LEFT-HANDED GIRL Review: Vibrant Slice of Taipei Night Market Life

"It feels like a magical place," says the little girl.

Left-Handed Girl
The film debuts Friday, November 28, only on Netflix.

The little girl is I-Jing (Nina Ye). She and teenage I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) have moved to Taipei with their single mother, Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai), who is opening a noodle shop in a bustling night market.

Directed by Shih-Ching Tsou, who wrote the script with longtime filmmaking partner Sean Baker, the film follows events largely from the perspective of the 5-year-old I-Jing, as she easily weaves through the incredibly busy night market, where she feels entirely comfortable. Not so comfortable is the tempestuous I-Ann, who helps her mother at the noodle shop when she's not working at another shop nearby, glaring and growling at everyone. Quickly overwhelmed by the demands of the noodle shop, Shu-Fen barely has time to mask her frequent frustration with the rebellious I-Ann and playful I-Jing, who share a tiny apartment where she collapses each night.

Inspired by her own experiences as she grew up in Taiwan, director Tsou captures the night market life in mesmerizing fashion, filled with merchants and customers and a constant buzz of activity, where no one slows down. Although it's her solo directorial debut, she co-directed Take Out with Baker back in 2004, and her experience as a producer of Baker's Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket is manifested in the merging of lively style and meaningful substance in Left-Handed Girl.

As inviting and pleasantly enthralling as it is, the vibrant night-market life soon gives way to the reality of what Shu-Fen, I-Ann, and I-Jing are facing. Young I-Jing is often told to sit quietly while the adults talk, but her eyes and ears are open to what they are saying. Even if she doesn't always comprehend what the words mean or what they imply, she can easily understand the tone of voice that the adults are using, as well as their facial expressions.

And what they convey is a family buckling under the pressures of everyday life: financial, social, cultural, and otherwise. Shu-Fen's mother and sisters are exhausted by her, for reasons not disclosed. Acutely motivated to do what she feels is the right thing, Shu-Fen is saving face at a considerable cost to her own self-worth.

It's harder to discern the restless I-Ann's motivations through much of the movie, but her anger and self-disgust are hard to shake. She's always moving, her slender limbs in constant motion. Something inside her is building, a furious ball of fury, and she might explode at any moment.

A cauldron of emotions, Left-Handed Girl unfolds like a boiling onion: hot to the touch, and potent in its flavor.

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