Joy Ride is the Raunchiest, Hippest Trip

Adele Lim is a mad genius. After all, this is the same doll who took Asians in cinema to a whole new level with the film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ making it a monster hit in 2018. Now, Lim has teamed up with besties Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao for one of the hippest, raunchiest trip to hit screens – EVER with Joy Ride!

When Audrey’s (Ashley Park) business trip to Asia goes sideways, she enlists the help of Lolo (Sherry Cola), her childhood best friend, Kat (Stephanie Hsu), a college friend, and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Lolo’s eccentric cousin. Their no-holds-barred experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.

Joy Ride is exactly as it’s title suggest and the four leads are bright shining stars with the world at their feet. Ashley Park as Audrey hits a full range of emotions while embarking on a journey to find her birth Mom. Park, known for her Broadway chops and comedy prowess, hits all the right dramatic notes with such vulnerability that audience is with her every step of the way. Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu, each of whom have been lauded within the comedy community are fantabulous, yet straddle the drama required with full veracity and heart. Of the four, Stephanie Hsu as Kat leans into the stereotypical tropes of being an Asian actress with notes of perfection making her just as brilliant if not more than her onscreen counterparts.

Lim, Hsiao and Chevapravatdumrong provide a scene that will go down in cinematic history involving hiding a white powdery substance in very inconspicuous places and its unexpected aftermath will have audiences curled in a laughing knot while trying to catch your breath!

As a woman of color, who has seen every iteration of us onscreen from the sublimely ridiculous to vaguely realistic, I applaud these filmmakers. Not only do they make fun of themselves as a culture, but simultaneously lean into the culture with teachable moments for the audience who is not familiar. At the same time, drive home the fact that everyone regardless of race, creed or color has a right to know where they come from in order to ascertain where they are going. Asians are not monolithic, never have been. Now, maybe Hollywood can produce more stories like Joy Ride which prove once and for all that we are all just human beings trying to navigate this thing called life by any means necessary. A little outageous humor along the way never hurt nobody.