Joy Ride (2023)

Joy Ride (2023)

 

7/10

 

Starring

Ashley Park

Sherry Cola

Stephanie Hsu

Sabrina Wu

 

Directed by Adele Lim

 

Coming from a guy, I liked the way this film handled women and sexuality. I loved the way it handled the character development of each of the four ladies and the way it always finds a way to pull a rabbit out of a hat, occasionally when you think you have guessed how things were going to turn out.

This is a good film, and it deserves more publicity for the way it was written and the way it was directed by directorial debut Adele Lim.

It is easy to step into a cinema and expect to see b-film level acting and writing when you go see a movie about women going on a trip. It is a regular serving from Hollywood, so you can practically guess some of the things that will happen in the film. These things are regular with trip films and happened in this one too.

There is always the overly serious, who along with their friends go on a trip. Ours in this movie is Aubery (an Asian adopted by white parents as a child) who needs to visit China on a business trip but does not speak any Chinese. Aubery childhood friend Lolo grew up with her Chinese family and speaks Chinese, so she will tag along with Aubery to translate for her. Aubery has a friend from Uni who stays in China and works as an actress her name is Kat, they were going to meet up when she lands in China. The last but not the least, is Deadeye, Lolo’s cousin.

As you would expect, according to the road trip formula something went wrong, and they lost their passports because of it. Then they get some luck, and this is where the film took a strong sexual detour. Which also adds to their mess and after some more bad luck, their friendship gets caught in the mix.

The movie stayed through to the formula so no surprises there when these things happen, but the path it took to getting from point A of the start of the trip to their bad luck at Point B, and all the other points before we get to the ending with the apology was funny and occasionally surprising.

Good film and one that will not waste your time. The ladies did a great job in their roles, and even though the movie was not a run away box-office hit, if any movie deserves going for another run at a trip, this one does more than the rest we have seen attempt it.