Shih-Christ tsou: “The idea of Left-Handed Girl dates back to my early childhood”
The director of this first long hectic long around a mother and her two Taiwanese daughters tells us about her long creation process, accompanied by Sean Baker, her creative accomplice over 20 years old
Left-Handed Girl Stages a mother who came back to live in Taipei with her two daughters to open a canteen in a night market, bending under the financial difficulties ready to swallow them at any time. What was the first click?
He goes back up unconsciously to childhood. To this day when, seeing me seize a knife with my left hand, my grandfather asked me to let go. Because for him the left hand, it was the hand of the devil. I was ashamed as if I had done something wrong without knowing it. I was in kindergarten at the time but this memory never let go of me. So much so that when I met Sean Baker in the mounting section of the New School of Greenwich Village, I told him about it and he immediately told me that it could be an interesting idea of film. So I went to Taiwan in 2001 to do research on stories to tell to feed a scenario. A trip that was really very inspiring. At the time, Sean had just made his first film Word Letter oven. But we immediately understood that we did not have enough experience to get into this project. And our first feature film co-signed together was therefore Take Outin 2004, in the much more modest budget of $ 3,000 in a cinema-truth approach. The reception received by the film at Festivals pushed us, with this experience, to rework on Left-Handed Girl.
How?
In 2010, we therefore left for a month to Taiwan to finalize the first draft of the scenario. To accompany me in this writing, I needed him to experience this life in Taiwan that he did not know. We notably went to make locations in different night markets to find the one where we were shooting the film. And it was in this one that we finally chose that we met a 5-year-old girl, the age of my heroine! So we followed her, met his mother. It was like a sign! And we have finalized this first version, including the end, the family explanation dinner, is directly inspired by Secrets and lies from Mike Leigh.
Left-Handed Girl: a cry of rage and liberating revolt (critic)
We are then in the early 2010s. Why did the film take so long to see the light of day?
Because, despite all our efforts, we failed to find funding! I then produced and made the artistic direction of Tangerine,, The Florida Project And Red Rocket that the pact distributed in France. And it is at the time of the release of Red Rocket That we have shown our script to Jean Labadie and his teams who immediately hung and made possible its funding that I was able to supplement in particular with the aid to Taiwan of the Cinematic Fund of the Ministry of Culture and the International Production Fund of Taiwan Taipei Film Commission.
What is crazy is that you have never given up!
But also that Left-Handed Girl could have seen the light of day after Sean won the palm and the Oscar with Anora ! It’s like a loop that loops! Thanks to his work on assembly, which he carried out during his campaign of the Oscars as soon as he had a break, he really brought the film to a higher level and allowed to be long lived and even more than expected in the scenario in the eyes of this little girl.
You called on two different photo directors. Why this choice?
I first chose Ko-Chin Chen when he had only worked on a single film. But the time that production really sets out, he had gained experience, received awards. And it was he who suggested the name Detzu-Hua Ko because they have always been working together. It was exciting to see them at work on the set. They don’t need to talk to each other to understand each other. They complement each other perfectly.
How did you find Shi-Yuan Ma, the incredible performer of this little girl through the eyes of which we live this film?
I am obviously first on the wild cast, in the street and via social networks. I had to watch a hundred different videos before the agent of an actor I know tell me about Shi-Yuan Ma and recommend it to me. She was then 6 years old but had been running for 3 years for advertisements. She had therefore already acquired some experience. I immediately saw that she was comfortable in front of the camera, without losing anything from her naturalness. Her mother was her coach and she really amaze me with her concentration capacity and everything she brought to this role.
What hit you the most during the welcome from the film at the Critique Week in Cannes?
The reaction of the room. And this feeling that this story designed basically as very local, very Taiwanese can reach an audience from around the world. It was incredible to live!
Left-Handed Girl. Of Shih-Christ tsou. With Janel Tsai, Nina Ye, Shi-yuan Ma… Duration 1h48. Released September 17, 2025
