Joy Ride Film Review (2023): An Adult Comedy Touched By Asian Culture

Joy Ride (Lionsgate)

JAKARTA - A debut film can be said to determine whether a director can enter the world of film with his briefing. Adele Lim, who wrote Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) is now trying her luck with her debut film, Joy Ride.

Again presenting the pride of Asia, this film is full of Asian elements. Starting from the location set in China to the four main Asian characters. So will the story connect with the audience?

Joy Ride tells the story of the friendship of Audrey Sullivan (Ashley Park) and Lolo Chen (Sherry Cola) since their first impressive meeting as a child. Lolo grew up with his Asian family while Audrey was the adopted son of a white family.

Year after year, Audrey and Lolo grew into life. Audrey is now successful in becoming a lawyer at a leading law firm in the United States, while Lolo tries to work by creating various statues.

One day, Audrey was assigned to go to Beijing to sign a partnership with a company. Audrey, who looks very Asian, is not fluent in Mandarin, therefore he invites Lolo.

At the same time, Lolo invited Audrey to look for his biological mother after finding a photo of his biological mother holding Audrey's baby.

Initially, Audrey refused because he wanted to focus on his job. But that thought changed after they met Audrey's old friend, Kat Huang (Stephanie Hsu) who is now a top Chinese actress and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Lolo's friend who is obsessed with K-pop.

The journey, which started to be fun, actually had some rock' and in the end, Audrey was faced with the difficulty of finding her mother.

Nyentrik, rough, and warm. Those three words may be a picture of what happens in the film Joy Ride. Dialogue and its flow may remind you of The Hangover (2009) but in the frame of a woman.

They openly describe that Asians often get discriminated against or belittled by those around them. This picture is very clear in Audrey's story, which although it looks successful as a lawyer, his fellow firms often question his performance.

Instead of being low, these four Asian characters try to 'gaduh' with that unfairness. Are you treated racist? So feel the raw bombs of these characters. Strange, but still entertaining.

The four characters with different stocks managed to create balanced chemistry. In the midst of strange humor, they have problems and one by one they start to warm up the situation even though later they will return to being cooperative.

The story of the road trip, which is full of jokes, today also brings the excitement of four friends. This film also presents a surprising revelation side compared to films in general. Close to the audience, this film seems to summarize the title Joy Ride or a fun journey.

Joy Ride can be seen in Indonesian cinemas.