POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker, the incredible team behind works like The Florida Project and Tangerine, the universal nature of the Left-Handed Girl can be determined from the setting of the city of Taipei that may seem glittery and dreamy from the onset, while being harsh and demanding in its underbelly. In that regard, it remains similar to the city of Mumbai that does its bit in selling you a billion dreams, only for people to realise that the reality is far stranger than fiction. For Shu-Fen, it remains a financial crisis that makes her take upon a noodle cart on the streets on a whopping rent that she may or may not be able to afford, even while having to discontinue her elder daughter’s tryst with the university. And by doing so, even her younger daughter’s future remains in the dark.

The characterization in the drama remains a crucial selling point in determining the financial crisis of the state. Every character is undergoing a hustle – be it Shu-Fen with her Noodle cart, I-Ann, the rebellious teen who takes up an odd job at a betel nut store wherein she is forced to wear skimpy dresses to lure her customers while also sharing a steamy affair with her boss A-Ming (Hsia Teng Hung) for money. Even Shu-Fen’s mother Xue-Mei (Xin-Yan Chao) is involved in a loop of illegal immigration in exchange for a quick buck to survive. Hence when Shu-Fen asks her mother for some money, she frowns – even more when she learns of Shu-Fen chooses to fund the funeral of her ex-husband despite the lack of funds on her part. It is the dual life that Shu-Fen lives – one of poverty and the other of resilience, both of which remain her unsaid kids by her side.

There is a searing commentary on a gender-bias that forms an important cog in the narrative. For Xue-Mei – 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. Likewise, I-Ann is kept in the dark about her boss’ wife whom he claims he has divorced, whereas the reality is far different from his statement. And hence, her pregnancy also turns out to be an unceremonious event in her life, something that even A-Ming’s wife wishes to claim her inheritance on. For the little I-Jung though, it is about her grandpa claiming that her left-hand is that of a devil, a common archaic tradition to discourage people from writing with their left-hand – something that skews her morality.

Given the financial crisis, you see I-Jung snitching and shoplifting items that she likes on the pretext that the devil inside her makes her do it. It comes from a flawed psychological barrier of a child that is fed with varied thoughts of morality, so much so that the basic principles of right and wrong are blurred. Her part realisation kicks in only when her favourite pet gets killed off in an accident, something that prompts her to chop off her left hand, or cover it in a piece of cloth to avert any further disasters. Luckily, it is the matured head of I-Ann who identifies it and course corrects it, even as all other adults around her are either busy bickering or involved in their own financial hustles. Think of Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly (2014) and how the adults of that world were too busy consumed in their personal interests that after a point, no one really cared about the missing child.

The final act here can be perceived as melodramatic as well as twisted, given the revelations that transpire at a birthday party, or more specifically at a dinner table. It represents the emotional burden being carried around by all the characters, just to safeguard the interests of the family. Every character is dealing with their own issues that could easily be termed as a trauma being passed down to generations, in the wake of the economic crisis in the country. And add to that, the patriarchal setup doesn’t help their causes either. But there is something about women and how they perceive the world around them – the grace here is exhibited when the three protagonists choose to embrace the revelations and start afresh the next day, a symbol of hope that overshadows seeds of trust and despair. Afterall for Shu-Fen, I-Ann and I-Jung, it is about sticking together through thick and thin, just what family members do in times of a crisis.