Left-Handed Girl (Chinese: 左撇子女孩) 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 Taiwanese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards, making the December shortlist.
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Plot
A single mother, Shu-Fen moves with her two daughters—innocent 5-year-old I-Jing and surly, university-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 (who abandoned the family a decade earlier) 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.
