To set the scene: The summer comedy's four protagonists are stuck in China, trying to get to South Korea despite having had their passports stolen. They need a big, shiny distraction. So naturally, they disguise themselves as the brand-new (fictional) K-pop group Brownie Tuesday and launch into a yassified version of the sexually explicit, modern rap classic.
It's a larger-than-life scene that gets its last laugh from a flash of female frontal nudity, a rarity in film but especially in the context of the genre. "Dicks have always been comedy somehow," says the film's co-writer, Teresa Hsiao. "Jason Segel whips it out in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and you laugh. But women's anatomy has always been sexualized. And we can take that back too. This can also be funny. Our parts are not always just there to be sexy."
"WAP" is a microcosm of the themes of the movie, which premiered to raves at SXSW in March and hits theaters July 7: It rolls a message of female empowerment and owning one's sexuality into something else. For the song, that something is rap lyrics and splashy visuals. For the movie, it's messy comedy and raw raunch.
Joy Ride is deliciously filthy, but buried beneath the dirty jokes is a genuine story of identity and friendship. The movie follows Audrey (Emily in Paris' Ashley Park) back to her motherland, China, on a business trip to close a critical deal.
This story is from the July 24, 2023 edition of Time.
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This story is from the July 24, 2023 edition of Time.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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