Review

A Kaleidoscopic Portrait of Women in Taiwan

“Left-Handed Girl,” Taiwan’s Oscar hopeful, offers a multifaceted view of women learning to live beyond shame. December 5, 2025, 2:30 PM

A young girl is flanked by two women, all with serious faces.

In the opening scene of Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl , 5-year-old I-Jing lifts a kaleidoscope to her eye. The car’s interior, the highway rushing by, and the shimmer of Taipei on the horizon become refracted with her mother and sister in gold, blue, and green. From the outset to its closing scene, the film—which is Taiwan’s submission for the 2026 Academy Awards and is now streaming on Netflix—invites us to consider what is passed down, warped, and shared across three generations of Taiwanese women.

There is Shu-Fen, who has moved

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