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Take Out co-director and The Florida Project producer Shih-Ching Tsou is no stranger to braiding together the magic and the misery of living in the world’s most popular tourist destinations. For her latest film, Left-Handed Girl, Tsou takes up the mantle of director and co-writer and turns her keen eye to the streets of Taipei. Similarly to Tokyo, the Taiwanese capital has long been portrayed as teched-out carnival—roads pump out steady streams of buzzing mopeds, vendors beckon tourists to take advantage of the favorable exchange rate on sundry gadgets, and night market lights whirl and flash like an outsize pachinko machine.
Described by Tsou as a film, “25 years in the making,” Left-Handed Girl takes a shaky, hand-held camera view to the life of I-Jing, a young girl following her mother’s pursuit to open a noodle stand in a bustling night market. Here, Tsou discusses how and where scenes were filmed on location across Taipei. The film is available to stream on Netflix starting November 28.
The night market
A chock-a-block night market is the central setting of the film, where “As Seen on TV” gadget salesmen, noodle hawkers, small-time carnies, and tchotchke vendors are lined shoulder to shoulder. “I remember the first time I showed [co-writer] Sean Baker Taipei in 2000, 2001, and immediately he fell in love,” says Tsou, “That was the first time he went to Taiwan with me to look for the story. We both felt like, ‘Oh my God, we need to put the night market on film as one of the very important characters because that's really representative of Taiwan, the culture of Taiwan.” Throughout the film, the market is depicted as an after-hours playground for sorts for I-Jing as she squeezes between stalls and ducks through alleyways as shortcuts to various stalls and friends. Shot all on iPhone and at upward angles, the market is treated with a curious and larger-than-life quality reflective of I-Jing’s perspective.
The noodle stand
Out of all the possible vendor types to choose from, Tsou pulled from real life example. “That was actually inspired by a real family we met when we went back to Taiwan to write the script. We stayed there for a month, and we visited all the night markets in Taipei trying to find the perfect one to shoot,” says Tsou, “We actually went to the particular night market in the film, and we ran into this little little girl at the time in 2010.” A fired up five-year-old running around by herself, Tsou followed her as a guide through the night market, eventually being led to her mom who was tending a noodle stand at the market. “When we ran into them, we were so excited because that was in our script, a little girl and her mother. So we thought, wow, that's like a real prototype of the characters in our story. That's why we decided to shoot in that market and also use the noodle stand as part of the story,” says Tsou.
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The family apartment
Finding what wound up serving as the family apartment was something of a happy accident. Initially, the film’s line producer found a potential unit in April 2022 based on recommendations from an intern. The unit had the authenticity of a small, single-family home in the city, but there was a hiccup—production only began in July. Hesitant to waste production budget on four months of holding rent, Tsou took to the streets of Taipei to scout for a suitable apartment herself. “I biked on the streets, determined to find a place myself and also not wanting to waste the money paying the rent so much earlier,” says Tsou, “so I just kind of biked around, and I saw this banner posting on the second floor. I called the number and went out to see the place, and that's how I found that apartment.”
Working class Taipei
“I grew up in Taipei, I graduated from college, and I moved to New York. So, Taipei is home,” says Tsou, “And also with this 25 years of preparing, I just rediscovered all the beauties of Taipei. That's why I say this is like a love letter to my country, to Taipei, to Taiwan.” From the banquet hall that serves as a setting for a dramatic multi-generational birthday dinner, to the corner store where older sister I-Ann rolls betel nut products for leering male clientele, to the kindergarten where I-Jing goes to school, Tsou sourced sets from personal memory and experience. “I just biked around near my mom's neighborhood, because my mom used to live near the night market. The kindergarten, the grandmother's birthday banquet restaurant, that's all in the neighborhood,” says Tsou.
Where Tsou visits in Taipei
Tsou shared a favorite location she frequents when she goes back to Taiwan that didn’t end up making the final cut. “I really need to mention this fortune teller because I actually go there every year when I go home,” says Tsou, “I will visit this temple, and the fortune teller is right across the street. It's very special—they have this little white bird in a cage, and the way they do fortune telling is they say something to the bird, and it will come out and pick notes from a box.” Popular night markets throughout Taipei are never too far from temples. Take the popular Raohe night market nearby the technicolor Songshan Ciyou Temple, or Shilin Night Market whose neighbor is the sprawling Cixian Temple. Spirituality lives side-by-side with Taipei’s modern, metropolitan aspects. A destination less of contrasts than complements, “Taiwan is such a special place. The people, how friendly they are, is truly amazing. I think a lot of people who have never been to Taiwan watch the film and they feel that warmness,” says Tsou, “because that's how I think a lot of foreigners, the first time they go to Taiwan, feel because the people are so nice and so willing to go out of their way to help other people. So, I think it's definitely that, ren qing wei, that beautiful human connection.”
