Joy Ride director responds to critic who claims movie 'targets white people'

Adele Lim is taking the critiques of her feature directorial debut in stride.

The Crazy Rich Asians and Raya and the Last Dragon scribe has addressed a critic on Twitter who called her new comedy, Joy Ride, "incredibly unpleasant" and claimed that it "objectifies men" and "targets white people."

"Imma need 'Objectifies men, targets white people' on a T-shirt,'" Lim tweeted in response.

The R-rated romp, written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, follows an Asian American adoptee (Ashley Park), who embarks on a trek across China to find her birth mother with the help of her three pals (played by Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu). When the friends encounter a drug smuggler aboard a train, debauchery and madness ensue.

"It's the first time that we are putting four Asian faces in the middle of an R-rated comedy," Lim told The Hollywood Reporter last month. "If you f--- up — if a project with a queer lead, a Black lead, or an Asian lead fails — the industry's knee-jerk reaction is to blame it on the otherness. You don't want that fear to paralyze you and keep you from creating from a place of joy."

Ed Araquel/Lionsgate Sabrina Wu, Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, and Stephanie Hsu in 'Joy Ride'

The movie's significance is not lost on its four leads, who recently gathered for EW's Around the Table series to discuss their hunger to bring the story to screen. "Before diving into the process of Joy Ride and seeing the script and how refreshing it was, there was a part of me that needed to be a part of this," Cola said. "I was like, 'Oh, wow, this is rare. The first of its kind.' And it's also just so unapologetically funny."

Park added, "I think all of us, when we got the script, we were like, 'This movie has to happen.' As much as we've all wanted things in the past, it was more about, 'If I get to be a part of this, that's so cool, but please, please, please let this movie happen.'"

Joy Ride cruises into theaters July 7.

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