Now on Netflix, Left-Handed Girl is a quietly observed Taiwanese family drama that captures the rhythms of everyday life within a working-class household in Taipei. Moving between domestic spaces and public streets, the film follows three generations of women as they navigate labor, identity, and emotional distance. Its hyper-realism, restrained direction, naturalistic performances, and attention to routine draw viewers into a world shaped by economic pressure and unspoken care. Here is everything you need to know about Left-Handed Girl, from the plot and cast to why it stands out among recent releases.
Left-Handed Girl – All the key details
- Title: Left-Handed Girl
- Format: Movie
- Length: 109 minutes
- Genre: Taiwanese family drama
- Release date: Premiered May 15, 2025 (Cannes Critics’ Week); Netflix streaming November 28, 2025
- Director: Shih-Ching Tsou
- Lead cast: Janel Tsai, Shih-Yuan Ma, Nina Ye, Brando Huang, Akio Chen, Xin-Yan Chao
- Produced by: Shih-Ching Tsou, Sean Baker, Mike Goodridge
- Where to watch: Netflix (Nov 28, 2025)
Left-Handed Girl review
Shot entirely on iPhone, Shih-Ching Tsou, working alongside her husband Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Anora), delivers a quietly assured film whose intimacy feels inseparable from its form. Left-Handed Girl unfolds as a tender slice-of-life portrait, inviting viewers to move through the textures and muted colors of everyday existence within a working-class family in Taipei, Taiwan.
With its gentle narrative rhythm, the film draws us into the intersecting lives of each family member, observing them in moments of labor, exhaustion, and fragile connection. Tsou presents her characters without judgment or simplification, allowing their emotional complexity to emerge through their tumultuous lifestyle. Each is struggling in their own way, contending with personal demons and the unrelenting pressures of making a living, yet bound together by shared space, family and quiet care.
Whether the focus rests on Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai), a mother working late nights preparing noodles at a bustling market, or I-Ann (Shih‑Yuan Ma), a beautiful restless teenager searching for identity in a harsh world that judges and wounds her with little mercy, or even the family’s youngest child, I-Jing (Nina Ye) encountering the world for the first time, learning how life is a consequence of choices between what is right and wrong, the film creates an intimate sense of belonging. The viewer is not positioned as an observer from a distance, but as a quiet presence within the household, rooting for each member to endure, to grow, and to find their peace and joy.
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It is I-Jing, however, who gives Left-Handed Girl its defining sweetness and charm. As the camera follows her with endearing close ups moving through the crowded streets of Taipei with curiosity and trust, the film adopts her innocent perspective, revealing how easily adults lie, dismiss, or overlook her voice. Her fresh perspective and struggle to be heard become one of the film’s most quietly poignant observations, exposing the gap between adult painful turmoil and descent into chaos and childhood truth.
The film doesn’t end traditionally, giving a realistic depiction of how life unravels, day by day, where tomorrow is simply the place where everyone ultimately has to deal with their choices and go on growing and finding love, wherever it may lay. Ultimately, Left-Handed Girl resists spectacle and narrative shock. It is a film of simplicity and deep humanity, where love and truth emerge not as grand revelations, but as the subtle threads that each character discovers hold everything together.
The movie stands out as a gem among the countless 2025 releases, a film that draws us in through its quiet intricacy and leaves a lasting impression. It takes us on a journey that lingers within us, prompting reflection on what it means to love and survive in a harsh world, where we can so easily become lost in our own turmoil and overlook the hearts and souls closest to us while struggling to make ends meet, define ourselves, and find meaning in a chaotic reality that often makes us forget to honor and enjoy the present.
Watch Left-Handed Girl now on Netflix.
Here is a link to the trailer
