Shih-Yuan Ma

Anchored by the extraordinarily expressive, angel faced Nina Ye as the 5-year old title character I-Jing, the film follows a mother Shu-Fen and two daughters, college age I-Ann, and sweet but feisty I-Jing back to Taipei. As Shu-Fen sets up a noodle shop in the city’s bustling, night market, I-Ann and I-Jing also struggle to find their footing in their new surroundings. The film weaves the stories of several generations, there’s Shu-Fen’s mother who favors an absent brother over her dutiful daughters; her father, whose superstitions cause I-Jing to think of her dominant left hand as “the devil’s hand”; and I-Ann’s inner turmoil over her past, revelations that come to a head late in the film.

Left-Handed Girl is a feminist coming of age drama, a directorial debut from NY-based Taiwanese independent filmmaker Shi-Ching Tsou, a longtime collaborator with Sean Baker, who co-scripted and produced her first feature. The story centers on eight year old I-Jing (played by the utterly enchanting Nina Ye), the titular left-handed girl, who strives to be honest and good, but also believes, according to the traditional superstition that’s been drummed into her by her aged and old fashioned grandfather, that her left hand belongs to the devil and that it makes her do bad things — like compulsively shoplifting.