Rosemead adapts true case of a mother who killed her schizophrenic son

Time reports that Rosemead, in theaters nationwide Jan. 9, is inspired by the true story of Lai Hang, a 49-year-old mother dying of cancer who fatally shot her schizophrenic son George, 17, while he was sleeping because she was afraid he was going to carry out a mass shooting. The film, adapted from a 2017 Los Angeles Times story by Frank Shyong, stars Lucy Liu as Irene, a mother who tries to keep her son’s schizophrenia secret from other parents.

The real Lai Hang went to grade school in Laos, spent her teenage years in Hong Kong, studied graphic design in Tokyo, moved to the U.S. in 1992, married her husband Peter, opened a printing shop in Alhambra and later bought a house in a gated Rosemead community; her son George was born in 1998.

After Peter was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 and died during George’s freshman year, George’s personality changed and he was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, and Hang said she felt she had no one to talk to because of cultural stigma around mental health. Records from the Los Angeles County Sheriff that Shyong used show that on July 27, 2015 Hang picked up a handgun, checked into a motel with George and, when he fell asleep, shot him twice in the chest, then stayed with him and later called 911.

Key Topics

Culture, Rosemead, Lai Hang, George, Lucy Liu, Frank Shyong