Richard Crouse

“Joy Ride,” a new comedy starring Ashley Park and Sherry Cola and now playing in theatres, is a raunchy road trip movie that pushes the boundaries of both its humor and its examination of family and platonic love.

According to Audrey (Park), she and Lolo (Cola) became friends because they were “the only two Asian girls” in their suburban Washington state town. Fast friends from the playground to adulthood, they are a great example of how opposites attract. Audrey is a career-obsessed corporate lawyer, on the fast track to becoming a partner at her firm, while Lolo is an irreverent free spirit, trying to make it as an artist.

When Audrey’s firm sends her on a business trip to China, to close a deal with millionaire Chao (Ronny Chieng), Lolo tags along as translator and troublemaker. “Best friends’ trip,” she shouts. “This is going to be iconic.”

Completing the crew are Lolo’s eccentric cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) and Audrey’s college BFF Kat (“Everything Everywhere All at Once’s” Stephanie Hsu) who is now a television star in Beijing. It’s an uneasy group. Deadeye is off in their own world and Lolo and Kat constantly snipe at one another.

On the ground in Beijing, Audrey and her squad meet with Chao in a crowded nightclub for a night of excessive drinking, eating and playing a slapping game that is as painful as it is ridiculous. “I heard that if you keep up with Chinese businessmen,” says Lolo as a new tray of shots arrives at the table, “they respect you more.”

The night turns serious when Chao says he wants to meet Audrey’s family. “How are we supposed to do business together if we do not know one another’s families?” he asks. Trouble is, Audrey, although born in China, was adopted as a child and raised in America by a white family.

Turns out Lolo, who always thought Audrey should track down her birth mom, has already done some research and discovered the mother lives an hour-and-a-half away. When Chao insists on meeting her, Audrey and company set off on a wild sex, drugs and rock n’ roll (OK, make that K-Pop) fueled trip to reunite mother and daughter.

“Joy Ride” is explicit and emotional. Audrey and her friends engage in a comedy-of-errors—they become reluctant drug mules, run amok in a hotel full of professional basketball players and perform a rowdy remake of Cardi B’s “WAP” with an unexpected reveal—but mixed in with the raunch are sincere messages of identity and belonging that prevent the movie from feeling like a series of outrageous set pieces strung together. The whole thing is bound by the cast’s genuine chemistry, a kind of “Bridemaid’s” bond that allows for the movie’s wild shifts in tone.

It’s is Audrey’s search for identity and self-discovery as an Asian adoptee living in America that lies at the heart of the story. Her coming-of-age in China brings with it an introspection uncommon in hard-R comedies.

“Joy Ride” is a culturally specific story that smashes stereotypes with vagina tattoos and universal messages of self-worth, renewal and the importance of comradery.