Joy Ride + Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, Sabrina Wu + The Red Band Tailer + Were There Adoption Consultants On This Film (Will Some Proceeds Of The Film Go To Adult Adoptee Groups)?

Note: This one is completely just written with little to no editing at this point (just writing it out because that's what happens here sometimes). I'll look to edit later if needed, or like I hope to--add in some more information/do another post or set of posts.
I'm going to have a lot more to say on this after 1) I actually see this movie, and 2) When and if I can get some information on what happened behind the scenes in regard to adoption.

But I do have to say, that I'm very very very torn on some aspects of this in regard to not knowing or the film putting out information on the adoption aspect of it, but also incredibly excited from a purely non-adoption related Asian American perspective.

And I love Ashley Park.

And I love this MF trailer from a Red Band standpoint.

And it's totally a movie I would want to see from a pure APIA perspective and especially from an APIA casting perspective, as well as from a behind the scenes perspective. In that way I can't deny what this film can help bring, but I also don't want it at the expense of people who have been through the adoption system as well.

Right?

Like it's a really nice thought to have your best friend right away be someone who's Asian American and have them defend you, but in all reality, that doesn't always happen. And that's not to say a movie should be reality in that way, but at the same time, I do hope there was thought put it into it. I hope there were consultants on it from the Adoption Community of Adults who were adopted and specifically Asian Americans who were adopted into White families.

You see what I'm saying?

I get it. I get those people who are asking questions about it. I get not everyone feels like "Joy Ride" and searching for your Fill In The Blank parents/family should go into the same sentence, especially when the sentiment is around the commodification of babies, and in this case Asian Brown Babies Who Get Stereotyped Even While They're Babies (because that's a part of the reason Asian Babies get put int White families).

Like I completely get the fuck out of that and taking into account the history of Adoptee Voices and having to fight for recognition and to make our voices heard and how this can completely turn people off to it.

I get it.

And the typical searching for your Fill In The Blank parents/family is kind of tired and old in so many ways from that standpoint. Like OMG, can I please get a new story around Adoption just like we lament that we should be able to do more stories outside of immigration and blending on in or talking only about Race.

That resonates with me.

I also think to myself though--if it's done good, if it's done correctly, sometimes eyes outside of the direct sphere of the community, like seeing your country through the eyes of someone else--it can sometimes work. And I have to say that while not all searches are "funny" events--I don't know or hear about a ton of people who've done it with friends--it doesn't mean that at times we don't try and find levity here and there. And from a sheer story standpoint--I mean, it can work.

I haven't heard anything in any news reports or articles about consultants who were Asian American and adopted, or who went through the system, and I'd like to think if people were paying attenting from BB they would have seen the need for it, but I can't say for sure what did or did not happen--so I'm still hopeful that people like the filmmakers have done that, just like they would want for APIA related pieces of a story--that same representation and insight right?

But I don't know and there are some other pieces in the trailer where I wonder--like the going back to the motherland line scene--for a film as irrevrant as this, a line about abducting her would be funny (and again maybe they do treat it like that in the film itself).

At the same time, it's a comedy so we can't expect everything, and there are a couple scenes in there were I see the anger come out--so that's good (because that's real), so IDK.

In many ways I like the idea of this, especially because life happens and this is something we all have to deal with--can't stop it in that sense.

I know I'm probably gonna love it from a raunchy/friendship/bonding movie--like I feel that portion.

But I don't know if the adoption pieces, if they aren't done well, if they are the same tropes, if that will override that feeling and turn me off.

Hopefully I'll get some more information, or it will come out more on consultants, or Adoptees being close to the film (I don't know if anyone who wrote it/directed it, etc. was adopted). But we'll have to wait and see.

Honestly I don't know. And I'm just writing this as I go. I heard on TikTok there was a showing and someone just cried after they saw it cause they were a Chinese Adoptee and it totally hit them/triggered them, etc. so I hope there's some good words at the end of the movie. Maybe some proceeds to Adult Adoption Groups (which the more I think about it--again giving the history of Asian adoption to US White Families and voices being quashed, and the corruption surrounding adoptions--commodifying brown babies for $$$)--I do hope they give some proceeds of the film to Adult Adoption Groups.

I mean MF MF MF.

And just to answer the question--no I don't want this to fail from an Asian American perspective--like if you ask that question you just haven't even read one post here. Because are you kidding me? I want this to succeed in a totally different way then something like CRA. I could only hope this succeeds in so many ways because of the way it will help advance more in the APIA community from a film/media/representation standpoint, as well as from behind the camera. I mean fuck. Can you imagine if this breaks a shit ton of MF records? That would be amazing on that level.

But--and that's the thing--I don't want it being done at the expense of other Asian Americans, like myself as well, who can be othered. Who can not be seen as Asian American because we're still infantalized because people have their own stereotypes about us--like who we are, what we feel, what we know, what we don't know, how Asian we feel, or do not feel, or even if we care about finding X. And none of what I just typed should infer anything about me and who I am or what I'm thinking--you see what I mean?

If it's done at the expense of us as a group--that's not great either...

IDK. I just don't know.