NEED TO KNOW
Lucy Liu is bringing a harrowing true story to the big screen.
PEOPLE has an exclusive trailer for Rosemead, which shows the actress-producer like audiences have never seen her before.
Directed by Eric Lin and adapted by Marilyn Fu from a 2017 Los Angeles Times article, it’s the story of a struggling Chinese American mother and son, played by Liu, 56, and Lawrence Shou.
Liu — who has earned multiple film festival awards since Rosemead’s 2025 Tribeca Film Festival premiere — plays Irene, an “ailing woman who takes drastic measures to protect her troubled teenage son” Joe, per a synopsis. “As his dark obsessions grow and time runs out, she is forced to make impossible choices: how far will she go and what is she willing to sacrifice?”
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The Times article by Frank Shyong detailed the story of a terminally ill mother who made a tragic choice in dealing with her son’s schizophrenia diagnosis.
In the trailer for Rosemead, a doctor can be heard saying, “This is going to just go away like some cold. He needs to learn to live with it. You both do.”
After glimpses of Irene’s difficulties connecting to Joe in their Los Angeles suburb, Liu can be heard saying in Mandarin, “Sweetheart, no matter what happens, Mommy will always love you.”
Courtesy Vertical
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“What moved me about Rosemead when I first read the script was its honesty,” Liu says in a statement. “It doesn’t offer answers; instead, it gives the audience a place to question. My hope is that audiences don’t just watch it, but feel it long after it ends.”
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Lin calls the Charlie’s Angels star “a pioneering artist who has built a career of iconic roles, and she fearlessly gave everything to her unflinching portrayal of Irene.”
Audiences, the director adds, “have never seen her in a role like this — she completely transforms herself, and I can’t wait for people to finally see a glimpse of her extraordinary performance.”
Rosemead also allowed the mother of one to act predominantly in Mandarin, which she spoke as a kid before learning English.
“It took me back to a very different feeling, even in my body on a cellular level,” Liu told Parade in June at the film’s Tribeca premiere. “It was so intimate. Going back and recreating this environment and this culture and this shared experience with her son really brought back memories from when I was a child.”
Courtesy of Vertical
In addition to Liu and Shou, Rosemead stars Orion Lee, Jennifer Lim, Madison Hu, James Chen. The film is in theaters Dec. 5.
