Unfavorite Daughters
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MOVIE REVIEW
Left-Handed Girl (2025)
Perhaps best known as Sean Baker’s codirector and cowriter on 2004’s “Take Out” and producer on his five other projects, Tsou Shih-ching marks her first solo directorial outing two decades later with “Left-Handed Girl,” premiering during Critics’ Week at Cannes. Her new film shares a vibe with Mr. Baker’s oeuvre – which is not terribly surprising given that he serves as its cowriter, coproducer and editor. But Mr. Baker’s handprints seem more visible on the stylistic choices. The plot itself is a culturally specific critique on the latent sexism in families of a certain demographic in Taiwan.
Shu-fen (Janel Tsai), a single mom, moves into a tiny apartment in Taipei with two girls in tow: I-ann (Ma Shih-yuan), a rebellious high-school dropout who now works as a “betel nut beauty” – a flirtatious, scantily-clad lass who serves betel nuts to blue-collar men – and I-jing (Nina Ye), a 5-year-old kindergartener. The mother rents a food stall in a bustling night market, though she struggles to make payments. Her parents, siblings and I-ann aren’t very sympathetic to her plight, and constantly berate her about lending money to I-ann's dying father.
The gramps are pretty backward. The superstitious grandpa, who is vexed by I-jing's left-handedness at the dinner table, tries to scare her by calling her dominant hand the “devil hand.” Grandma, seemingly the source of the generational trauma, apparently also dabbles in human-trafficking.
With Mr. Baker as its editor, “Left-Handed Girl” definitely shares the hyperkinetic energy emblematic of his work. Pulsating music in the background punctuates the proceedings throughout. Camerawork by Chen Ko-chin and Kao Tzu-hao closes in on the characters tightly and glides along with them. Scenes that center on I-jing's hijinks are reminiscent of ones in “The Florida Project,” shot from the child’s sight line to exude a sense of wonder. Under Ms. Tsou’s assured direction, the film creates an immersive experience radically different from the pensive observations more typical of the Taiwanese New Wave.
Without spoiling too much of the plot, what unfolds is the vicious cycle of generations of women in one family not knowing their own worth and selling themselves short. It’s all informed by the matriarch favoring her only son. Make no mistake, this kind of gender politics is very real in Taiwan, where the audience members will surely appreciate how deftly Ms. Tsou illustrates the issue without turning it into a sanctimonious homily.
With its premiere at Cannes, “Left-Handed Girl” is destined for international reach. I wish Ms. Tsou all the best on becoming a torch bearer for the island nation’s great cinematic tradition. I do dread the film lending itself to context collapse in the Western discourse. My own paternal grandparents definitely shared these gender biases. But my Boomer parents most certainly don’t subscribe to this preference for sons. I’ve also witnessed my maternal grandfather and my dad endure decades of henpecking. As for me, I’m gay and won’t be having children. The film does provide fodder for bad-faith players in service of white supremacy to continue the broad-brush painting of Asians as uncultured misogynists. At least the real sexist in “Left-Handed Girl” is the grandma.
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