Left-Handed Girl


Left-Handed Girl is a 2025 drama film, co-written, co-produced, and directed by Shih-Ching Tsou. It stars Janel Tsai, Ma Shih-Yuan, Nina Ye, Brando Huang, Akio Chen and Xin-Yan Chao. Sean Baker serves as co-writer, co-producer, and editor.
The film had its world premiere at the Critics' Week section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on May 15. It was released theatrically in France on September 17, 2025 and in the United States in a limited release on November 14, before streaming on Netflix on November 28. It was selected as the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film|Taiwanese entry] for Academy Award for [Best International Feature Film|Best International Feature Film] at the 98th Academy Awards, making the December shortlist.

Plot

A single mother, Shu-Fen moves with her two daughters -- innocent 5-year-old I-Jing and surly, college-aged I-Ann -- to Taipei to start a noodle stand at a night market, while I-Ann works at a betel nut stand as a betel nut beauty to earn money. After discovering that her estranged husband is terminally ill, Shu-Fen puts herself further into debt to pay for his medical bills and funeral, which disgusts I-Ann and drives a further wedge between mother and daughter as Shu-Fen becomes unable to pay rent for the noodle stand. Meanwhile, reuniting with her grandparents Wen-Xong Chen and Xue-Mei Wu, the left-handed I-Jing is informed by her old-fashioned grandfather that the left hand is "the devil's hand" and that she is forbidden from using it in his home. Misinterpreting the superstition, I-Jing believes that she is not responsible for any bad behavior done using her left hand, and begins to shoplift from the other market stands.
When I-Ann is invited to a party at a motel with an old local classmate, it is revealed that she had been a straight-A student and the most popular girl on campus, but had to drop out of high school for reasons I-Ann claims were financial. After others at the party mock her with crude sexual advances, she storms out. I-Ann is also in a sexual relationship with her boss, A-Ming, whose wife eventually discovers the relationship and confronts I-Ann at work. I-Ann reveals she is pregnant with A-Ming's baby and quits.
I-Jing, while playing with the pet meerkat willed to the family by Shu-Fen's deceased husband, throws a ball with her left hand, leading to the meerkat falling off the apartment balcony and dying. Distressed and guilty, I-Jing blames "the devil's hand." Later, Shu-Fen visits her mother's home to beg for money, but Xue-Mei refuses. Xue-Mei is secretly involved in a black-market illegal-immigration operation, and I-Jing, oblivious to the crimes but aware that the passports are valuable, steals them from Xue-Mei's home as the women argue, inadvertently saving Xue-Mei from a later raid by immigration agents. When I-Jing attempts to pawn the passports, the shop owner contacts the family home, and I-Ann collects her and learns of I-Jing's belief in her "devil hand" and shoplifting. I-Ann convinces I-Jing that the superstition is false, assures that the meerkat's death was an accident, and takes I-Jing to return the stolen items and atone. As thanks for I-Jing's actions involving the passports, Xue-Mei gifts Shu-Fen the money to pay for the noodle stand.
The family attends a birthday banquet for Xue-Mei's sixtieth birthday. A-Ming, who has been attempting to contact I-Ann without success, arrives with his wife after deducing her location, and his wife loudly reveals I-Ann's affair and pregnancy in front of the scandalized extended family, insisting that they will pay for the baby if it is a male. I-Ann retorts that she aborted the child, leading to a fight with Shu-Fen, who is ashamed of I-Ann's behavior and failure to take responsibility. The couple is thrown out, but I-Ann drinks heavily, and eventually reveals their family secret: I-Jing is her own daughter, not Shu-Fen's, and Shu-Fen had covered up the truth in order to give her daughter a better chance at marital prospects. Xue-Mei is outraged, but the moment is cathartic for Shu-Fen and I-Ann.
The film ends with I-Ann choosing to work at the noodle stand with her family, and she and I-Jing beginning a foundation of their relationship as mother and daughter.

Cast

Production

The script for the film was written by Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker in 2010. In November 2012, Baker revealed the project, with Shih-Ching Tsou set to direct, however, the film was facing difficulty to secure financing.
Principal photography began in July 2022. By February 2025, the film was nearing the end of post-production. The film was shot using an iPhone.

Release

Left-Handed Girl had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival in the Critics' Week section where it won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution. In May 2025, Netflix acquired rights to the film for the world excluding the Baltics, the Benelux, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, France, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Scandinavia, Poland and Taiwan. It also screened in the Competition section of the 30th Busan International Film Festival on September 22, 2025 for 'Bosan Awards', the 'Official Section' of the 70th Valladolid International Film Festival, the 69th BFI London Film Festival on October 15, 2025, and the 20th Rome Film Festival, where it won Best Film.
It was released in the United States in a limited release on November 14, 2025, before it began streaming on Netflix on November 28, 2025.
In August 2025, Taiwan's Ministry of Culture submitted Left-Handed Girl to compete for the Academy Award for Best International Feature category at the 98th Academy Awards.

Reception

Accolades