Joy Ride film is a raunchy adult comedy. In this film, the four Asian friends travel all the way from the USA to China, supposedly on a business trip there. But it is more of a personal tour.
The misadventures trip undertaken by these four friends – Kat (Stephanie Hsu), Audrey (Ashley Park), Lolo (Sherry Cola) and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) kept us thoroughly entertained.
Synopsis (summary) of this adult comedy film
The hilarious and unapologetically explicit story of identity and self-discovery centres on four unlikely friends who embark on a once-in-a-lifetime international adventure.
When Audrey’s (Ashley Park) business trip to Asia goes sideways, she enlists the aid of Lolo (Sherry Cola), her irreverent, childhood best friend who also happens to be a hot mess; Kat (Stephanie Hsu), her college friend turned Chinese soap star; and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Lolo’s eccentric cousin.
So, it follows four Asian American friends as they bond and discover the truth of what it means to know and love who you are, while they travel through China in search of one of their birth mothers.
Their no-holds-barred, epic 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.
Review of the Joy Ride (2023) movie
The inspiration
This 2023 film “Joy Ride” is a nod to the 1993 film “The Joy Luck Club”. It was a drama featuring a predominantly Asian American ensemble cast, of the four key Chinese characters in that. Thus, its inspiration is “The Joy Luck Club” a film based on the book titled The Joy Luck Club penned by Amy Tan.
That narrated the tale of Four mothers, Four daughters, and Four families tracing their roots to China, whose histories shift with the Four winds depending on who’s telling the stories. Moreover, this film’s title and tagline “Four friends. One trip. No luck.” shares key thematic words from the title of the book/film named above. Furthermore, in both films, the protagonist travels to China to connect with long-lost members of her birth family.
The storyline of the film
To be honest, we watched this lewd and crazy funny travel film with great anticipation. As it explored the familiar tales about the Asian diaspora settled in the Western nations. Now coming back to this film, herein, we meet the Four friends belonging to the Asian American community. Almost all of them yearn to get in touch with their familial roots. So, they undertake a nostalgic trip to their ancestral homeland to learn about people, culture, heritage, history, civilization, etc.
Adele Lim is the creator of this film
This ‘Joy Ride’ movie comes from Adele Lim, a Malaysian screenwriter, producer, and director. She wrote the “Crazy Rich Asians” film not so long ago, and we really adored that film. In fact, it is Adele Lim’s directorial debut. According to her own statement on IG, this is a batshit film of hers.
A few video clips from this film
We have already warned you all that it is an adult comedy film. So, we share a couple of sample video links of the comic scenes from the naughty film about four friends.
First video is the comedy scene clip called Pai Pai wherein they play an unique drinking game in the mainland China.
Here is the second scene of this risqué adult comedy. Herein, these four friends sing a racy and suggestive song at the airport in China. As they prove their identity as the K-pop star.
Check out another comdey scene clip titled Brownie Tuesday wherein they are impersonating a famous K-pop girl group and sing a song with lewd and obscene lyrics.
It has a bunch of funny actors and the conclusion
In case you love these two sample scenes, then go ahead and join the Joy Ride to enjoy their comic performances. Our favourite character in this film is “Deadeye” (played by Sabrina Wu. Besides, we loved all those hilarious scenes wherein Sabrina Wu’s Deadeye explains her nickname to Kat by putting on a blank expression.
All the lead actors – Stephanie Hsu (Kat), Ashley Park (Audrey), Sherry Cola (Lolo) and Sabrina Wu (Deadeye) have done a good comedy in the film.
This film surprised us with its bawdy humour, twists, turns and emotions.
To conclude, we really enjoyed their fun and joyous ride into Asia. It was worth a trip and a good ride for us too.
Key details of this 2023 adult comedy film
| Genre | Comedy |
| Original languages | English (USA) & a bit of Asian languages |
| Age-restrictions | A (18+) |
| Released | July 2023 |
| Film length | 1 hour 35 minutes |
| Writers | Adele Lim, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, & Teresa Hsiao |
| Director | Adele Lim |
| Cast | Stephanie Hsu (Kat), Ashley Park (Audrey), Sherry Cola (Lolo), Sabrina Wu (Deadeye), David Denman (Joe Sullivan), Desmond Chiam (Clarence), Alexander Hodge (Todd), Annie Mumolo (Mary Sullivan) |
| Distributor | Lionsgate Films |
| Taglines | Four friends. One trip. No luck. |
Poster of this 2023 adult comedy film
Rating of this 2023 adult comedy film
| FM’s rating | 3.50/5 |
| FM’s short comments | We liked that these four Asian friends turned their journey into a joyous and memorable tour, instead of a mere emotional nostalgic trip to their homeland, |
Trailer of this 2023 adult comedy film
If you like this comedy film – Joy Ride, then go ahead and check out the article about the SisterS series in our Focus Magazine, too; which deals with a similar trip into nostalgia.
Featured Image and Poster of the Joy Ride (2023) film are courtesy of Lionsgate Movies.
