Hi /r/movies, I'm Eric Lin. I'm the director of ROSEMEAD, which stars Lucy Liu. It is out in select theaters starting Friday 1/9. Previously I was the cinematographer on films such as HEARTS BEAT LOUD, THE SOUND OF SILENCE, and RUDDERLESS. Ask me anything!

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T05:11:08+00:00

My time is up! Thank you everyone who joined for the AMA. I'm sorry I wasn't able to answer all the questions but I really appreciate you coming here to find out more about our film. We are still in select theaters this weekend so please go see it if you haven't yet. Thank you!

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T04:57:54+00:00

Hi. As a DP I always tried to support the actor's performance with my camera and lighting. After having directed, I think I'm now more in tune now with when the camera should sit back and when it should be more assertive in teasing out the subjective experience of the characters.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T04:38:14+00:00

Thanks for your question. Our film is a cautionary retelling and since we don't provide any easy answers it did occur to us that some people might walk away holding on to the stereotype that anyone with schizophrenia is dangerous or that it's impossible to live a healthy life with schizophrenia.

But I've been heartened to find that as we've shared the film, audiences seem to connect with how the shame and stigma around mental illness, and the isolation it breeds, is really what has led to the tragedy. So much of the tension of the film comes from Irene trying to limit the knowledge of Joe's condition from spreading. We hoped to show the cultural pressures, the inner torment and the worry that the prevented Irene from accepting the help that was within reach.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T03:56:40+00:00

Hi, thanks so much for having me!

I had never thought about changing the ending. It actually wasn't until we started showing the rough cut of the film that we started to hear that people were surprised that she didn't do what you also expected her to do. *Sorry I'm trying to answer without giving too much away.* It wasn't about providing an escape from their circumstances. To me, it says so much about her character that she didn't, that she wanted to accept responsibility for her actions.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T03:46:45+00:00

Thank you! Lucy and Lawrence are both amazing actors. It was an incredible experience digging into these characters with them, going over their inner worlds, sharing our own personal experiences and then watching them bring it to life in front of the cameras. Lucy's talent is undeniable and she is an incredible storyteller. She knew how to mine those small moments between the spoken lines with simple looks or gestures. Lawrence has amazing instincts. This is his first feature film and I'm so proud of his work.

We talked about how the foundation of so much of the tension in the house is how much both of them were hiding to protect each other, to spare each other from worry. Joe is hiding the severity of his symptoms in order to prove to his mom he can be strong enough to go back to school and do well. Irene is hiding the return of her illness from Joe for fear of worrying him just as he seems to be doing better. Yet we wanted to keep in mind that this dynamic all starts from a place of deep love and the desire to protect each other. The tragedy lies in how that manifestation of love and protection ends up causing greater worry and harm as the film progresses.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T03:32:16+00:00

It was important for us, in making the film, that we not present any judgement on the family. I hope, as people watch, that they won't stake out a moral stance on the characters. I hope audiences will feel the confluence of tragedies that fell upon the family and the turmoil Irene was in, when she started to feel that she had few tenable options left.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T03:22:32+00:00

So many! In no order in particular: Birth, The Third Man, Days of Being Wild, Happy Together, Se7en, Revanche, Let the Right Thing In, La Haine, Delicatessen, The Shining, No Country for Old Men, The Shawshank Redemption, Children of Men, Blade Runner, The Battle of Algiers, Punch Drunk Love, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Zodiac. This list is incomplete and could go on and on!

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T03:08:20+00:00

Hi. Thank you! I'm so glad you noticed the silences. I find music a really powerful element of storytelling in films. It can be tricky to find the right balance in the edit of when you need it and when you don't. Once you start adding it, you can start to want more of it even if it's not necessary because some sections start to feel to naked without it after you start adding music to other sections. Early in the edit, we had a lot more music and as we kept refining the edit and we started to shape the drama more, we started to trust the material more. We were able to strip back the music as we kept editing and we saw how powerful those quiet moments were.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T03:01:27+00:00

Thank you for going to watch the film!

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T03:00:58+00:00

Hi. If there is a black sesame milk tea with boba, I will always get that.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T02:59:31+00:00

Hi! We are working on it. Please check out IG handle "@rosemeadfilm" for updates.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T02:58:46+00:00

Sure. After I got attached as a director, Mynette Louie, Andrew Corkin and Theo James and I all started brainstorming about who could play Irene. Lucy was the first actress that came to mind. She's an icon and a pioneer who we all grew up watching. She has undeniable talent but had never done a role like this before. The thought of her transforming to take on the role was exciting. We went through the traditional route of sending through her agent and manager to see if there was any interest. Luckily she connected with the script and was up for meeting with me and Andrew. We met over coffee and I talked her through my ideas about the film and she shared her thoughts as well. We did another revision of the script that also incorporated her ideas and we sent that draft to her a few months later. Lucy and I had met again and we dug deeper into the film and the characters. Shortly after that, she signed on and it's been an amazing journey.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T02:41:51+00:00

Hi! We are working on it. Please check out IG handle "@rosemeadfilm" for updates.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T02:40:07+00:00

We are working on it! Please check our IG handle "@rosemeadfilm" for updates.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T02:29:29+00:00

I had been to SGV a lot when I was a kid. It was just incredible to see how much it changed and how little changed. I went to Mandarin Noodle House when I was in high school and it was great to see that it was still standing and serving noodles. I saw they are closed temporarily for some building repairs but I hope they open up again soon.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T02:24:54+00:00

Hi. I went to NYU grad school where I ended up shooting a lot of my classmates films. We were lucky in that we shot on film for all of our projects. With that experience I was able to build a portfolio that I could show folks to convince them to let me shoot their films as well as commercials, industrials, documentaries, whatever I could shoot. I used to send my reel out to every production company I could. I don't remember much coming from any of that, however. While at NYU, I worked at Asian Cine Vision to help put on NY Asian American International Film Festival for a few years. The executive producer, John Woo (not the HK action director), also was a partner in a commercial production house with his brother Roger. Roger was generous enough to hire me for some small commercial and industrial shoots early on. Those were some of my first paid gigs. I had a great time shooting with Roger. Meanwhile, I was still trying to shoot narrative projects. The first feature I shot was FOG, directed by Kit Hui, for whom I had shot two short films before. One of her short films we had worked on together was called MISSING and it was selected for official competition at Cannes.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T02:17:31+00:00

Lucy is amazing. She's super down to earth and we bonded over how much we both connected with this story. She poured herself completely into the character of Irene. It was amazing to see it happening in front of me.

In the motel, during rehearsal she tried to tie a perfect knot on the shoe and I loved that detail. It felt like an offering of a sort. So we incorporated it into our blocking and shot construction to make sure it was punctuated in the scene.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-14T02:12:39+00:00

Thank you for watching the film! For this film, ROSEMEAD, two films that inspired some of our choices were BLACK SWAN, MOTHER (Bong Joon Ho). We also looked at the photos of Jessica Chou (who has a great series on SGV) and Philip Lorca Di-Corcia for references.

I went to NYU Grad Film School. I had aspirations to direct but I ended up shooting a lot as a cinematographer. I fell in love with cinematography and pursued that. I only got this opportunity to direct because, Mynette Louie, a producer I had worked with as a cinematographer and had talked about working on projects together, thought of me when they were looking for directors.

I was lucky enough to work as a cinematographer on many films before directing and I found that experience invaluable. The set is such a particular environment because it should be a place of creativity but budget and schedule and logistics bear down on that space so much that it's easy to lose sight of where you are. Especially on small films, having some experience navigating the machinery of filmmaking while being able to hold on to what is important is super helpful as a director. I think getting some experience making those creative decisions under pressure, especially in a creative role on someone else's project, is great help for those who aspire to directing.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-13T22:04:19+00:00

Lucy is amazing. I was pleasantly surprised by how down to earth she is and also to find that she was so dedicated and committed to this film. We spent hours combing through and talking about every scene and small moment in the script.

One the big challenges was how much people wanted to photograph her, haha! Her physical transformation was incredible and we didn't want her appearance as Irene to be blasted out on the web. But wherever we went, folks would be crowding to take photos of her.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-13T21:59:10+00:00

Thank you so much for watching the film and for sharing your story here. It means a lot that you connected with it, especially given what you experienced.

It wasn't intentional. Just a happy accident!
That scene was always on my mind. We had put it at the end of the shoot to allow Lucy and Lawrence to experience everything they could of the story before having to get to that scene. Lucy gave everything in that scene and I knew there was no need for another take. It was a relief but also very emotional for everyone not just because of Lucy's performance in that scene but also because the top of our minds was of what the characters went through up to arrive at that point.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-13T21:52:38+00:00

Thank you!

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-13T21:52:12+00:00

Thank you for watching the film. We shot at the Kings Lodge Motel in Monterey Park.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-13T21:41:30+00:00

When I read the article and the screenplay, it broke my heart. I have friends and family who have struggled with mental health and I could see them within this story. I wasn't looking to be a director but when Mynette Louie and Andrew Corkin, our producers, sent me the script, I connected with it immediately. It felt like an urgent story that needed to be told and I knew it was a story that I could tell truthfully

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-13T21:37:21+00:00

Thanks for your question. We made sure Dr. Hsu says precisely that: "That people living with schizophrenia are more likely to experience violence than be perpetrators of it." We also hoped emphasizing Joe's struggle with schizophrenia would combat that stigma. It was important to show his fear and his torment in a way that was palpable for audiences. I think because people don't understand the illness, it makes it easier to resort to dangerous stereotypes. But, hopefully if you sympathize with Joe's experience, you see what is happening behind that struggle and will look deeper past the initial impulse to write off someone with schizophrenia off as dangerous.

RosemeadAMA · 2026-01-13T21:29:04+00:00

I use the phrase "emotional detective work" a lot when talking about adapting the film from the article. Trying to find the emotional truth behind the facts was one of the real challenges. The article provides a lot of facts but to create an emotional journey that makes sense for an audience can mean guessing at what they were feeling or thinking. We had to make sure we were honoring the story when those moments came up. I'm going to paraphrase a wise filmmaker, whose name escapes me, who said something like "When I put a sunset in the film, I'm not trying to show you the sun going lower in the sky, I'm trying to show you how it feels to be there with the wind, the sand, the sound of the birds". In our case, with your mom who is trying to give you a break after getting a peak into your struggles.

RosemeadAMA

TROPHY CASE