Left-Handed Girl (Zuopiezi nuhai)

 

Director Shih-Ching Tsou

director on the set

lead cast

Sean Baker with Shih-Ching Tsou

Left-Handed Girl (Zuopiezi nuhai)                B                                                                   Taiwan  France  Great Britain  USA  (109 mi)  2025  ‘Scope  d: Shih-Ching Tsou 

Taipei-born, New York–based writer, director, and producer Shih-Ching Tsou received a Master’s in Media Studies at Manhattan’s The New School, where she met American director Sean Baker, who was studying non-linear editing, and has worked with him the past two decades, developing a shared interest in social realist films that were “true to life,” co-directing TAKE-OUT (2004) about an undocumented Chinese food delivery worker in New York City before producing Baker’s films Starlet (2012), TANGERINE (2015), The Florida Project (2017), and RED ROCKET (2021).  Premiering at Critics’ Week at Cannes, this is her first feature film, made on a miniscule budget, co-written by Tsou and Baker, who edits and co-produces, bearing many of their shared characteristics, like an intimate portrait of identity, resilience, and creative awakening, with a commitment to portraying underrepresented communities with honesty and empathy.  A single mother Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai, a model turned into a popular TV actress) with her two daughters, moody, teenaged I-Anne (Ma Shih-Yuan, discovered on Instagram), who yearns for her own emancipation, a symbol of youthful revolt on her everpresent motor scooter (echoes of Hou Hsiao-hsien), and impressionable, astonishingly natural 5-year-old I-Jing (Nina Ye), return to Taipei after several years of living in the countryside to open a noodle stand at a bustling night market.  With sizzling food stalls and crowded alleyways, the kaleidoscopic portrait and the chaos they encounter are part of the vibrant energy in the film, reverberating with the sounds of Ouch Potato YouTube (2:14) by Bleeding Fingers in the opening, mirroring the emotional urgency of the characters, where it is their spirit that guides this film.  Living in a cramped apartment above the food court that is much smaller than they realized, each in their own way will have to adapt to this new environment to make ends meet and succeed in maintaining the family unity, but three generations of family secrets begin to unravel after the youngest daughter who’s left-handed, is told by her traditional grandfather to never use her "devil hand,” which in many parts of Asia is considered a big taboo, exposing one to thousands of years of discrimination and stigma, confirmed by surveys of Chinese students since the 1980’s which report that less than 1% are left-handed (Two-Thirds of the World Still Hates Lefties).  Stripped down to a crew of five or six people, the film was shot mostly in the Tonghua Night Market, beautifully capturing the luminescence of the neon colors, shot entirely on an iPhone 13 Pro Max by cinematographer Ko-Chin Chen, assisted by his partner Tzu-Hao Kao, allowing them to move with extreme agility and discretion inside the night markets of Taipei, situations where a traditional crew with bulky cameras would have inevitably attracted attention and compromised the spontaneity of the scenes.  By working with such a common and non-invasive tool, the director managed to adopt an almost documentary-like approach.  

The standout achievement is among the better acting performances of the year, and it’s by a precocious, YI YI-like young girl (Yi Yi: A One and a Two..., 2000), I-Jing (Nina Ye, doing commercials since the age of three), who by the way introduces the film on video in the theatrical version seen and right away melts our hearts with her endearing personality, completely taking us by surprise with her unusual charm and wit, showing unusual maturity and resolve, not to mention inner drive, where she’s easily the best thing in this picture, capturing subtle emotional textures rarely seen in child acting.  Top student turned school dropout I-Anne dresses provocatively and earns money on her own selling betel nuts, a natural stimulant, and cigarettes from another neon-lit night stand nearby, often to bikers looking for a buzz, where she’s having a listless sexual affair with the married owner, A-Ming (Hsia Teng-hung), while I-Jing is free to roam the premises, expressing a carefree freedom as she has her run of the place, with no one to really look after her.  The set-up is familiar, on the same wavelength as Hirokazu Koreeda’s socially conscious film Shoplifters (Manbiki kazoku) (2018), as the protagonists come from a marginalized background, burdened by financial restrain and societal pressures, including issues related to migration, portraying present-day Taipei as a male-centric place where men are still much better off than women, who still suffer under prevailing patriarchal attitudes that typically downplay the needs and interests of women.  Full of layered conflicts and multigenerational tensions common in Asian families, what distinguishes this film is the portrayal of an adult world, yet mostly told from the perspective of the children, seeing the world with a fresh set of eyes, while delving into the existential question of what shapes a Chinese woman.  Each of the three protagonists faces their own emotionally charged struggles, yet prevailing themes include economic hardship, family miscommunication, and cultural tradition which are interwoven into the narrative, jumping around through the perspectives, using a stripped-back approach, prioritizing immediacy, realism, and emotional authenticity.  We follow I-Jing’s inner turmoil stemming from her grandfather’s rejection of her left-handedness, resulting in a secret shoplifting spree, stealing trinkets from the night market where she freely roams, where her hand is to blame, with the camera capturing her eye level as she wanders through the shops, or Shu-Fen shouldering the burden of overwhelming financial pressure, made even worse when she assumes the debt of her late husband’s funeral and medical bills, while the headstrong I-Anne is more than a troubled teen, rebellious and disillusioned, a prisoner of her own mistakes, carrying a deeply internalized psychological burden that is not revealed until late into the picture.  With families caught between tradition and change, what adds to the social pressure is the intrusion of scathing judgments and negative opinions from the extended family, which have a way of seeping into the mindsets of these women, who have a hard time living up to their expectations.

Tsou initially wanted to make this film twenty years ago, but felt there were too many characters, too many locations, and they lacked the resources, so they settled on making TAKE-OUT, revisiting the project several times afterwards, but funding was always the problem, until she met with representatives from the French production team at Le Pacte.  “As admirers of Hou Hsiao-hsien, they wanted to see more Taiwanese films on their screens.”  The story is very personal, coming from within the filmmaker’s own family, as the director is herself left-handed, corrected by her grandfather during a time when everybody was expected to use their right hand, yet she was also drawn to the unseen tension within traditional families, where daughters are still viewed as subordinate to sons, as male descendants inherit the family property, while women, on the other hand, inherit most of the debts, revealing how fear of judgment or outright rejection from society can led to secrets being buried for decades.  Even for Shu-Fen’s mother Xue-Mei (Xin-Yan Chao), it is about funding the business of her only son while also transferring her ancestral property to him, and in turn paying no attention to her daughters who actually need the money for survival.  By exploring the push and pull between tradition and individuality, what seems ordinary on the surface leads to unexpected twists that have a profound effect, resonating deeply in unexpected ways.  Beyond a family story, this is essentially a film about a culture of secrecy among women, across generations, where each character is hiding something, as in Chinese culture it’s important to save face, or put on your best front, where you have to conceal ugly things that you’re ashamed of.  By preserving everyone’s perspective, Tsou adds clear insight into navigating their individual worlds, where each in their own way, they’re just trying to survive, yet beneath a placid surface is unseen emotional turmoil filled with silence, repression, and unspoken pain.  In Taiwanese society, men are typically the heads of families, but in reality, it’s often the women behind the scenes, like Shu-Fen, who are the driving force, as they carry the emotional weight and quietly guide the direction of the family, as they are the glue that holds everything together.  Children are groomed for success, a reality every parent envisions, so Shu-Fen’s precarious position of falling behind in her rent doesn’t begin to describe the difficulty of having to ask her parents for money, a reality so many Asian kids struggle with, as they don’t wish to disappoint them.  Spending time in Taipei’s night markets, developing friendly relationships, Tsou followed the natural patterns and rhythms, and even based the character of I-Jing on a real little girl she met there.  What’s also essential are the inclusion of small little details that are uniquely Taiwanese, like the sounds of slot machines, or the different types of music overlapping, because each stall has its own, and even a garbage truck jingle playing classical music, creating a sensory, colorful universe, though the story shifts to a darker, more melancholy tone filled with a quiet sadness.  In Taiwan, especially for women, there are many unspoken rules about how to behave and what paths are acceptable, yet in the end, three generations finally confront one another in a wildly over-the-top spectacle that veers into the chaos of Thomas Vinterberg’s THE CELEBRATION (1998), with the truth literally exploding before our eyes.

Anora

 

Writer/director Sean Baker

The director on the set

actress Mikey Madison

actors Yura Borisov and Mark Eidelstein

ANORA            C+                                                                                                                       USA  (139 mi)  2024 ‘Scope  d: Sean Baker

Today this could be                                                                                                                      The greatest day of our lives                                                                                                   Before it all ends                                                                                                                        Before we run out of time                                                                                                               Stay close to me                                                                                                                      Watch the world come alive tonight…

—released in 2008, Take That - Greatest Day (Single) YouTube (3:56)

A film about the putrid stench of toxic male patriarchy in both America and Russia, the two superpowers dominating the global landscape, told through an unlikely subject, a young female exotic dancer who thinks she’s hit the jackpot, the realization of all her dreams, only for that dream to be ruthlessly snatched away from her, like ripping her heart out.  In the 1950’s, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall all used their external charms to lure a rich husband in Howard Hawks’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) or Jean Negulesco’s HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE (1953), an era when it was common for men to support women through marriage, a concept this film subverts, yet respectfully pays homage to at the same time, where the dream is the same.  Reminiscent of the works of Ernst Lubitsch or Billy Wilder, it’s told in a screwball comic manner with rapid-fire pacing and streams of profanity-laced dialogue, a horribly ugly and grotesque display of raw, unfettered power and how easily power corrupts, with a sweeping landscape of Brighton Beach, also known as “Little Odessa” due its tight-knit Russian and Eastern European communities, where this delves into moneyed pockets of Russian culture, as seen through American eyes.  What sets this apart is the lack of any identifiable characters, where it’s hard to empathize with people you don’t really care about, and this is a lengthy odyssey into narcissistic people who don’t really give a shit about anyone else but themselves, becoming a hedonistic journey into a false paradise, as epitomized by Sin City, Las Vegas, and then having to deal with the wretched consequences that literally becomes a hell on earth.  From the maker of Starlet (2012) and The Florida Project (2017), Baker’s characters believe in an illusory American Dream that has abandoned them a long time ago, exposing the underside of that façade, where failure and social upheaval are intrinsically linked to his working class aesthetic, creating films free of any superficialities that accentuate those on the lower rung of the economic ladder, providing insights into the lives of people who live on the edge of urban spaces, addressing issues of social injustice, poverty, and the consequences of economic instability without romanticizing or condemning his figures, continually finding new ways to get audiences to empathize with people they may otherwise disregard.  All the hype surrounding this film, coming after winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes (where he dedicated the award to “all sex workers, past, present, and future”), with a jury led by Greta Gerwig, tends to send all the wrong messages, as this is an obnoxious expression of unprecedented arrogance on display, where the bullying behavior is simply abominable, which is tragic enough, yet ugliness and an unending sadness permeates through every frame of this film, though it’s couched in wild exhibitionist humor, where the grotesque, Ruben Östlund-like satiric exaggeration seems to be an accelerant, like starting a fire you can’t put out.  For those who seem to think this audacious screamfest is among the best films of the year, and there are many, it only makes you wonder what kind of abusive crap they’re used to seeing, where theaters are just filled with nearly unwatchable movies these days, spewed with incessant violence that is massively inflicted upon viewers, becoming a new desensitized normal in today’s society.       

Opening with a five-minute sequence set in a New York strip club with a remix of the British boy band Take That from the 90’s blaring on the soundtrack, Take That ft. Calum Scott - Greatest Day (Robin Schulz ... YouTube (2:43), offering a sarcastically sunny and hopeful vibe, as Ani (Mikey Madison) works the room, flirting with guests and leading them to the VIP area at the back to perform private lap dances, moments filled with gratuitous sex, nudity, and other party activities.  Basically this boils down to a long hip hop music video filled with drugs, booze, flashy cars, and naked women, shot by Drew Daniels on 35mm, accentuating bright neon colors, like something we’ve already seen in Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), a fast track lifestyle that has an instantaneous appeal, but quickly wears out, attracting a wealthy segment of society that drops $100 dollar bills like there’s no tomorrow.  In the private rooms, Ani holds all the power, no matter how affluent the customer is, though the moment she leaves the club, the power dynamic flips on its head and the status quo is restored.  You’d think the powerhouse, once-in-a-lifetime performance by unheralded actress Mikey Madison, who had a bit part before being unceremoniously killed off in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019), might be the saving grace of this film, from the conspicuous Brooklyn accent, a variation of Marisa Tomei in MY COUSIN VINNY (1992), to uncontrolled outbursts of rage, to completely vulnerable moments, where real intimacy is perhaps too painful for her, which may be why she has chosen a profession that allows her to safely keep her distance.  The actress learned to speak Russian and literally spent months visiting Brighton Beach sex clubs while preparing for this role, while also drawing upon Andrea Werhun’s book Modern Whore: A Memoir, a collection of original stories inspired by the author’s adventures in the sex industry, but it’s not nearly enough, as it’s clear from the start that everything is a mirage, that it’s all a lie, so it’s really no secret where this film is heading, taking us into a dumpsterfire where there is no escape, as you’re going to get burned.  Seemingly cut from the same cloth as the Safdie brothers Good Time (2017) or Uncut Gems (2019), dysfunctional family crime dramas with a frenetic pace to them, and while it’s an exhilarating ride, it lacks their sense of joyous adventure, existing in a place where the boundaries between delusion and reality seem to be blurred, leaving you emotionally drained and empty afterwards, sorry you ever treaded into this territory.  There are no subtleties and no time for tenderness, instead it’s a brash expression of unending selfishness, where the horror isn’t sexual violence, or even the dread of danger lurking in the dark, it’s the baffling naïveté of immaturity that holds such a central position, like a weight over everyone’s heads.  As if awakened from a fever dream of spending one’s last night on earth before it explodes, this is a story where everything you once knew is gone in an instant, leaving you wandering the ends of the universe alone, stuck in a purgatory of what might have been, where it’s not only bitter, but bittersweet.  This is not the prettified, sugar-sweet fairy tale of Julia Roberts in Garry Marshall’s PRETTY WOMAN (1990), as there’s nothing funny about the gutless moral vacuousness and sweeping social vilification that is the heart of this film, where there is such an obsessional yearning for prosperity, with all the safety and comfort that brings, yet the raw, explosive style of uninhibited energy on display hides the inevitable reality that awaits us in this nihilistic tragicomedy, taking us down a road to nowhere where all that’s left is unending bleakness and emotional despair.  

Ani is a brashly confident, fiercely independent Russian-speaking stripper who is often sent to entertain high-rolling Russian clientele, which is where she meets Vanya (Mark Eidelstein), an impetuous son of a Russian oligarch billionaire, quickly getting caught up in a whirlwind affair, Feeling the Chemistry in New ANORA Clip with Mikey ... YouTube (4:27), where the kid is a party animal that surrounds himself with beautiful girls, vaping drugs, and nonstop alcohol, living in abundance without ever taking responsibility, yet when she’s invited to a private appointment at his opulent home, a full-windowed waterfront mansion with maid service and private security, she can’t help but be impressed, ANORA (2024) Clip | Sean Baker, Mikey Madison YouTube (54 seconds), thinking this is a window into a whole new world.  When he pays her $15,000 to be his exclusive girlfriend for a week, they run off to Las Vegas where they actually get married, as she’s infatuated by the luxuriousness of his accommodations and his flashy lifestyle, Anora | Clip | NYFF62 YouTube (1:14), believing that’s her ticket out of the cheap and sordid lifestyle she’s been living.  When word in Russia gets out through social media that he’s gotten married, his parents send in the cavalry to intervene, with a bunch of Armenian goons quickly putting the kibosh on these shenanigans, blowing a hole in their fantasy world, suddenly forced to deal with unpleasant people who take offense by her presence, immediately assuming she’s contaminated his life, viewed simply as a scheming whore that must immediately be sent packing and the marriage annulled.  It’s a startling shift in tone, leading to a stream of organized chaos, a mix of calamity and catastrophe, utilizing slapstick comedy that borders on the ridiculous, yet the cruel and demeaning treatment of Ani is a given, as she’s simply viewed as a completely disposable nobody, dealing with her in the same manner as all their other problems, where they agree to pay her off to go away.  But she doesn’t do so willingly, becoming a huge pain in the ass for this family, hell-bent on fire and fury, so when Vanya bails on her and runs away at the first sign of trouble, she’s forced to deal with them all on her own, and while she puts up a struggle of epic proportions, displaying a surprising tenacity, she is steamrolled by the power they command, as highly influential people are on their payroll, while Ani has no one.  Basically treated like shit, she’s eventually forced to capitulate to the inevitable reality that she can’t win this battle of class privilege, as the moneyed interests are just too much, though there are absurd interactions, continuous screaming, and somewhat exaggerated fights, where the real movie is that viewers can see her in a way no one else does, as she’s unequivocally human, literally stripped of her humanity, yet the overall framework of the film is a zany fast-talking comedy until it slows down for a quietly memorable final sequence blanketed under a fresh coat of snow.  The film takes its cue from Fellini’s NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1957), where a sex worker and hopeless romantic keeps picking the worst kind of men to get attached to, pouring her hopes and dreams into a guy, only to come to the slow realization that he’s a pathetic disappointment.  The unending bleakness of this film is unmistakable, despite the roller coaster ride of ever-shifting emotions, feeling one-dimensional, however, as it’s not particularly innovative and is actually quite predictable over a lengthy running time, never probing beneath the surface or wavering from the central theme that an incessantly exploited Ani is left lost and alone.