• Drama

Left-Handed Girl 2025

Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩) is a 2025 Taiwanese-American co-production drama film that marks the solo directorial debut of Shih-Ching Tsou, a long-time collaborator of Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker, who co-wrote, edited, and co-produced the film. The plot is a poignant, character-driven story set against the vibrant and chaotic backdrop of Taipei’s night markets, following three generations of women. Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai), a single mother, relocates her family to the city to open a noodle stall, desperately trying to make ends meet. Her defiant eldest daughter, I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma), a high school dropout, works a questionable job selling betel nut, struggling with the shame and limits of her circumstances. The film’s title refers to the youngest daughter, five-year-old I-Jing (Nina Ye), who is told by her traditional grandfather to stop using her left hand, which he calls the "devil's hand." This cultural pressure symbolizes the broader themes of societal stigma, the struggle for identity, and the resilience of women navigating poverty and traditional expectations. The film features a central cast led by Janel Tsai, Shih-Yuan Ma, and Nina Ye, whose grounded and authentic performances have received widespread praise. It has been a major player on the festival circuit, where it made its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival’s Critics' Week, winning the prestigious Gan Foundation Award for Distribution. It further secured the top prize for Best Film in the Progressive Cinema competition at the Rome Film Festival and was selected as Taiwan's official entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. Critically, the film has been hailed as a deeply felt, authentic, and perceptive drama, with reviewers praising its emotional clarity, lived-in cultural specificity, and the masterful blending of intimate family dynamics with social realism. Critics have noted that while it shares the raw, humane aesthetic of Sean Baker’s work (The Florida Project, Anora), the film is distinctly Tsou's vision, offering a powerful, female-centered narrative. Commercially, the film has followed a staggered international release schedule, premiering in May 2025 before having a limited theatrical run in the US starting on November 14, 2025. Given its small, independent nature, its box office gross is not the primary measure of its success. Its wider global reach is being handled by a major streaming partner: the film is available to stream on Netflix starting today, November 28, 2025, which is providing the platform for global audiences to access this acclaimed Taiwanese drama. Read More

• 2025
• 1 h : 49 min
• 85 views
• 7.247
• R