Let’s imagine “The Hangover” and “Pineapple Express” but it’s on steroids and an all Asian-American lead cast replaces your Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis.
Joy Ride is rated hard-R and after having seen the trailer, it truly, has earned that Red Band certification. As the trailer opens, two little Chinese girls, are making friends with each other and as a racist bully kid refuses to let them in on a ride, one of the girls hurls the F-word at him with the clarity of a cocky teenager. Next frame: These two girls , Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo (Sherry Cola) are best friends now. They plan a trip to China, for innocent fun and to learn more about Audrey’s birth parents.
On their trip, they are joined by their college roommate-turned-Chinese soap star Kat (Academy Award nominee Stephanie Hsu), and her cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu). Now if you remember me mentioning The Hangover, you’ll know this trip will entail nothing sober and innocent. But mind you, this is nothing like The Hangover. It’s as fresh and unhinged as anything gets.
As this trip progresses, their activites range from raunchy parties to hiding cocaine sachets in body cavities to escape the police. Wait till you see them trying to bypass airport security by impersonating a K-pop band. Wild would be a gross understatement. But it’s not all drugs, parties, fornication and painfully popping out those little cocaine parcels. By the time this trip has ended, all 4 of them will have learnt more about heart and friendship than they ever could had all of this not happened.
Joy Ride is directed by Adele Lim, who has previously written the script for Crazy Rich Asians. Speaking to Variety about the film, Lim said, “There’s a history of women being exoticized, fetishized and sexualized, but through a white male point of view. The solution is not to strip away the fun and the sexuality; we wanted to tell a story, but on our terms. It’s a story about friendship that shows that we can be messy and thirsty with problems but from the female gaze.”
Joy Ride releases in theatres on July 7.
You can watch the trailer here –
