Rosemead Review: Mother’s Merciful Wrath 

Eric Lin’s latest film, Rosemead, centers around a terminally ill mother facing the most morally complex question of her life.

Content Warning: Discussions of gun violence and mass shootings. 

Eric Lin’s latest film, Rosemead, is based on the true story of why Lai felt she had no choice but to take her own son’s life. The movie opens at the motel where the fatal incident occurred, but it is not the day of the shooting. In the opening shot, we can see a family joyously dancing around room 213 at the Sunset Hill Motel. We see a father singing, a son laughing, and a mother beaming with love. But suddenly we are transported to the present day, where the joy the first shot exuded has been drained from the screen completely. 

While Irene (Lucy Liu, of Presence) and her son Joe (Lawrence Shou) don’t seem completely unhappy, it feels like the spark in their life has dulled since Joe’s father passed away from cancer. Irene is running a printing shop, which she takes great pride in, but is noticeably fragile. Joe can’t focus in school, he is hypersensitive to everything going on around him, making it impossible for him to complete any task put before him. While both of them seem to be suffering, neither wants to burden the other with their struggles. 

After school, Irene takes Joe to the Asian Pacific Family Center. Joe, after a strong recommendation given by the school, goes to therapy sessions through the center. While Irene agrees to take her son here, she is reluctant to acknowledge that Joe needs therapy. She encourages him to take his medicine that helps him manage his schizophrenia and will bring him to his appointments, but as a Chinese immigrant, she is not accustomed to speaking about mental illness so openly. 

However, as she notices Joe growing more irrational and unpredictable, she becomes more willing to address the changes she sees in her son. She begins to pay closer attention to her son’s erratic behavior and discovers he has a horrifying fixation on school shooters. With Joe’s 18th birthday on the horizon and her health deteriorating beyond repair, Irene spirals as she tries to figure out what to do about her son. 

Rosemead harbors a particular stillness that forces its audience to hold its breath as Irene tries to decide what she needs to do. The film builds a palpable tension and creates an air of desperation as Irene watches her son descend into a darkness she cannot pull him out of. 

When Lai Hang’s best friend, Ping Chong, recounts the weeks leading up to George’s death, she notes that she knew something was weighing on Lai. Their upbringing had instilled in them that the troubles of their children are theirs to bear as mothers.

In the film, you can see how every action Joe takes weighs heavily on Irene. She feels solely responsible for her son and his actions. While she wants to seek help and tries to go through the family center, when the authorities get involved and the consequences of their involvement make Joe act even worse, Irene feels she is left with no choice.

Rosemead aims to add context, not delegate judgment, to a tragic true-life story. Lucy Liu effortlessly embodies Irene with a quiet contemplativeness and increasing desperation that will leave you speechless as the credits roll. Lin’s film examines a mother’s sense of responsibility for their child in the cross-sections of cultural expectations and moral obligations. It gives dimension, grace and compassion to the story of a woman who saw no other way to keep the people in her community safe and the sanity of her child preserved.

Rosemead was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 6-14, 2025.