Amazon.com: A Japanese auto company is persuaded to take over an abandoned factory--and abandoned U.S. workforce--in a small rust-belt town in Middle America. Alas, this wonderful idea for a culture-clash comedy goes pretty much to waste in Gung Ho. Michael Keaton gives his most relentlessly obnoxious performance as the fast-talking shop foreman who never stops BS'ing his Japanese employers, his work buddies (George Wendt and John Turturro among them), his girlfriend (Mimi Rogers), and himself. There's a trumped-up crisis in every reel, and a great deal of double talk about whether the Japanese are workaholic freaks or the new, true inheritors of the old American get-up-and-go. Director Ron Howard and screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel had made the enchanting comedy-fantasy-romance Splash only a couple of years before; they probably thought they were concocting a Frank Capra-style fable here, but, far from having a beautiful mind, this movie is strictly sitcom mentality from top to bottom. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Simply a classic!
Today I work with many Asians. Particularly I have many Japanese customers. As a teen seeing this movie for the first time I couldn't appreciate how prophetic it was.
I decided to pick it up and watch it again, not having seen it for over 20 years. It holds up so, so well.
Don't get caught up in all the anti-USA propaganda of the past decade. Watch this movie. It will help you recognize that the USA is still a young nation, filled with the promise and naive "can-do" attitude that only comes from those that are young. Not every other country hates us...and yes, for ... Read More
Rating: - A timeless comedy for all generations!
This has been one of our families all time favorites. It's not only funny, but it's touching as well. It's as relevant socially today as when it was made. Some of the humor is subtle and so it should be viewed more than once. This movie is a classic and we feel is appropriate for our whole family as it does not have to utilize profanity, violence or other cheap shots to be truly funny. It is extremely well-written and the characters are cast to perfection. It's one of those magic movies where everything seems to work. A TOTALLY FEEL-GOOD EXPERIENCE!
Rating: - An comical look at the 80's Auto invasion
The economy wasnt that good in the 80's and no where was it felt worse than the Auto industry. Lots of people can remember when there was a general panic that the Japanese would take over the car business and that every person in America would be driving a Japanese car.
Gung Ho is the story of a man, Michael Keaton, who is sent to Japan to encourage the Japanese to re-open a car factory in his dying town. Japanese efficiency clashes with the American "do it the way I like" attitude and it soon comes down to a showdown of producing 15,000 cars or loosing the factory.
Rating: - Descent movie, a good movie about teamwork and telling the truth
I have seen this movie probably 10 times since it came out in the theaters, and each time I find it just as funny and likeable. Sure, the characters are sterotyped almost to an extreme, but I have worked with both cultures (both a union blue collar, and a white collar-international based one), and there is a grain of truth to each. The movie had to be exagerated to show more impact, and coming together for the "hollywood effect". The head of the company Oishi Kazihiro played by Gedde Watanabe was my absolute favorite character in the movie, very human, great delivery of some of his lines, and just ... Read More
Rating: - Still holds up well after 20 years. Doesn't take sides and shows cultures finding ways to finally work together.
This movie is now 20 years old. It is an interesting comedy for what it says about how the Japanese and American cultures were trying to learn to work together in a world economy. Americans were not used to being on the losing end of competition, quality, and efficiency. And they tended to see themselves as entitled to their well paying unskilled jobs. The movie exaggerates these traits, but having worked on an assembly line for a couple of years, I can tell you that the exaggerations are still based in reality back in the 1970s and 1980s. The Japanese are portrayed as being all about company, ruthless ... Read More
- 
- 