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‘Left-Handed Girl’ Review: Sean Baker Collaborator Shih-Ching Tsou’s Solo Debut Pulses Like Taipei After Dark
Mothers and daughters keep secrets in a family drama with the visual verve of a madcap comedy, co-written, produced and edited by Sean Baker.
The dramatic wheels are set in motion early, with Shu-Fen, always pressed for money, further strapped by her decision to pay for her estranged ex-husband’s funeral, while attracting the amorous attentions of the good-natured doofus who runs the neighboring knick-knack stand. Expressing little interest or faith in the noodle shop’s future, I-Ann gets a job as a “betel nut beauty” (a specifically Taiwanese phenomenon whereby pretty girls dress sexily to hawk the mild stimulant from garishly lit booths around the city). It is only a slightly contrived late scene that skews a little soapy, when a drunken showdown, a pregnancy scare and the simmering sexism of Taiwanese society all abruptly boil over into resentful revelation during one big fiesta of socially embarrassing bust-ups.
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