SAMPLE: Film Analysis

Gung Ho C. Tidwell

Summary

        Gung Ho is a movie that came out in 1986 depicting an American labor force at an auto manufacturing plant which is taken over by a Japanese corporation.  Central to the film are American and Japanese cultural differences, particularly in management styles.  A small-town labor leader convinces a Japanese auto manufacturer to take over his towns bankrupt auto plant.  After the inevitable culture clashes, particularly over Japanese imposed work rules, the workers undertake a month-long contest to show that their individualistic American methods can surpass the best efforts of an auto plant in Japan.  They succeed only after they embrace the communal approach of the Japanese.

Rationale

Share the reason why you chose this film (1-2 paragraphs)

Key Intercultural and Interpersonal Communication Concepts and Scenes (share examples of verbal and/or non-verbal communication examples from film)

        Before I review the key intercultural issues I find illustrated in Gung Ho, I would like to comment on the role of comic exaggeration in the movie.  For instance, in an early scene, the central character, Hunt Stevenson (Michal Keaton) flies to Japan. In trying to reach his destination, he ends up in a rice field asking for directions.  Then, once he is at the board meeting, he discovers that the screen he has been awkwardly carrying throughout his trip is not needed.  Instead one drops from the ceiling of the board room at a touch of a button. 

        Ethnocentrism, the assumption by all cultures of their own inherent superiority, is amply demonstrated by the actions of Buster (George Wendt) mistreating the Japanese wife of the plant manager in a grocery store by keeping her from choosing any items from the shelf until his buddy finally stops him.  Ethnocentirsm also underscores the relationship between the Japanese and American softball teams
        Stereotyping is perhaps one of the weaknesses of the film.  Although the film goes out of its way to avoid racism,  both Japanese inscrutability and American labor inefficiencies are occasionally exaggerated. At the same time, however, I have found my students quickly pick up on examples of stereotyping.
        Individualism / Collectivism, the cornerstone of Hofstedes study, underlies many of the episodes in the movie.  American individualism is shown in the actions of Hunt Stevenson, particularly in his decision to go it alone on his trip to Japan to convince the Japanese company that they need to step in and save the key industry in his town.  It is also seen in his leadership in the labor meetings where he emphasizing his personal ability to control the Japanese management team a skill forecast by his references to his sporting ability in high school when he individually won the big game.
        Japanese collectivism is amply shown throughout   beginning with the initial, accidental meeting of the central American and Japanese character at the rite of shame” when Kazahiro (Gedde Watanabe) is being reinforced in the need for group cohesion because of his earlier failures as a manger, in the Japanese slogans and group exercises they impose on the American labor force, in the scenes of the Japanese swimming together in the river near the American auto plant, and most of all in the stylistic differences of the American and Japanese softball teams (the Americans are a rag-tag group of individuals who disdain warmup and team spirit; the Japanese not only have uniforms but practice team play in warmup).  The differences also underscore the Japanese collectivistic concerns for harmony and group bonds; the American individualism is epitomized by its competitive win at any cost spirit.
        Masculinity / Femininity, another of Hofstedes concepts which focuses on achievement/success orientation and on gender roles, is seen in the Japanese attitude towards women as seen in Kazs treatment of his wife when he brings home office work, in the Japanese management unwillingness to allow one of the team time off to be with his pregnant wife.  This is highlighted by Hunts treatment of his girlfriend at a dinner with the Japanese managers.  When he basically kicks her out of the room so it is a men-only meeting, my students first think of this as an example of male chauvinism.  However, this also allows us to discuss the cultural differences on the masculinity /femininity scale of Hofstede.  While Hunt is chauvinistic from an American perspective, to the Japanese his actions are acceptable to their understanding of  clear gender roles.  Note that the Japanese are ranked by Hofstede as the most masculine society in world while the US ranks approximately in the middle (Hofstede,1997, p 84).
        Japanese versus American management styles are also contrasted throughout the movie.  This also underscores the individualism / collectivism concepts.  Noteworthy is the Japanese tendency (overstated at times) to promote life-time employment as seen in the willingness to retain Buster as a janitor when he is unwilling to follow the group process and change his working style to meet Japanese efficiencies.  The final episode of the movie, when the American auto workers succeed in breaking the Japanese record for number of automobiles produced in a single month shows the need for American workers to accept the cooperative or collectivistic approach.  In turn, the Japanese management becomes increasingly individualistic and feminine, and synergism that models the ideals we promote for intercultural encounters.

Conclusion

       Gung Ho presents basic cultural issues, Hoftsedes theories, and cultural negotiation differences.  Nearly every major concept may be visualized by the actions and words of characters in the movies that are such an integral part of social and intellectual framework of communication.