‘Joy Ride Review: Outrageous Asian American Comedy Gives Fresh Foursome A Chance To Cut Loose

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In 1993, The Joy Luck Club made Hollywood history, proving to a skeptical — and let's be honest — racist industry that there was mainstream demand for culturally sensitive Chinese-American drama. Three decades later comes the Journey of Joy, offering wind sensitivity along the way to eliminate any remaining obstacles. Like Girls Trip, with an all Asian-American cast (and a non-binary protagonist), Seth Rogen's hard-r-road follows small-town friends Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherri Cola) to Beijing. , where they tackled everything from taboo tattoos to the Demon Trio you've come to expect or expect from Adele Lim's directorial debut as co-writer of Crazy Rich Asian.

Lim's Dirty Turn builds on a long tradition of pushing the boundaries in Asian-American comics. From Margaret Cho to Ali Wang to Aukwafina, there's no shortage of examples of smut and good manners — and let's not forget that for all the wild jokes the Hangover movies have to offer, the show's MVP isn't other than Se Ken Jeong. All of which means this moment is so poignant that we can't help but wonder why it took Hollywood so long to see the kind of mischief an all-Asian-American crew can pull off.

"Joy Ride" wastes no time in setting the tone, beginning with a flashback to a special moment 25 years ago when adopted Audrey and newcomer Lolo cemented their friendship: the two girls had just met at White Hills Park. When a bully throws racial slurs across the playground. "Go fart!" Lolo screamed and hit the boy so hard he may need stitches. At the film's SXSW premiere (where Lionsgate entertained the crowd already eager to give up alcohol), the audience erupted in applause, undeniably encouraging — and perhaps hateful Asian Americans given the recent rise in crime. .

For sitcom co-writers Cheri Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, the trick is to surprise viewers with how much they want to push certain scenes. For the main cast — which includes Stephanie Hu (as Audrey's ex-roommate Cat) and non-binary stand-up comedian Sabrina Wu (as Lolo's friendless cousin Dedei) — which also includes "Everything, Everything at Once" star , the concept is state-of-the-art in every respect. Spice it up with ad libs and alt lines.

The movie might not be as catchy as Bridesmaids, but it does have some Hall-of-Famer-worthy comedic scenes, like the slightly forgotten K-pop cover of Cardi B's "WAP," which is - yes, an unforgettable revelation . "Joy Ride" The downside is that the story is too strong to depend on how deep you can go.

Played by David Denman and Annie Mumolo, a successful colleague at an all-white law firm raised by white parents and unaware of her Asian heritage, Audrey is assigned to travel to Beijing and ends up doing business. with an important Chinese customer. He invites Lolo to translate, ignoring the fact that his friend (a "body-positive artist" who finds a way to keep most conversations about sex going) tends to say very inappropriate things in public and to do.

Joy Ride recognizes that women, and particularly women of color, experience a difficult time in the workplace where they are not treated as equals and are often objectified by their peers. But if the film is truly political, it proves that other underrepresented demographics can be just as extreme as the average Seth Rogen film. With that goal in mind, "Joy Ride" contains more awkward vaginal monologues than "Sausage Party", along with jokes, which is definitely an achievement.

In the end, it all comes down to how funny it is, and discounting the reactions of the bloated SXSW audience, much of the humor in "Joy Ride" boils down to insulting the characters ("You look like Hello Kitty just crushed by Keropy.Asia".

The script manages to get the four main characters laughing as they have something to do in key scenes, be it a train ride that degenerates into a desperate scramble for a ton of drugs or other means. concealment. before the Chinese police find her, or an ambitious montage in which each woman is lucky with one or more members of the Chinese Basketball Federation.

The latter proves uncomfortable for Hu's character Kat, a young film and television star engaged to ultra-religious Chinese actor Clarence (Desmond Chiam). Although Kat leads her celebrity boyfriend to believe she is a virgin, conversations between the four characters reveal that she is anything but. The apparent change in Kat's character provides the biggest laughs of the film, insults everyone and antagonizes the four friends, despite an otherwise satisfying script bogged down in fight scenes and the inevitable makeup. The epilogue, set a year later on a completely different continent, didn't work and perhaps should have been saved for the sequel, which seemed inevitable as Lionsgate clearly had a blockbuster on their hands.

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