Yes, the story is not new, it has been told many times and in this regard the film does not bring much that is new or surprising. But when honest - not yet in this way. A brilliant all-Asian female cast pulls out all the stops. The recent emergence of women with an Asian background in Hollywood has not only been evident since "Awkwafina", "Red" or "Everything, everywhere and all at once". But so clearly, in this massing it was new. And very pleasant. Very unclichéd. Not everything was very believable, especially some events in China, but let's accept that, it's a comedy, not reality.
The chemistry between the four actresses clearly works great. The trip produces some beautiful images of landscapes and cities. Also nice, unlike in many comparable productions, men are not consistently shown as stupid or mean, but rather lovable with all their quirks, even if only as secondary characters (or just unlovable, if necessary, as female characters too). It's also nice that Asia isn't lumped together. (Han) Chinese are Chinese, Koreans are Koreans, Kazakhs are Kazakhs. And they also have resentments and prejudices among themselves. It's also nice that all the characters were allowed to live their lives without prejudice. Including the openly expressed sexuality of some of the sometimes self-confident, sometimes insecure protagonists. In general, the film surprisingly managed to maintain a reasonably good balance between (family) friendly humor and naughtiness (when do you ever see a close-up of a tattooed vulva in a film without it all feels "dirty"?). The movie is not really dirty, but it's not cloyingly sweet either. For me it hits the perfect balance.
If you think at the end of a film that it could have lasted a little longer, it can't have been that bad. I'd love to see more films like this.
The chemistry between the four actresses clearly works great. The trip produces some beautiful images of landscapes and cities. Also nice, unlike in many comparable productions, men are not consistently shown as stupid or mean, but rather lovable with all their quirks, even if only as secondary characters (or just unlovable, if necessary, as female characters too). It's also nice that Asia isn't lumped together. (Han) Chinese are Chinese, Koreans are Koreans, Kazakhs are Kazakhs. And they also have resentments and prejudices among themselves. It's also nice that all the characters were allowed to live their lives without prejudice. Including the openly expressed sexuality of some of the sometimes self-confident, sometimes insecure protagonists. In general, the film surprisingly managed to maintain a reasonably good balance between (family) friendly humor and naughtiness (when do you ever see a close-up of a tattooed vulva in a film without it all feels "dirty"?). The movie is not really dirty, but it's not cloyingly sweet either. For me it hits the perfect balance.
If you think at the end of a film that it could have lasted a little longer, it can't have been that bad. I'd love to see more films like this.