Joy Ride

I was curious to see this one because of the Asian-American thing going on in it (a whole exploration of not feeling "white" enough or "Chinese" enough) even though you could tell from the trailer that it was going to be quite over the top raunchy. That's not really my thing. Anyway, Joy Ride. 

So. Yes. It was actually even rauncier and more debauched than I thought it was going to be. However, it also had a lot of heart and exploration of family and friendship and of feeling lost and out of place. Am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Once was kinda enough. I thought, for me personally, that the over the top stuff made plot sense only about half the time and the rest was more for shock value. But it had a lot of heart.

Anyway, a brief summary. An adoptee from China grows up in middle America, with a best friend who was the only other Asian girl in town. Oh, yeah, I felt that one except I was the ONLY Asian in town for half of high school. To combat the feelings of "less than" and the "ching chong" jokes, she over excels in everything (again, yeah, I feel that). Her friend, meanwhile, is more artistic and truly does not GaF.

Years later, over-achiever is a lawyer being sent to China to close some deal. What kind? Who knows. Just know that it's a bunch of white dudes sending her over. Her best friend is going with (she actually speaks Chinese) and they also meet up with the over-achiever's best friend from Uni who is now a Chinese drama actress and the eccentric cousin of hometown best friend, who is called Deadeye. 

Hm. Honestly, Deadeye is the only one I really got the name of. The rest are kind of archetypes. 

Nothing goes to plan. The deal is gonna fall through because she "doesn't know her family" and they go on a trip to try and locate birth mom. They run into a white girl drug dealer and wind up out of their heads and kicked off a train, passport-less (but at least not in jail). They meet up with a basketball team. Have so much crazy sex stuff happen that they take out half the team. Um, yeah. Meet up with some family of best friend girl, who makes uptight girl feel welcome for the first time and accepting of her Chinese-ness...but then they discover that her birth mom was actually a Korean...so then a crazy-ass sidetrip to Seoul (sans passports) and a really kind weird subplot about an unfortunate devil/oni tattoo and the actress girl's Jesus-loving boyfriend, and then lawyer girl gets fired, they have the big falling out where they all still love each other, yadda yadda. 

It's a feel-good movie with heart but too much shmexy and gross stuff, but overall I enjoyed it.