In ‘Rosemead,’ Lucy Liu is riveting, transformative, and undeniable in what critics are calling a career-defining role

Lucy Liu is reintroducing herself. You may know her from her work in ‘Ally McBeal,’ ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ and ‘Kill Bill,’ but I can promise you’ve never seen the trailblazing actress as the force that she is in the new dramatic thriller, ‘Rosemead.’

Inspired by true events, ‘Rosemead’ is the tragic story about Irene, a Chinese immigrant single mother who is dying from a terminal illness, and Joe (Lawrence Shou), her son who battles a severe mental health disorder and becomes obsessed with mass shootings. In a race against time, Irene is forced to make impossible choices as her family is pushed beyond their limits. 

The film is Eric Lin’s directorial debut, and he says the themes of mental illness and the immigrant experience are what moved him to direct the film. “A story that focuses on the ways mental illness can overwhelm a Chinese immigrant family hasn’t been seen on screen before and I deeply felt that it had to be told,” he says. “While Rosemead is a universal story about a mother trying to protect her son, it is a story that is especially urgent for the AAPI community, a demographic that the National Alliance on Mental Illness notes is the least likely to seek treatment from mental health professionals. Now more than ever, I truly feel that there is a need to tell stories that bring audiences into the lives of those who are marginalized, or worse, vilified.”

Lucy agrees that this movie and its messaging are urgent. “I had never read a script like this before. There’s never been a script about the Asian community going through mental health crisis or showing the love between the family,” Lucy explained at a Tribeca screening.

Not only is the family struggling with the immigrant experience, terminal illness, mental illness, mother and son dynamics, and violence, but they are also burdened with the intense feeling of shame in their Chinese American community. Irene feels judgment from her peers in the community, so she chooses to hide her son’s struggles and her own terminal diagnosis. Joe wants his friends to believe he’s fine, despite the fact that he is still grieving the loss of his father and he is dealing with frequent psychotic breaks. 

When Lucy speaks about the film and the mother she portrays, there’s a certain poise and tenderness. “This mother loved her son and she felt like she ran out of options. There was nobody there to advocate for her,” Lucy says. “I wanted to humanize this woman who clearly did not have her own voice. And for her to say that she wants to be invisible, that she wants to disappear, that she doesn’t want people to remember them — that to me really shook me in a deep way. To want to erase yourself, it just hurts my heart thinking about it.” 

The film is based on an article by Frank Shyong written for the Los Angeles Times. The article’s title is direct and perhaps improperly succinct. The films screenwriter, Marilyn Fu, seems to want to course correct that by highlighting the nuances of the story. “What did we want to say with this film and what is it about? At its core it’s about a mother’s love for her son, and a son’s love for his mother.”

The cast also includes Orion Lee, Jennifer Lim, Madison Hu, and James Chen.

The film has already earned numerous accolades including the Prix du Public UBS Audience Award at the Locarno Film Festival, Best Narrative Feature at the Bentonville Film Festival, and several acting awards for Lucy Liu.

‘Rosemead’ opens in select theaters in New York City on December 5 and in Los Angeles on December 12. Get tickets for ‘Rosemead’ here.