Shih-Ching Tsou’s Taiwanese drama Left-Handed Girl is an emotionally provoking and visually alluring story of a family of three desperately trying to stay afloat in the bustling city of Taipei. The film mostly unfolds from I-Jing’s perspective; the little girl’s curiosity about the ‘adult world’ and her overall delight at the sight of everyday nothingness is a breath of fresh air. The one thing that I-Jing figured out soon after they moved to Taipei was that her mother was struggling to make ends meet. Their financial condition had become a part of their everyday conversation, and as a little girl, she didn’t know how to make things better. In one such instance, she’d ordered her elder sister, I-Ann, to get back to work because she’d figured they wouldn’t manage without her contribution. Their mother, Shu-Fen, was mostly exhausted and overwhelmed. She’d moved to Taipei for a fresh start, yet the past continued to haunt her.
Spoiler Alert
What does the title of the film suggest?
I-Jing never thought there was anything strange about using her left hand for everyday activities, but that was before she met her grandpa. He repeatedly told her that the left hand was ‘the devil’s hand,’ and therefore she must refrain from using it. I-Jing’s mother and sister protested every time he cursed I-Jing for being left-handed, so he chose to stay tight-lipped around them, but whenever he was alone with his granddaughter, he would insist she use her right hand. I-Jing had only recently met her grandparents. She had seen them years ago when she was a toddler, so naturally she didn’t have any recollection of them. She didn’t like spending time at their place because they were old, and she hated her grandpa’s body odor. But she didn’t really have a choice—her mother was busy catering to her customers at the noodle stall she’d recently rented, and her sister worked at a betel nut shop. In Taiwan, ‘betel nut beauties’ is a phenomenon that started in the 1960s; in a fairly conservative society, women dressed in skimpy attire selling betel nuts wasn’t really considered appropriate, but at the same time, the provocativeness helped with the sales. I-Ann was a betel nut beauty, and she didn’t mind what her job entailed as long as she was paid enough to afford a living in Taipei.
After spending time with her grandpa, I-Jing seriously started to consider her left hand the devil’s hand, and she convinced herself that whatever she did with it was the work of the devil and she didn’t have any control over it. She soon started to use the superstition as an excuse to steal whatever she found attractive at the night market, and at the end of the day, she kept her conscience clear by reminding herself that it was the devil who stole the goods. I-Jing didn’t understand the nuances of the conversations between adults that she often overheard, but she knew that her mother was struggling financially, and therefore she couldn’t afford to buy whatever I-Jing demanded. So, the devil’s hand was the perfect excuse to get the things that she wanted without having to get her mother involved. As an Indian, the left-hand superstition felt close to home, where using one’s left hand for transactions is also considered disrespectful, and it makes complete sense how such superstitions can be confusing to children. One morning, I-Jing threw a ball towards the balcony using her left hand, and her pet meerkat ended up falling off the balcony and was squashed to death. I-Jing blamed the devil for it, and she started to despise her left hand. She considered chopping it off, but she couldn’t do it, so she ended up tying her left hand with a cloth.
What lesson did I-Jing learn?
Shu-Fen’s husband had abandoned her and I-Ann, but when she received a call from a hospital stating that he’d been admitted and that his condition was critical, she couldn’t stop herself from paying him a visit. He didn’t have any family, and although the man had destroyed her life, Shu-Fen couldn’t turn her back on him. I-Ann didn’t approve of her mother’s decision, but Shu-Fen didn’t care. I-Ann reminded her mother that they deserved whatever money he’d earned, and she expected her to ensure that they got their share, but unfortunately the man had left Shu-Fen with a huge debt to cover. She had to pay his hospital bills and eventually cover the cost of his funeral as well, and she was in debt all over again. Shu-Fen perhaps hated herself for not being able to cut ties with the man who’d wronged her. But then again, she also believed he had done some good for her family, and he deserved at least a funeral. She knew this was a huge financial burden, but she simply couldn’t walk out of it.
Shu-Fen couldn’t afford the rent of her food stall, so she ended up asking her mother for help. The city turned every individual into a hustler, from young adults working at betel nut stores for some extra money to Shu-Fen’s mother getting involved in an illegal immigration racket (her job was to accompany clients from Taiwan to the United States) to afford expensive vitamins to keep her youthful glow. Although she didn’t admit to her daughters what she was up to, it was almost an open secret, and yet no one seemed too bothered about the risk she was willing to take for extra cash. But she wasn’t ready to help Shu-Fen because she believed that as a married daughter she wasn’t her responsibility anymore. I-Jing was a witness to the argument, and she realized that perhaps whatever was in the envelope on the table could make her mother’s life a little easier. So, she decided to remove the cloth she’d tied to her left hand and decided to use the devil’s hand to commit the crime. Later, she tried to sell the contents in the envelope at a pawn shop, and when the shopkeeper saw the passports in it, he decided to contact her family and let them know what she was up to. I-Ann stopped by the pawn shop to bring home I-Jing, and that was when she discovered the devil hand theory that her sister was so convinced of. She later instructed her grandpa to tell I-Jing that whatever he’d told her wasn’t the truth. I-Ann reminded her baby sister that the decisions she’d made so far were all on her, and she couldn’t just blame the mistakes she made on the devil. I-Ann made I-Jing return every item she’d stolen from the night market, and the little girl realized that a heartfelt apology could go a long way. Meanwhile, I-Jing’s grandma was glad that she’d stolen the envelope, because the very next day, the cops had shown up at her place, and they couldn’t find any evidence of her involvement with the racket. At first, she thought it was God who’d shown her mercy, but when she learned the truth, she was forever indebted to I-Jing. So, after the miracle, she finally decided to cover Shu-Fen’s three months’ rent. Unknowingly, and with only pure intentions guiding her actions, I-Jing had immensely helped her mother and also her grandma. Her left hand saved the day for them!
Who was I-Jing’s mother?
I-Ann had been having an affair with A-Ming, the betel nut store owner. He’d told her he was divorced, but when his wife showed up at the store accusing I-Ann of enticing her husband, she realized he’d lied to her. I-Ann had recently discovered that she was pregnant, and she chose to break the news to them before walking out of the store. She figured she wasn’t ready to bring the child into the world, so she opted for an abortion. And although it was an agonizing experience, she didn’t really have anyone she could share her troubles with. Her mother was too caught up with her own problems, and her sister was too young to understand what she was going through. I-Ann used to be a straight-A student, but she couldn’t afford a higher education. She watched her peers enjoy their university life, and she knew that they looked down upon her for the choices she had made. She was objectified and offered cash for sexual favors just because they knew she was desperately trying to make ends meet. She sobbed silently; her struggles were solely her own, and crying late at night in her room when no one was watching her was her only respite.
The family got dressed up in their best clothes to celebrate Shu-Fen’s mother’s birthday. Shu-Fen brought along Johnny, the guy who had a stall right next to hers in the night market. He was perhaps the only one who’d shown her some kindness after she moved to Taipei. Their relationship was still new, and Johnny felt extremely grateful that Shu-Fen had decided to bring him along to a family event. Shu-Fen’s family wasn’t impressed by her choice, but of course, this wasn’t the first time she was made to feel that way. Although it was her daughters who’d planned the event, the first person Shu-Fen’s mother thanked was her son, simply for existing. Later, we also discovered that she had funded her son’s new business venture. This is a very typical Asian gender bias, which is further emphasized when A-Ming and his wife showed up at the party unannounced. After they’d learned about I-Ann’s pregnancy, they had decided they would adopt the child only if it was a boy. They were furious when I-Ann announced she’d undergone an abortion. The entire confrontation took place at the party, and it soon took a very physical turn. Johnny managed to convince A-Ming to walk out of the venue, and before leaving, A-Ming left Johnny some cash and asked him to pass it on to I-Ann. Shu-Fen was embarrassed; she had no idea what was going on. She was already looked down upon by her family for her financial condition, and she believed there was no way she could ever recover from the public humiliation that I-Ann had brought upon her. Later that night, after I-Ann had one too many drinks, she went on stage with I-Jing and announced that they would sing a song for their grandma.
In Left-Handed Girl’s ending, I-Ann insisted I-Jing refer to her grandma as ‘great-grandma.’ At first everyone assumed that it was a mistake, but I-Ann cleared the air by stating that she was I-Jing’s mother, and she was tired of lying to her daughter. This explains why I-Ann left school so suddenly and why they moved out of Taipei. Shu-Fen had begged I-Ann to never disclose that she was I-Jing’s mother, because she feared that the world would be unforgiving if they discovered that she’d had a child. Moreover, she would not stand a chance in the marriage market, and lying was the only way to ensure I-Ann’s life wasn’t negatively impacted. Shu-Fen tried to stop I-Ann, but she repeatedly told her audience that she was indeed I-Jing’s mother. She stated that all Shu-Fen cared about was saving ‘her own face,’ not realizing the emotional turmoil her daughter experienced. In Asian culture, ‘saving one’s face’ (or the opposite, ’losing one’s face’) refers to the losing of dignity in the eyes of society. Therefore, for every decision an individual makes, it’s expected that they would keep in mind the embarrassment their actions could bring upon their family. While Shu-Fen blamed her daughter for humiliating her, her mother accused Shu-Fen of making her lose face. It just goes to show how, generation after generation, daughters essentially carry the ‘dignity’ of a family, and if they fail to abide by societal expectations or make genuine mistakes, they are immediately seen as a disgrace to the family and to society. In contrast, her mother wasn’t embarrassed that her son was still completely dependent on her for establishing his business venture and the illegal path she had to take to fund his dreams.
What does the final scene suggest?
What comes after a storm? Usually a sunny day with a rainbow! Shu-Fen, I-Ann, and I-Jing went back to their lives as usual. I-Jing perhaps didn’t quite grasp what had unfolded the previous night; she was possibly scarred by the heated argument and the physical altercation. She continued to refer to I-Ann as her sister, and I-Ann chose not to correct her.
I-Ann had to get the burden off her chest, and she likely didn’t entirely regret her actions. But she realized that she needed to be more considerate of her mother, because her actions directly impacted her mother’s social standing. She perhaps felt sorry seeing her grandma blame her mother for her mistakes. It was a brand new day, and I-Ann figured that the only way to make things right was by helping her mother run her noodle stall. She and I-Jing assisted her mother in setting the tables while Johnny brought a colorful lamp to glam up the shop. Not that the family had gotten past what had transpired the previous night, but they knew that they couldn’t afford to just sit with their big emotions. They had to get back to work simply because life goes on, and make use of the little lessons they’d learned on the way (I-Jing learned that she was the only one in control of her actions, I-Ann realized that blaming her mother wouldn’t make things better, and Shu-Fen figured that along with carrying out her responsibilities, she also had to, at times, just listen to her daughter and all that she was going through). Even though they had to deal with their own personal hardships, at the end of the day, they’d realized that they could come together to process all of it as a family. The kaleidoscope that the film begins and ends with can be compared to the family and their experience in the city. They were broken individuals, struggling to find their path in the vast expanse of the city, yet their journeys formed stunning patterns, and the challenges they faced, in a way, shaped them as individuals (vastly different as individuals, yet when they came together, they formed a unique pattern).
