A comedy film that marks Adele Lim's directorial debut, this is a Malaysian screenwriter who is best known for writing Crazy Rich Asians, the first film with a mostly Asian-descended cast in a modern setting since The Joy Luck Club in 1993.
The film's screenplay written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao revolves around the journey of four Asian American friends to China in an attempt to secure the signature of an Asian American businessman so that Audrey Sullivan can be accepted as a partner in the law firm where she works.
She is adopted and played by Ashley Park, an American actress, dancer and singer, known for her performance as Mindy Chen in Netflix's Emily in Paris, which earned her a Critics' Choice Award nomination.
Upon arriving in Asia and meeting with the businessman, an unexpected twist occurs that forces the group to look for Audrey's biological mother who lives in another city in the interior of the country and the adventure turns into an odyssey where absurdity, satire and black humor are present causing extreme situations that will lead to an unexpected ending.
[Image](https://cinescopia.com/joy-ride-la-comedia-veraniega-que-nadie-esperaba/2023/08/)
Joining Park in this work is Sherry Cola as Lolo Chen, an aspiring artist and childhood friend of Park's, who has a short film career and is best known for playing Alice Kwan in Freeform's Good Trouble. Stephanie Hsu as Kat, a famous Chinese actress who was Audrey's college roommate, known for starring in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), for which she received critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination and Sabrina Wu as Deadeye.
It was released at SXSW on March 17, 2023 and in U.S. theaters on July 7, 2023, receiving positive reviews, both for the performances of the leads and for balancing irreverent humor with emotionality.
Personally, I enjoyed it and recommend it, but I must clarify that it is a movie for an adult audience.
