How much can a director blur the line between documentary and feature film? Based on real events, Rosemead tells the story of terminally ill widow Irene Chao (Lucy Liu), struggling to care for her mentally ill teenage son Joe (Lawrence Shu).
In the Chinese community, especially for older generations, talking about mental illness is taboo – it is usually ignored and, more importantly, hidden from your peers to bolster your pride. As Irene becomes increasingly concerned about the potential danger of her son's schizophrenia, she does everything she can to get her affairs in order before she runs out of time.
An outsider can guess a lot about the true story. Rosemead is responsible for filling in these gaps and exploring the desperate thoughts of a dying mother. Liu plays Irene with compassion, but the script (written by Marilyn Fu) doesn't give her enough to work with.
The film has many missed opportunities to develop dramatic drama and delve into Joe's fascination with violence or Irene's confidence in her actions.
“Burn all our photographs,” Irene asks her best friend over the phone shortly before the climactic final scene. A direct reference to the actual events on which it is based, the director. Eric Lin admits that in making this film he did not respect the dying mother's last wishes.
Unfortunately, shame fuels Irene's desire to disappear, but Lyn creates this story because she believes her shame is wrong and her family deserves to be remembered. Lin shares context so the viewer can empathize with her unforgivable actions. In a film where characters keep secrets from each other at the cost of failure, perhaps Lean is demonstrating that there was nothing to be ashamed of at all. Mental illness exists even behind closed doors, and perhaps if Irene didn't feel like it had to be hidden, she might have been able to see more options available.
At times, Rosemead ends up woefully close to understanding something significant, apparently not daring to go beyond the surface and fully solve even one of the problems posed. At 97 minutes, the pace feels stilted until the final quarter draws to a close.
Irene and Joe leave a lot unsaid between them, and in the end, the audience is left in the dark too. That's real life—we don't always know the truth about what happened—but it leaves audiences unsatisfied when it comes to movie magic. Perhaps this is what Lin is talking about. Rosemead.
Many cultures are reluctant to address mental health issues, and we avoid having proper conversations about it. However, the younger generation is removing the stigma and accepting the bad that can sometimes come with the good. Rosemead represents one way we can continue to move towards this goal.
