LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Lucy Liu produced and stars in Rosemead, in theaters Friday. The actress says it was important to bring the story, which follows a Chinese single mother and her son, to the big screen.
Based on a 2017 Los Angeles Times article by Frank Shyong, the film stars Liu as Irene, a widow whose husband died of cancer. With a terminal cancer diagnosis herself, Irene searches desperately for a way to treat her son, Joe (Lawrence Shou), who has schizophrenia.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, Liu said the emotional and practical demands of Rosemead were worthwhile. In fact, she hopes to find more stories like Rosemead to champion.
"These are the stories that we want to tell and these are the stories that need to be told," Liu said. "We want people to show up so that we don't lose a sense of our history and a sense of our future that we can have."
Irene discovers Joe has been researching the perpetrators of school shootings. Worried that Joe might be planning a shooting of his own, Irene takes drastic action -- the same as real-life subject Lai Hang did in the events chronicled by Shyong.
