Gung Ho (1986) on Netflix
The Hadleyville, Pennsylvania, auto plant has been shut nine months. Its former foreman, Hunt Stevenson, flies to Tokyo to persuade Assan Motors to reopen it, and the company agrees.
- Netflix2.4/5
- IMDb6.3/1015,172 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes33%
Trailer
Plot summary
When Assan Motors agrees to take over a closed auto plant in Hadleyville, Pennsylvania, it sets its own terms for the desperate workforce: no union, lower pay, employees rotated through every job, and standards of speed and quality the Americans consider unreachable. The American workers find the group morning calisthenics funny, along with the executives who eat lunch with chopsticks and bathe in the river. Kaz, the executive sent to run the plant, was judged too soft on his workers by his superiors and has one last chance to prove them wrong. He promotes Hunt Stevenson, the town's former foreman, expecting him to sell the new rules to the men, and Hunt, protecting his position, tries to trick them into going along.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gung Ho (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The fictional Japanese-run Assan Motors plant at the center of the story was actually filmed at the real Sevel Fiat manufacturing plant in Argentina, with Fiat Spazio and Regata models dressed up to stand in for the Assan cars on the assembly line.
- Gung Ho took on a second life in corporate Japan: Toyota's executives there have used the film as an example of how not to manage Americans.
- Two other comic actors were offered the lead first: both Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy turned down the role of Hunt Stevenson.
