Gung Ho (film)
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Gung Ho is a 1986 Ron Howard film comedy, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Michael Keaton and Gedde Watanabe. The film's story portrayed the take over of an American car plant by a Japanese corporation (although the title of the film is actually a Chinese expression for "work together"). Its tagline was "When East meets West, the laughs shift into high gear!". The film was rated PG-13 in the US and certified 15 in the UK.
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[edit] Synopsis
In Gung Ho, Keaton plays Hunt Stevenson, a worker at an American car plant. The plant is failing, and many employees have been out of work for months. Hunt is sent to Tokyo, to try to convince the Assan Motors Corporation to take over the plant. The Japanese company agrees, and upon their arrival in the U.S., they take advantage of the desperate work force and institute many changes. The workers are not permitted a union, are paid lower wages, are moved around within the factory so that each man learns every job, and are held to seemingly impossible standards of efficiency and quality. Adding to the strain in the relationship, the Americans also find humor in the demand that they do calisthenics as a group each morning, and that the Japanese executives eat their lunches with chopsticks and bathe together in the river near the factory. The workers also display a stereotypically poor work ethic and lackadaisical attitude towards quality control reminiscient of the 1970s US auto industry.
The Japanese executive in charge of the plant is Kazihiro, who has been a failure in his business career thus far because he is too lenient on his workers. He has been given one final chance to redeem himself by making the American plant a success. Intent on becoming the strict manager his superiors expect, he gives Stevenson a large promotion on the condition that he work as a liaison between the Japanese management and the American workers, to smooth the transition and convince the workers to obey the new rules. More concerned with keeping his promotion than with the welfare of his fellow workers, Stevenson does everything he can to trick the American workers into compliance, but the culture clash becomes too great and he begins to lose control of the men.
In an attempt to solve the problem, Stevenson makes a deal with Kazihiro: if the plant can produce 15,000 cars in one month, thereby making it as productive as any Japanese auto plant, then the workers will all be given raises and jobs will be created for the remaining unemployed workers in the town. However, if only 14,999 cars are completed, the workers will get nothing. When Stevenson calls an assembly to tell the workers about the deal, they balk at the idea of making so many cars in so short a time. Under pressure from the crowd, Stevenson lies and says that if they make 13,000, they will get a partial raise. After nearly a month of working long hours toward a goal of 13,000—despite Stevenson's pleas for them to aim for the full 15,000—the truth is discovered and the workers strike. Because of the strike, Assan Motors plans to abandon the factory again, which would mean the end of the town. Stevenson, hoping to save the town and atone for his deception, and Kazihiro, desperate to show his worth to his superiors, go back into the factory and begin to build cars by themselves, still trying to meet the goal of 15,000. They succeed in inspiring the rest of the workers to return to the factory and through team work (and by cutting some corners in quality in the last few cars —"Just little things... like engines") they continue to work toward their goal. At the deadline, they come up a few cars short, but their cooperation and dedication so impresses the strict CEO that he congratulates Kazihiro and declares the plant a success.
The film spawned a shortlived TV series of the same name. Almost all of the asian actors reprised their roles from the movie in the show but none of the caucasian actors did.
The movie was released in Australia under the title Working Class Man, which was also the title of one of the songs in the movie sung by Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes.
[edit] Main cast
- Michael Keaton - Hunter Stevenson
- Gedde Watanabe - Kazihiro, the plant manager
- George Wendt - Buster, a factory worker and Hunter's friend
- John Turturro - Willie, another worker, also Hunter's friend
- Mimi Rogers - Hunter's girlfriend
The film also features small supporting roles by Clint Howard, Rick Overton, Sab Shimono, Erika Eleniak, and Patti Yasutake.
[edit] Cars
Though the cars used in the movie were supposedly built by the fictional Assan Motors, they are actually made by Fiat. The more commonly seen model is the Fiat Regata, though the Fiat Ritmo in varous stages of production can also be spotted in some scenes.
[edit] External link
- Gung Ho at the Internet Movie Database
