Why Sean Baker’s Taiwanese producer took 20 years to make her debut film Left-Handed Girl
Tsou Shih-ching’s directorial debut, a heartfelt Taiwanese drama, was born from a moment of childhood guilt when her grandfather scolded her
When director Tsou Shih-ching was a child in Taiwan, her grandfather scolded her for using her left hand, calling it “the devil’s hand”. She vividly remembers the “sense of guilt”, a feeling of “like I did something wrong” that stayed with her for decades.
That childhood memory has now become the seed for her solo directorial debut, Left-Handed Girl, a deeply personal film that has become one of the year’s most celebrated.
It tells the story of a mother (Janel Tsai) and her two daughters working at a night market noodle stall in Taipei. The film is experienced largely from the untainted, five-year-old perspective of the younger daughter, I-Jing (played by child star Nina Ye).
Tsou and Baker first met in an editing class at The New School in New York, where she was studying a master’s in media studies.