Rosemead
A tragic and horrific picture based on a true story, Eric Lin’s Rosemead follows the complex relationship between a parent and their child suffering from schizophrenia. Irene is a struggling single mother to Joe. Sick and still continuously working hard at their print shop, she tries to keep her resurfacing cancer under wraps from her son. Meanwhile, Joe is fighting his own battle, working through his grief over his father’s death. Left to his own devices, he starts neglecting his medication and the advice of other trained professionals, instead finding morbid ways to cope through his fascinations with guns.
Lucy Liu and Lawrence Shou are the backbone of Rosemead. Their excellent portrayals carry the emotional weight of the script. Liu wears the role of the burdened mother with striking accuracy. The baggy clothes and minimalist make-up that accentuate every line and crease of her features pair well with her grounded and meek performance. There’s a tired quality in her delivery that conveys the burden of Irene’s responsibilities. But there’s an underlying ferocity in Irene that Liu embodies with nuance and grace, highlighting the extremes this woman will go to protect her family.
Shou’s performance is astounding. He has an innocent charm that magnetises the audience to him and his endearingly playful dynamic with Irene. The image that Shou perfectly captures is balanced with the dark and volatile nature of Joe as he slowly sinks deeper into his schizophrenia. Shou transitions with ease between these two conflicting sides of the character. He evokes a sense of attachment in the viewer, one in which they long to protect him while at the same time fear for him.
The visuals use sudden and quick cuts between past and present, slow zooms and blurs, and extensive effects to drum up the anxiety surrounding Joe’s schizophrenia. Production uses this opportunity to simulate the torment of Joe’s mind for the audience. Framing and separation are also important factors in isolating Joe from Irene and the rest of his peers. He’s usually seen looking at others through doors and windows or vice versa.
While these production choices make for a compelling watch and help execute the piece’s cyclical structure, there’s a tendency here to almost over-romanticise Joe’s hallucinations. A lot of this film centres on the discussions – or lack thereof – surrounding mental health in Asian households. While Rosemead shows signs of being critical of Irene’s disregard for Joe’s needs in terms of his schizophrenia, it almost responds to her in opposition by being too flashy in presenting his episodes. This dilutes a more grounded exploration of these topics and lessens the challenge to the violent stigma surrounding mental illness.
Beautiful, with a melancholic soundtrack and heartbreaking performances by its leads, Rosemead has plenty of heart and grit. It’s overt in showing the extremes that people will go to protect those that they love, and the dangers of dismissing mental illness. While not perfect in handling its themes, parts of it remain quietly resonant nonetheless.
Mae Trumata
Rosemead does not have a release date yet.
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