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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1980s
    Movies - 1980s Movies - G 2 Mins Read

    Gung Ho (1986)

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    Before he made the likes of Apollo 13 (1995), Ron Howard directed this small but often enjoyable comedy.

    When car factory foreman Hunt Stevenson (Michael Keaton) persuades Japanese auto firm Assan Motors to reopen his hometown’s defunct auto factory – which has been shut down after 35 years of providing the town with its major source of income – he’s a hero.

    But when the Japanese hire him to enforce their ultra-efficient policies among his American co-workers, he goes from hero to zero in seconds flat by attempting to appease both sides with a series of lies, false promises and other time-honoured comedy-contrivance techniques.

    Hunt has a Nippon counterpart in a young Assan company man (Gedde Watanabe) whose insecurities and ineptitude are constantly setting him at odds with the stoical Chairman of the Board. His “humanisation” (ie: Americanisation) becomes the process by which the Japanese are ultimately made to realise the ‘error’ of their ways – at least when those ways are played out in the Reagan-era American heartland.

    Michael Keaton is a deft hand at comedy, and he is capably supported by George Wendt (Cheers) and Coen brothers regular John Turturro.

    The film spawned a short-lived TV sitcom of the same name starring Scott Bakula in the Keaton role and Gedde Watanabe in a different (but similar) role to the one he plays here.

    Hunt Stevenson
    Michael Keaton
    Audrey
    Mimi Rogers
    Buster
    George Wendt
    Kazihiro
    Gedde Watanabe
    Willie
    John Turturro
    Mr Sakamoto
    So Yamamura
    Saito
    Sab Shimono
    Googie
    Rick Overton
    Paul
    Clint Howard
    Junior
    Jihmi Kennedy
    Heather
    Michelle Johnson
    Ito
    Rodney Kageyama
    Mayor Zwart
    Rance Howard
    Uemeki
    Patti Yasutake
    Kazou
    Jerry Tondo
    Matsumura
    Dennis Sakamoto
    Kenji
    Stanford Egi
    Crandall
    Martin Ferrero
    Tony
    James Ritz
    Luke
    Dock P Ellis Jr
    Milt
    Richard M McNally

    Director
    Ron Howard

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