By Dan Skip Allen

Over the last decade or so, there have been a lot of incidents of domestic violence in this country. I feel bad for young people who feel that they need to resort to shooting or killing their teachers and / or students at their schools. Young people, teenagers just need father figures or someone to discuss their issues with. “Mosemead” is a film that deals with a situation that is headed off by a parent dealing with a child who may or may not commit domestic violence due to his mental state of mind. It’s a scary movie in not the usual way. It made me mad because I wish I could have done something to help these people. It’s that frustrating of a film to watch.

Based on True Events, Lucy Lui plays a Chinese American mother, Irene, in Los Angeles. She has a son Joe (Lawrence Shou), who is a normal high school student at Reyes High School. He’s a swimmer on the high school team and hangs out with his friends at night or on the weekend. There is a girl he likes Jeannie (Madison Hu). She genuinely likes him back, but he’s dealing with some internal issues of schizophrenia. He’s seeing a therapist for this mental ailment, but dreams of a past family trauma keep haunting him. This is the crux of the story, but his mother also has issues along with trying to raise her troubled son.

I’ve seen Lucy Liu in many movies over the years. Normally, she’s in action films or comedies like Charlie’s Angeles or Pulp Fiction or the occasional animated movie like Kung Fu Panda. She’s done some television work in her career as well. She’s found a niche in these genres. She has now done a dramatic film that will define her career. I hope people who see this film won’t consider it cliched or too on the mark per se. Because of her playing an aging Asian woman with a specific voice inflection. I thought she gave the performance of her career. She gives everything she has as this mother is trying to help her son and dealing with her own personal problems. This is one of the performances of the year bar none. She is incredible in this role.

Director Eric Lin used a few tricks of the trade to show the mental state of the main character in the movie. A number of dream sequences show a traumatic incident that happened when he was younger. It involved his father, who isn’t in the main narrative of the movie. These dream sequences are part of the illness this young man has. Shiu, an actor I’m not familiar with, gave me exactly what I’m looking for as a viewer of this film. He showed his pain quite a bit. Lin used the ailment in the form of a horror movie in a way. Schizophrenia has been used in many movies before, but it was used in a way I hadn’t seen it used before. I was genuinely scared of this kid and what he may or may not do because of his ailment that he suffers from. I felt so bad for everybody involved in this story. Lin made me feel this way because of the way he chose to tell the story and direct this film.

I like a movie that uses a location as a character in the movie. This one is one of those. Even though it was filmed in New York, it takes place in the San Gabriel Valley in California. The locations showed an Asian community and a familiar area the characters could live in and be a part of. During various scenes of walking around or driving, the area of the filmmaking was very important in establishing a place these characters could exist in. These locations proved to be very valuable to me while watching the events of this film unfold in front of my eyes. 

The supporting cast is littered with other actors besides the two main stars. As aforementioned, Hu is good in a small role, but James Chen also plays the therapist of the Shou character. There are many one-off or two scene actors who play shop owners, parents of kids in school, or family friends of the Lui character. The supporting cast is fine, but it is the two main actors that take the stage in this movie. In that way, it’s more or less a two-hander, which is what is the main plot of the film. The relationship between mother and son is the key that makes this movie work so well. Lui and Shou both make that happen. 

“Rosemead “ is a film that isn’t going to be for everyone. The relationship between mother and son is the reason to see this movie. The Lui character puts her own health on the backbones to help her son and be there for him. Shou gave me what I needed from an actor portraying someone with schizophrenia. Lin, the director, put the viewer in a position of what this young man and his mother are truly going through. Considering this is based on a true story, I can’t say how realistic it is. These are the kinds of struggles real people go through. Even though this is an Asian centric movie, and race can relate to it.  Lui gives an awards worthy performance that’s not too much. It’s just right as far as I’m concerned. This is a real surprise this holiday season.

4 stars