SDAFF 2025: ‘Rosemead’ Review
Halfway through Rosemead, Irene (Lucy Liu) overhears some of her fellow immigrant mothers gossiping about her teenage son at a party. She confronts them in a slight and curt way, insisting that there’s nothing wrong with her son before angrily storming away – much to the shock of the two women on the receiving end of the outburst. Meanwhile, it’s clear that her son Joe’s (Lawrence Shou) mental health is deteriorating. He lashes out at phantoms that are not there, is clearly not taking his medication, and is starting to scare his mother despite what she says. What can you do as a single mother who is treating a child with schizophrenia? Such is the dilemma of Irene, a Taiwanese immigrant widow whose teenage son is battling with the disease.
Set in the titular city of the San Gabriel Valley in the modern day, Rosemead zooms in on this two-person family and uses their situation to speak about the still-prevalent difficulties in addressing mental health crises in Asian American families. On the outside, it seems like they’re doing just fine: Irene runs a semi-successful print shop and Joe is just your average teenager with a group of friends who care about him. But appearances can be deceiving, and the two, as close as they are, hide parts of their lives even from each other. Joe is struggling more and more with his schizophrenia at school and elsewhere, while Irene’s recent cancer diagnosis is much worse than she lets on. Still, the pair try to live their lives, go to a few therapy sessions for Joe, and try to move forward. Neither of them really discuss their issues with each other and instead brush them under the rug. It isn’t until Joe increasingly starts to become obsessed with news of school shootings and violence in general that Irene starts to really worry about him. Serious issues can’t be ignored forever.
As a Taiwanese American who grew up not too far from where this story takes place, it’s in this portrayal of the stigma of mental health in an Asian American family that really spoke to me. I grew up around the very gossipy, whispering aunties that Irene confronted in the film; in fact, my mother would be one of them. I remember mental illness being spoken about in hushed tones when it came to gossip about other families but as an impossibility when it came to our own. Working harder was the panacea to everything. There was no time for minor issues like depression… as my mother still says, it’s all just in your head! As much as these things came from a general misunderstanding of what mental illness is, I can’t fault the people in my life for their lack of knowledge about how to tackle these issues. I saw Irene and what she ends up doing as an inevitability when it comes to the attitude shared by a certain type of immigrant parent. Indeed, that much does make sense, given that Rosemead is based off of a true story that happened only a few years ago. Some viewers will undoubtedly be up in arms about the film’s bleak ending, but in my eyes it’s the only way that it could’ve ended in the real world – and it did.
Director Eric Lin and screenwriter Marilyn Fu do a great job of adapting a real-life tragedy to the big screen without making it seem too exaggerated and over-the-top. There’s a humanity that’s still present here that doesn’t make light of the real life beats that it was inspired by. I think there’s a tendency to give heavy stories a Hollywood touch that might veer it into an overacted melodrama, but Rosemead manages that balance well. If you read Frank Shyong’s original article about the events that happen in the film, there’s enough similarities there to make the “Based on a True Story” disclaimer within the film worthy of its announcement.
There’s also something to be said about Lucy Liu’s starring role as Irene in the film. Dedicated moviegoers will no doubt know Liu for being one of the most recognizable Asian actresses anywhere – projects like Kill Bill, Charlie’s Angels, or even Why Women Kill have almost certainly codified her into exoticized femme fatale royalty. But Rosemead offers to give the filmgoing public a view of a different side to the actress. Liu disappears into the role of Irene, an immigrant Taiwanese mother, allowing her to add the role of tender, exhausted, defendant mother to her repertoire. Rosemead’s other lead actor Lawrence Shou also gives a solid performance as the troubled Joe, whose descent is tragic in real time. Together, Liu and Shou portray characters that feel lived in, much like any of the neighbors I know in my own life, or even an uncomfortable reflection of the people in my own family.
Lin’s Rosemead does well to pay tribute to the story that inspired it while still capturing your attention as a piece of entertainment. When thinking back on this film, I often revisit the scene towards the end where Irene buys a soda at a vending machine right before the film hits its tragic climax. If this were a Hollywood film that is trying to maximize its entertainment value, there’s no doubt that scene would’ve been cut. Here, it’s an unusually welcome pause that reminds us of Irene’s humanity, troubled hesitation, and the ugly gray area this film explores. Rosemead is, after all, a tragic and a difficult story to tell, but it’s a story that needs to be told.
Rating: 4.5 / 5
Film pages: SDAFF page | Instagram
Rosemead was covered as part of Pacific Arts Movement’s 2025 San Diego Asian Film Festival.
Li-Wei Chu is the chief editor of From the Intercom. When he’s not editing drafts and searching for new artists to cover for the website, he loves watching cult films, cooking, and listening to his ever-growing collection of vinyl records. You can follow him on LetterBoxd and make fun of his taste in movies here!