Gung Ho (film)

Gung Ho (film)

Infobox Film
name = Gung Ho


image_size =
caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Ron Howard
producer = Deborah Blum
writer = Edwin Blum
Lowell Ganz
Babaloo Mandel
narrator =
starring = Michael Keaton
Gedde Watanabe
George Wendt
Mimi Rogers
John Turturro
Clint Howard
Michelle Johnson
music = Thomas Newman
cinematography = Donald Peterman
editing = Daniel P. Hanley
Mike Hill
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = March 14, 1986
runtime = 112 min
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0091159

"Gung Ho" is a 1986 Ron Howard comedy film, released by Paramount Pictures, and starring Michael Keaton and Gedde Watanabe. The film's story portrayed the takeover of an American car plant by a Japanese corporation (although the title of the film is actually a Chinese expression for "work together"). The film was rated PG-13 in the US and certified 15 in the UK.

ynopsis

In "Gung Ho", Keaton plays Hunt Stevenson, a laid off foreman at an American auto plant in Hadleyville, Pennsylvania. The plant is closed, and the employees have been out of work for nine months. Hunt is sent to Tokyo, to try to convince the Assan Motors Corporation to reopen 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 reminiscent of the 1970s US auto industry.

The Japanese executive in charge of the plant is Oishi Kazihiro (Watananbe), 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 Hunt 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, Hunt 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, Hunt 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 Hunt 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, Hunt 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 Hunt'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. Hunt has to respond by addressing his observations that the real reason the workers are facing such difficulties is because the Japanese have the work ethic that too many Americans have abandoned. While his audience is not impressed, Hunt, 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. On the final inspection the company executives pull up outside the plant in a limo. The workers, on seeing their entry, try to assemble the cars in the plant as if they are completed. Hunt is seen with a cloth in his hand pretending to clean the front windshield of one, even though it has been broken just minutes prior by Hunt. At the deadline, they come up six cars short, but their cooperation and dedication so impresses the strict CEO that he congratulates Kazihiro and declares the goal met. As the end credits roll, the workers and management have compromised with the latter agreeing to partially ease up on their requirements while the workers agree to be more cooperative, such as being more diligent and participating in the morning calisthenics.

About

The film spawned a short-lived TV series of the same name. Almost all of the Asian actors reprised their roles from the movie. Clint Howard was the only caucasian actor from the film to appear in the TV show.

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.

Main cast

*Michael Keaton - Hunt Stevenson
*Gedde Watanabe - Oishi Kazihiro, the plant manager
*George Wendt - Buster, a factory worker and Hunt's friend
*John Turturro - Willie, another worker, also Hunt's friend
*Mimi Rogers - Audrey, Hunt's girlfriend

The film also features small supporting roles by Clint Howard, Rick Overton, Sab Shimono, Michelle Johnson, Rance Howard, Rodney Kageyama and Patti Yasutake.

Filming

Though the cars used in the movie were supposedly built by the fictional Assan Motors, they are actually made by Fiat and the most commonly-seen model is the Fiat Regata. The factory where the cars were produced was shot in Rosario, Argentina, while the rest of the movie was shot in central Beaver County, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, mostly in Beaver, as well as neighboring Bridgewater and Rochester.

Many references to Pittsburgh were made in the movie. Keaton, a native of nearby Coraopolis closer to the city of Pittsburgh, would mention constantly in the movie (much to the chagrin of his friends) about leading the town's high school basketball team to the state championship in Pittsburgh. In reality, most state championships in Pennsylvania are played in Hershey, which is more geographically central in the state and is near the state capital of Harrisburg. The WPIAL, whose jurisdiction covers the Pittsburgh metropolitan area (except for Pittsburgh Public Schools, which has their own championships), does play their championship games in Pittsburgh, however. In addition, many extras in the movie are seen wearing Pittsburgh Pirates hats and Pittsburgh Steelers apparel. One worker is even shown wearing a WDVE t-shirt, in reference to the popular classic rock station in the city.

Ironically, the film co-stars actor Gedde Watanabe, and 20 years later, Toyota, the company most closely associated to the cars in the movie, has as its CEO a man named Katsuaki Watanabe, a common Japanese surname.

Impact

Toyota's executives used this film as an example of how not to manage Americans. [ [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_10/b4024071.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_businessweek+exclusives Why Toyota Is Afraid Of Being Number One ] ]

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0091159|title=Gung Ho

Box Office Leaders USA
before = Pretty in Pink
date = March 16
date2 = March 23
year = 1986
after =


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