R | 1h 37m | Drama | 2026
The promotional poster for “Rosemead,” which portrays a mother and son enjoying the surf on Venice Beach—is misleading. That occurs in the film, but it represents one of the very few happy moment in this grim family drama that’s based on a true story.
Irene (Lucy Liu of “Charlie’s Angels” and “Kill Bill”) is a terminally-ill Chinese-American who lives in the neighborhood of Rosemead, California. Irene is dying of cancer, while simultaneously having to deal with her schizophrenic teenage son Joe (Lawrence Shou). Joe has a disturbing fixation with mass shootings.
Irene (Lucy Liu) is a concerned mother, in “Rosemead.” (Vertical)The cancer obviously weighs on Irene, but she and members of her community have the built-in wisdom of 5,000 years of Chinese culture to provide perspective on life-and-death issues. Joe’s mental illness is a different story.
Worsening Conditions
Increasingly frequent delusions cause Joe to morph from A+ student and star of the high school varsity swim team, to a shell of himself with unpredictable, dangerous states of anxiety. Joe attends weekly sessions with a shrink who pleads that Irene also sit in. She almost never does, as she shares the old-school, old-country belief of old friends, who insist Joe is probably experiencing spirit possession. As she tells the health care professional, “Just because you have Chinese face doesn’t mean you understand our culture.”
A lot of lying and gaslighting goes on. When Irene asks her son if he’s taking his meds, she accepts his testy insistences that he is. When she discovers Joe’s been cyber-stalking information about school mass-shootings, she buries her head in the sand.
“Keep it in the family” is the films’ overarching sentiment—after all, the need to “save face” in Chinese culture is rooted in Confucian ideals of social harmony, shame, and hierarchical relationships, and spans thousands of years. Irene likewise hides her illness from Joe, who discovers bloody tissues buried in the bathroom wastebasket.
However, this delicate tango of deception can’t go on forever. So far, as mother and legal guardian, Irene has been able to absorb the responsibility of Joe’s insanity-driven vandalism of school property, and disoriented wandering through the streets of Rosemead.
Joe’s shrink tells Irene that things are about to get serious: Once he turns 18, Joe’s offenses will land him in an overcrowded mental institution at best and jail at worst.
This immediately results in mother and son doubling down on their deadly dragon-dance of deception—Joe doesn’t admit his deepening psychosis, and they both ignore her obviously failing health. From a Western perspective, the whole situation is entirely wrong-headed.
We all Need Help
Eric Lin, first-time director and co-writer, doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room to tell a happier tale, since “Rosemead” is based on a Los Angeles Times article that revealed the health care challenges in insular communities like Rosemead.
Denial of mental illness is of course not unique to the Chinese-American community, although the complex cultural history certainly exacerbates the situation. Lin uses this perfect-storm example of what can go wrong as a cautionary tale for anyone who needs to hear it.
Lucy Liu, from her perfect Chinese accent to her use of acting craft to seemingly physically waste away as Irene’s cancer worsens, gives a devastating performance. Irene’s mule-headed insistence that only she can resolve the deepening crisis is, of course, infuriating, but we root for her.
Newcomer Lawrence Shou manages the tricky balancing act of sinking ever deeper into antisocial behavior while maintaining viewers’ sympathy.
By design, “Rosemead” never reaches a comfortable place. It intends to remind us that our world—our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces—are full of suffering humans too proud to reveal their desperation. It’s a tough watch, but the message is worth the pain—our responsibility is to ask such people if they need help, and help them get help. Their responsibility is to ask for help.
“Rosemead” is available on Amazon Prime.
‘Rosemead’
Director: Eric Lin
Starring: Lucy Liu, Lawrence Shou
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Release Date: Dec. 5, 2025
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
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