloth, a rich tapestry of interconnected memory threads, woven together, showing the rich beauty of people and classes that are often ignored.
On the food front again, it reminds me that it’s often the case that the most impoverished regions have the most vibrant food, in that their material limitations make them focus on what they do have, and celebrating it with the ones they love, despite all the madness.
It might be set in a faraway land, but the film is one of the most beautiful and universal films I’ve seen all year, and many years prior. It has the full spectrum of life, bad, good and messy. It’s many lifetimes distilled into 1 hour and 48 minutes. Radiant, chaotic, incredibly funny and an absolute joy to behold, where the troubles only enhance the smiles of relief.
The performances all round are outstanding. Whereas Janel Tsai is an established recognised and award-winning Taiwanese actor, bringing a rich depth and gravitas to every moment. First time actor Shih-Yuan Ma is fantastic as the oldest daughter, trying to find herself in a seemingly directionless existence, while Nina Ye radiates off the screen and gives zero doubt to her status as a child star actor in Taiwan, she’s a joy to behold.
It’s the natural chemistry between them and everyone in the film that elevates everything. But like the food, you can tell everything is made with pure love. We need much more of this fare in our modern world. Less orchestrated division that serves the purpose of the few, and more sitting down together, that serves everyone.
10/10
Left-Handed Girl is available on Netflix.