Ma Shih-Yuan's own name tells you everything about the character she plays in the new Taiwanese film, Left-Handed Girl, which is already generating Oscars buzz for 2026 as it nears its Netflix release on November 28.
"Ma is the family name, and it means horse. Shih means soldier… My mother wanted me to have the courage and spirit of a soldier. And Yuan roughly translates to socialite,” Ma, 25, tells Teen Vogue. “My mother wanted me to have the elegance of a socialite and also be able to have my own opinions."
This is also a perfect description of Cheng I-Ann, the headstrong protagonist Ma plays in her debut role. Left-Handed Girl tells the story of three generations of working-class Taiwanese women making ends meet in Taipei. Twenty-year-old Cheng I-Ann moves back to Taipei with her hard-working single mother, Shu-fen (played by Janel Tsai), who opens a noodle stall at a night market, and her adorably mischievous five-year-old sister, I-Jing (Nina Ye).
Left-Handed Girl — which was shot entirely on an iPhone in 35 days — marks the solo directorial debut of award-winning Taiwanese-American filmmaker, Tsou Shih-Ching. Tsou previously co-directed Takeout, with Oscar-winner Sean Baker, and produced The Florida Project, Tangerine, and Red Rocket.
Left-Handed Girl premiered at Cannes 2025 as part of the Critics' Week section, where it won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution. The film has been submitted by Taiwan as its candidate for Best International Feature at the 2026 Academy Awards.
“For the Cannes Festival, it was the first time I was seeing myself on a big screen along with the team, and at such a major event,” Ma recalls. “I was very moved and very touched. But because that was my first project, I was more hard on myself; I focus[ed] a lot on my performance.”
Ma was scouted by Tsou through Instagram while she was studying communications at Shih Hsin University. "I thought it was a scam, because in Taiwan there are so many scam accounts," she says. "But it was also a time where I felt uncertain in life and wanted to get out of my comfort zone. So I met up with the director and we chatted at a coffee shop, and then after that I sent in my audition tapes…. I was so excited, because it was the next chapter of the journey of life."
"She is a natural-born actor," Tsou tells Teen Vogue. "She's really emotionally powerful. I remember one scene where she need[ed] to cry, and she just cried in one uncut take. After I said cut, she immediately asked, 'Can I try it again? I want to cry differently.' And then she cried again in a completely different way. I was so amazed. I thought, Oh my God, I found a gem."
Ma's character, I-Ann, represents Taiwan's working-class women, whose brilliance and sacrifices are frequently overlooked. Once a straight-A student with the potential to attend a top university, the character’s life takes an unexpected turn, leading her to drop out of high school. She finds work as a betel nut girl, hawking the stimulant from a neon-lit roadside booth. “In the traditional view, it's not glamorous work,” Tsou says. “But that's the way she wants to show she can make money, and then live her life the way she wants.”
To approach the role with authenticity, Ma studied betel nut work in real life. “I did a lot of internship work at actual betel nut shops to learn how to wrap betel nuts and to observe the behaviors of the betel nut ladies who worked those shops,” she says. Adds Tsou, Taiwanese women are “really hard working” and “always sacrifice themselves for other people.”
In one scene, two boys degrade and mock I-Ann for being a betel nut girl. I-Ann stands up for herself, shouting, "I work hard! You have no right to criticize others!" Ma explains that the reaction is so intense because I-Ann is caught off guard to find that people actually think this way.
Tsou echoes this sentiment, noting, “You don't have to let other people define who you are.”
I-Ann is also a young woman who owns her sensuality. When her grandmother scolds her for wearing revealing clothing, she snaps back with irreverent humor: "No worries, I wear these every day." Rather than succumb to filial piety, I-Ann does not care what her elders think of her. She embodies rebellious youth with a sense of autonomy.
“It was very important for I-Ann to prove that she has her own thoughts,” Ma says, “and she's able to take care of her own life and be independent.”
Although I-Ann's biting words often push away the women in her family, she remains their fiercest protector. When her mother gives up what little money they have to pay the hospital bills for I-Ann's dying father who had abandoned them, I-Ann pays him an angry visit. In a cathartic scene, her harsh words effectively ward him off of her family forever.
Despite her anger and recklessness, I-Ann emerges as the film's moral compass through her relationship with her younger sister, I-Jing. When she discovers that the five-year-old has been stealing from their grandmother and various night-market vendors, I-Ann asks why. I-Jing reveals that their superstitious grandfather told her that her left hand was "the devil's hand"; believing the hand wasn't hers, I-Jing felt justified using it to steal. I-Ann dismisses this as an outdated belief and teaches I-Jing that her left hand is her own, and she must take accountability.
I-Ann accompanies her young sister to return everything stolen, making I-Jing apologize to each vendor. Tsou sees this as I-Ann's coming-of-age moment: "That's part of the young girl wanting to be responsible. She wants to be there for I-Jing. She wants to become who she should be."
Tsou's vision as a director was to capture the full spectrum of a young woman's experience — her strength, her struggles, joy, sensuality, mistakes. Shih-Yuan Ma herself is a multihyphenate artist who models, sings, and plays guitar. Once she's established herself as an actor, she hopes to create her own music.
Ma also hopes her role in Left-Handed Girl will teach young women to trust and own their decisions. "We always have our own choices, even when we're young and inexperienced,” Ma points out. “It's so important to protect ourselves and to trust our intuition and run toward our goals — even if it's a bit of a rough exploration, even if what we choose to do doesn't match the values and the box that society has given us.”
