Synopsis
When a western Pennsylvania auto plant is acquired by a Japanese company, brokering auto worker Hunt Stevenson faces the tricky challenge of mediating the assimilation of two clashing corporate cultures. At one end is the Japanese plant manager and the sycophant who is angling for his position. At the other, a number of disgruntled long-time union members struggle with the new exigencies of Japanese quality control.
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Cast
- Michael KeatonHunt Stevenson
- Gedde WatanabeOishi Kazihiro
- George WendtBuster
- Mimi RogersAudrey
- John TurturroWillie
- Sō YamamuraMr. Sakamoto
- Sab ShimonoSaito
- Rick OvertonGoogie
- Clint HowardPaul
- Jihmi KennedyJunior
Recommendations
- 75
Chicago Tribune
The film would be funnier and more provocative if it took a stronger stand on one side or the other, but Howard chooses to hedge his bets, selecting an ending that celebrates brotherhood more than the strongly hinted- at notion that American workers would do well to get off their featherbedding backs. - 70
Variety
Drawn from real life, the conflict between cultures is good for both a laugh and a sober thought along the way. - 60
Los Angeles Times
Gung Ho goes after that ever-so-elusive Capra-esque spirit of communal triumph over adversity, but both sides too often verge on stereotypes for this to pay off as richly as it should. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
I think the fault is in the screenplay, which tells a story that can be predicted almost from the opening frames. The people who wrote this movie did not bother, or dare, to give us truly individual Japanese characters; there is only one who is developed with any care. - 50
Washington Post
Howard entices us into overlooking the film's faults with some genuinely amusing scenes, particularly those featuring Japanese-American Gedde Watanabe as a beleaguered Assan executive who doesn't fit the corporate mold. [14 Mar 1986, p.27] - 50
Miami Herald
The movie isn't really about America and Japan at all; it's about set-ups for gags. [14 Mar 1986, p.D2] - 40
The New York Times
It's more cheerful than funny, and so insistently ungrudging about Americans and Japanese alike that its satire cuts like a wet sponge. - 40
Time
Its tone swings violently from pratfall to preachment, from an indictment of featherbed laziness to an extended beer-commercial celebration of the mythical American worker.
