There’s no shortage of earthy content in this deliberately outrageous directing debut from Crazy Rich Asians writer, Adele Lim. We see a close-up of an extremely intimate tattoo. We hear about a sex position called ‘the Eiffel Tower’ (it includes high fives; ew, I don’t think the French would approve). The big surprise? There’s more to Joy Ride than adults-only humour.
The central characters are four twentysomethings who get themselves into a jam, in China. Clenched lawyer, Audrey (Ashley Park), adopted as a baby by white Americans, is trying to close a deal in Beijing, hampered by the fact that she can only speak four words of Mandarin. Her two Chinese-American best friends, Sherry Cola’s Lolo and Stephanie Hsu’s Kat – along with Lolo’s K-Pop-obsessed cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), whose character is implied to be autistic – want to help Audrey pass as Chinese. But does our heroine need to meet her birth mother in order to truly “belong”?
As well as being sensitively performed – Park, Wu and Hsu, Oscar nominated for Everything Everywhere All at Once, are the standouts – this movie deftly explores internalised racism, the importance of online friendships for those on the spectrum and the stigma attached (even now) to pre-marital sex.
Thanks to all the humping, puking, swearing, coke-ingesting, singing, and brightly-coloured montages, Joy Ride (co-produced by Seth Rogen) keeps being compared to Bridesmaids, The Hangover and Girls Trip. It does draw on those classics, but it’s also riffing on Lulu Wang’s indie gem, The Farewell, and the sit-com, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens.
The influence of actress-comedian Awkwafina can’t be overstressed. Struggling artist Lolo – uncouth, merrily immature and financially challenged – owes much to naughty Nora (and both characters have a granny played by Lori Tan Chinn). Which makes sense once you discover that the scriptwriters, Teresa Hsiao and Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, used to work on that gloriousy unglossy, Asian-specific TV show. The pair aren’t new to the game of re-defining what it means to be different.
That said, you can also tell Hsiao and Chevapravatdumrong spent their formative years thinking up gags for Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy. The duo’s desire to offend is mostly refreshing, but sometimes cruel. What happens to a chicken is not OK.
That mean streak, which results in a sort of equal-opportunities alienation, may or may not explain why the film flopped at the US box office. Never mind: Lim’s effort will find an audience. Bar the odd nasty bump, this is an enjoyably jolting ride.
92mins, cert 15
