Line #5 Film/GungHo


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gung_ho_1986.jpeg]]
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3	''Gung Ho'' is a 1986 comedy film directed by Creator/RonHoward, starring Creator/MichaelKeaton with a supporting cast that includes Gedde Watanabe, Creator/GeorgeWendt, Creator/JohnTurturro, Creator/MimiRogers, Creator/SabShimono and Creator/ClintHoward.
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5	The small town of Hadleyville, Pennsylvania, is fading fast. The car factory, engine of the local economy, has closed down, and former autoworker and local union head Hunt Stevenson (Keaton) is sent to Tokyo to attract Assan Motors to take over the plant. They do, and the town is saved, but now the American workers and the Japanese management will have to somehow learn to overcome their cultural differences and work together. HilarityEnsues.
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7	The film was subsequently [[RecycledTheSeries adapted]] into a short-lived Creator/{{ABC}} sitcom starring Creator/ScottBakula as Hunt.
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9	----
10	!!This film provides examples of:
11	* AbsurdlyHugePopulation: A frustrated Kazuhiro tells Hunt how crowded Japan is.
12	-->'''Kaz:''' I came out here to be alone. In Japan, you're never alone. You put on your pants, there's someone in there.
13	* TheAllegedCar: Some of the last few of the 15,000 cars they build in a month are rather unfinished. [[spoiler: When Hunt tries to drive one out of the factory, it falls apart after going maybe 5 feet.]]
14	* BlatantLies: Hunt tries to pretend that one of the unfinished cars has a windshield, and is immediately called on it by Sakamoto.
15	* CulturalPosturing:
16	-->'''Kaz:''' From now on, this plant will be run ''our'' way, the way ''we'' know how!
17	-->'''Hunt:''' Oh yeah? Yeah, well if you guys are so great, how come you lost [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the big one]]?
18	* DyingTown: Hadleyville is a factory town without a factory until Assan Motors reopens the plant and saves the town.
19	* InterchangeableAsianCultures:
20	** The theme of the film is Americans and Japanese learning to work together. "Gung ho" means "work together," but it's a ''Chinese'' term coined as an Americanism during World War 2, when America was ''fighting'' the Japanese.
21	** In Universe, one of the things the citizens of Hadleyville bring to their welcoming ceremony for the Japanese executives is a Chinese-style dragon costume--although the actual dragon looks decidedly Western
22	* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: A major example of American fears over the issue in TheEighties.
23	* {{Jerkass}}:
24	** Saito. He tries to be a ProfessionalButtKisser, but comes across as too smug and wanting to see others (especially Kaz) fail so he'll succeed.
25	** Buster has already been shown to be very hotheaded early in the movie, willing to come to blows with a Japanese employee out of frustration at the new. stricter, policies. He later commits a blatant interference during the softball game by running into the shortstop, and blocks one of the Japanese women at the supermarket from being able to reach the shelf.
26	* MarketBasedTitle: It was released as ''Turning Japanese'' in some overseas markets.
27	* MyCard: "Anyone got any Subaru or Suzuki? No? Go fish."
28	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: During the labor action, Hunt is finally driven to tell the strikers the simple truth of why the Japanese are outdoing them in the auto industry; they still have the work ethic that too many American workers have abandoned.
29	* ReassignedToAntarctica: Kazuhiro is shamed in Japan, so he's shipped off to America as punishment. [[ReassignmentBackfire He manages to succeed there nonetheless.]]
30	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Japan building factories in or taking over companies in America was a very real concern in TheEighties (beginning in 1982 when Honda opened a plant in Marysville, OH) and this movie explores the idea of two cultures working together to fulfill a common goal: making big money. The specific plot, the workers at a closed auto plant learning from the Japanese company that takes over and revitalized their plant, specifically happened at the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc ([=NUMMI=]) plant in Fremont, California.
31	* {{Salaryman}}: Kazuhiro.
32	* ShownTheirWork: The film's depiction of Japanese executives dealing with American workers was so accurate that Toyota actually uses it to show Japanese managers that are bound for the USA [[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2007-03-04/why-toyota-is-afraid-of-being-number-one how NOT to do things]].
33	* SwitchToEnglish: Takahara Kazuhiro's wife starts speaking Japanese to him in one scene, but he tells her to practice her English and they continue the conversation in English.
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Context Film / GungHo