After winning four Oscars, including Best Picture, for Anora, Sean Baker’s newest film sees him co-write and edit the solo directorial debut of Shih-Ching Tsou, his frequent producer and co-director on Take Out. While Left-Handed Girl does feel perhaps a bit too cut from the same cloth as Baker’s work to stand out as memorable in its own right, it is a charming, warm movie thanks to the deep humanity and undeniable warmth that radiates throughout the entire project.
What is Left-Handed Girl about?
Left-Handed Girl follows a single mother and her two daughters as they move to Taipei to start a night market stand, struggling with the trials and tribulations of life. Although the challenges that the characters face are occasionally a little tropey, Tsou and Baker approach these moments with enough empathy that they manage to never feel like clichés and never feel like they exist merely to preach to the audience.
Left-Handed Girl Review
Audiences who are familiar with Tsou and Baker’s past work will be unsurprised with the themes that Left-Handed Girl explores — the juxtaposition of an innocent (or at least idealistic) protagonist against the harshness of a low-income lifestyle. However, it is far from poverty porn, having a hopefulness that permeates the entire story. Of course, Tsou adds on the additional layer of the immigrant experience, something that was in Take Out but not in the rest of Baker’s work that he has directed solo since then.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Left-Handed Girl is that, despite dealing with these topics that are pretty heavy, it maintains an incredible feeling of warmth. This is because Tsou and Baker are firmly committed to capturing a feeling of childlike idealism — even when the youngest character is not involved in the action at any given moment. Because of this approach, watching Left-Handed Girl feels like a comforting warm hug.
(L-R) Janel Tsai as Shu-Fen, Nina Ye as I-Jing and Shih-Yuan Ma as I-Ann in Left-Handed Girl. Cr. LEFT-HANDED GIRL FILM PRODUCTION CO, LTD © 2025.
⛶
(L-R) Shih-Yuan Ma as I-Ann and Nina Ye as I-Jing in Left-Handed Girl. Cr. LEFT-HANDED GIRL FILM PRODUCTION CO, LTD © 2025.
⛶
(L-R) Nina Ye as I-Jing and Shih-Yuan Ma as I-Ann in Left-Handed Girl. Cr. LEFT-HANDED GIRL FILM PRODUCTION CO, LTD © 2025.
⛶
⛶
×
(L-R) Janel Tsai as Shu-Fen, Nina Ye as I-Jing and Shih-Yuan Ma as I-Ann in Left-Handed Girl. Cr. LEFT-HANDED GIRL FILM PRODUCTION CO, LTD © 2025.
(L-R) Shih-Yuan Ma as I-Ann and Nina Ye as I-Jing in Left-Handed Girl. Cr. LEFT-HANDED GIRL FILM PRODUCTION CO, LTD © 2025.
(L-R) Nina Ye as I-Jing and Shih-Yuan Ma as I-Ann in Left-Handed Girl. Cr. LEFT-HANDED GIRL FILM PRODUCTION CO, LTD © 2025.
Like Baker, Tsou clearly has a gift for identifying gifted performers who are begging for a breakout role. In this case, it is young actress Nina Ye who delivers one of the most effortlessly lovable child performances in recent memory. Although it isn’t her first work, it is likely the first time that Western audiences will encounter her, and she’s so good that she ought to have an auspicious future ahead of her. She is surrounded by a solid supporting cast, but no one makes as much of an impression as Ye.
Add Fandomwire as a Trusted Source
That being said, the biggest shortcoming of the film is that the character development feels very unbalanced. Although it feels like Tsou is attempting to do a generational thing here, showing the three central characters at different stages of their lives, Nina Ye is such a scene-stealer that it starts to feel like the movie is all about her. It’s hard not to compare the film to Baker’s The Florida Project (also produced by Tsou), especially in the moments that center on I-Jing.
Left-Handed Girl also shares many aspects of Baker’s style in a visual sense, starting with Ko-Chin Chen and Tzu-Hao Kao’s more modern version of the iPhone cinematography Baker used in Tangerine. That being said, even if its aesthetic isn’t particularly unique, it is effective, transporting the audience into the bustling market streets of Taiwan with its bright lights and loud noises.
Is Left-Handed Girl worth watching?
Indeed, even if Left-Handed Girl largely does live in the shadow of the past collaborations between Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker, it’s a delightful and well-made little movie. While one almost wishes that Tsou had been able to find more of an identity of her own in her solo directorial debut, it has an irresistible charm that will allow it to connect with audiences.
Left-Handed Girl is now in theaters and streams on Netflix beginning November 28.
Left-Handed Girl Review — Sean Baker’s Anora Follow-Up Is a Warm Hug of a Film
Although it does feel a bit too similar to Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker’s other collaborations, Left-Handed Girl is a charming, warm film that depicts its community with wonderful humanism.
