Left-Handed Girl

Directed by: Shih-Ching Tsou

Taiwan | 2025 | 108 minutes | Mandarin | Hebrew and English subtitles

Shu-Fen, a single mother, returns to Taipei with her two daughters after several years away. She plans to open a noodle stall in the city’s bustling night market. Her older daughter, Ai-An, works at a dubious convenience store, has an even more dubious relationship with her boss, and a fraught relationship with her mother. But five-year-old Ai-Jing is fascinated by the colorful market, which becomes her playground. Family tensions escalate when their grandfather warns Ai-Jing, who was born left-handed, not to use her left hand because it “belongs to the devil.”

After many years of collaboration with Sean Baker, Shih-Ching Tsou directs her first feature film, which Baker produced, edited, and co-wrote. The film explores family, tradition, and modernity through a child’s eyes, sketching a tender and amusing, funny and moving portrait of a lively, noisy family—no less so than the city in which they live.