In 2018, Crazy Rich Asians opened the floodgates for a new wave of mainstream Asian American cinema. Now that film’s writer, Adele Lim, is back with her directorial debut, Joy Ride, which looks at Asian American identity through the lens of a raunchy road comedy.
Audrey (Ashley Park) was adopted at a young age by a white family and is one of the only Asian Americans in the town of White Hills. She grows up and becomes a lawyer, tasked with closing a deal in Beijing to get a promotion. Joining her on the business trip is her childhood best friend and erotic artist Lolo (Sherry Cola), Lolo’s cousin and K-pop superfan Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), and Audrey’s college roommate and Chinese drama actress Kat (Stephanie Hsu). When securing the deal with the company doesn’t go as planned due to Audrey not knowing her birth mother, the four set out to Haiqing to find the agency that handled her adoption many years ago. But on the train to Haiqing, the group has a run-in with a drug dealer that ultimately gets them kicked off the train and their passports stolen. What follows is a cocaine-fueled road-trip-style journey through the Chinese countryside to find Audrey’s birth mother.
Writers Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao and writer-director Lim wanted to tell a story with women who look like them and who are messy and thirsty but still have a lot of heart. In this regard they definitely succeed with flying colors. While humor is obviously subjective, this one ought to be a big hit for the fans of raunchy comedies — and it doesn’t skip the tender moments. While it doesn’t have the emotional depth of Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul, which also focuses on a transracial adoptee, there is still enough to pull the heartstrings of most viewers.
Joy Ride
Even so, while the lead characters feel authentic and are played well, the setting comes off as inauthentic. What we see feels like a hyper-exaggerated version of how Americans view China, with a slew of stereotypical traits for Asian characters. On the topic of stereotypical depictions, I can’t shake the feeling that Wu’s character, Deadeye, is an asexual stereotype. Both the actor and the character are nonbinary, and while nothing here is as offensive as Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, Deadeye still has similar traits that plague asexual characters in mainstream media, such as being hyper obsessive about hobbies to the point of being socially atypical. Deadeye is a step in the right direction, but — outside Spongebob Squarepants — ace representation still has a long way to go.
Regardless, Joy Ride is still a must-see for fans of mainstream, raunchy comedies — an altogether fun time at the movie best enjoyed with a few beers and a group of friends.
