This is a beautifully frenetic family drama that makes us feel the misogyny and pride that underpins Taiwanese family culture.

Directed by Shih-Ching Tsou and edited and co-written by Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Anora, Tangerine), it reminded me of his sensibility, albeit with the neon lit, hustle and bustle of Taiwan. Tsou has been a producer of (and occasional actor in) many of Baker’s films and it feels like a cohesive partnership.

We are watching a small family relocated to Taipei. Mother Shu-Fen (I think)(Janet Tsai) has scraped up enough money to run a noodle stall in the night market. She has two daughters, young I-Ann (Shi-Yuan Ma) and who is belligerent and prickly and reluctant to do anything that might be helpful. The younger daughter I-Jing (Nina Ye) is at the centre of the story; she is around seven years old and is the silent observer of the comings and goings of her family.

It’s the kind of existence where I-Jing gets to roam around the night market, befriending stallholders, helping out where she can or occasionally getting up to mischief. We are shown the gulf between tradition and modernity when her grandfather tells her that her left hand is the Devil’s hand and she shouldn’t use it. There are some things going on in the background that we slowly discover, an absent husband, the equity of Shu-Fen’s family prioritising their only son. She is the disappointment of the family, always asking to borrow money, never seen to be able to stand on her own two feet. They criticise her for this even though it’s clear that all of her mother’s attention and money has gone to helping the only son succeed.

There are dramas and revelations and an excellent bust up at a birthday banquet. It’s sometimes frenetic (with subtitling that moves faster than you can read) but you get a feel for life in Taipei with all its colour and community. Astoundingly, it was filmed on an iPhone. I had no idea. Ye as I-Jing is excellent – another great child performance at MIFF – but I felt the most moving story arc was that of I-Ann. Ma is splendidly petulant but we get to see the pain under the brittle facade. Beautiful.