YNOT at the Movies

If you are tired of the stereotypical images of Asian Americans being modest, hard-working, and successful "model citizens" often portrayed in the media, you will be delighted by the director Adele Lim's raunchy and hilarious directorial debut "Joy Ride" (USA 2023 | 95 min.). None of the film's main characters fits that stereotype. Instead, they are lively, imperfect, diverse, energetic, and mesmerizing individuals who also share the common issues such as cultural identity and racial discrimination that many Asian Americans face every day. By no means is the film's story coherent and convincing, actually it is far from it. Nevertheless, it's a fun and wild ride that you won't regret taking part in.

Adopted by a white couple in the Midwest when she was an infant, Audrey (Ashley Park) now is a tough corporate lawyer. Lolo (Sherry Cola), an aspiring artist obsessed with sex objects, has been Audrey's best friend since their childhood. Audrey doesn't even speak Chinese, but she exaggerates her understanding of Chinese culture and is sent to Beijing to close a business deal. So she reaches out to Lolo for help and tags Lolo to be her translator on the trip. Without Audrey's consent, Lolo brought along her awkward but super cool cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu). Once the three arrive in China, they are joined by Audrey's college friend Kat (Stephanie Hsu), now a rising star in China on television.

It's a sloppy setup to get the four together, and it gets sloppier when they hit the road in China and later even in South Korea. But the why and how they are in China and South Korea become less relevant, because the four leads, along with all the people they encounter, deliver comedy gold that is often so raunchy that you would not have dreamed they are delivered by Asians.

The director Adele Lim is known as one of the writers of the big hit "Crazy Rich Asians" (2018). It's no surprise that many sharp lines in the film are laugh-out-loud materials you would hear in a stand-up club. She also really pushes the envelope as far as an R-rated movie can go, and moves the comic standard one notch higher.

Even though the comedy is done well in the film, the drama is quite a different story. Some subplots are not only unconvincing, but also unnecessary. For example, it's absurd for Audrey to begin on a journey to search for her birth mom on a business trip, because the business counterpart wants to know her past. What's even more bizarre is that they can travel from China to South Korea without their passports; seems like the film simply wants to expand the story to other exotic locations for the sake of doing so.

But when you laugh all the way to the end of the film, you will probably forgive these flaws. Laughter can be the best remedy for many problems.

"Joy Ride" opens on Friday, July 7, 2023.