sgt1372

#AAPI #MentalHealth

Just watched a great independent movie called #Rosemead (2025).

The movie is based on a true story.

#LucyLiu plays an immigrant Asian woman who has cancer with only months to live. Her husband died of cancer a few years earlier & she is the sole caretaker for her son who is schizophrenic.

Her son is off his meds, is hearing voices, is acting out in response to those voices, commits an act of self harm & is preoccupied with news about mass killings.

The mother feels that she has to deal with these problems alone. She's worried that her son will not get proper care & treatment & that he might commit an act of mass violence against others after she dies.

So, in an act of desperation, she decides to take action to prevent either from happening. Can't say more without spoiling it.

This is one of the BEST movies that I've seen recently.

I rate it an rare 8 out of 10. It's in limited distribution. Lucy gives an amazing performance. See it as soon as you can, where ever you can.

Jan 11 at 2:51amWeb
Show threadsgt1372Jan 11

Note: The mother in real life was supposedly born in Laos & lived in Hong Kong for awhile before moving to the US. Her exact Asian ethnicity is unclear but Lucy's character is presented as Chinese & most of the dialog between the Asian characters is spoken in Mandarin (with English subtitles).

In interviews, Lucy has said that she only spoke Mandarin at home when she was a child. Her Mandarin sounds fluent to my ear.

Obviously, based on her prior films & interviews, Lucy is Americanized & can speak English without a Chinese accent & behave without any Chinese immigrant mannerisms.

So, apart from it's emotional range & impact, Lucy's performance is all the more impressive for the way in which she convincingly adopts the accent of a immigrant Chinese speaking English, as well as certain characteristics familiar to anyone who grew up around immigrant Chinese women (as I did), such as shuffling her feet, constraining her body movements trying not to take up space & not being open & direct in conversation.