Gung Ho

Chase Haninger

Dr. Bhasin

Gung Ho

Morals, values and ethics are three of the driving forces within today’s fast paced society, however the comparison between the Americans values and the Japanese are much different as well as any other part of the country. The film “Gung Ho”, helps in illustrating those differences as well as the similarities between American and Japanese values when a Japanese car company buys an American plant, in the hopes of expansion within the car industry. The different cultures are forced to work together, exposing each other’s strengths and weakness.

The average individual within society knows that there are going to be differences between the U.S and any other country, but this film definitely depicts just how much of a difference there is. The first scenes of the film are continuous comparisons between the American workday and the Japanese along with levels of management within certain corporations. The Japanese focus on the success of the business and how they better themselves within the work force, while the Americans stress the importance of family and social relationships. Takahara Kazuhiro, the Japanese manager picked to run the automobile factory, is first introduced in the film, at a management camp getting yelled and ridiculed for not having high enough standards towards and for his employees. The Japanese culture prides itself on perfection or at least the thought of perfection and the constant striving for the better number or pace, causing the value of family to completely be forgotten. The long overdue hours interfering with the personal relationships, American so boldly pride themselves upon. The Japanese as society knows are extremely successful because of the continuous dedication towards ones work, but to the average American, this almost seems selfish and unfair. At what point does one finally realize there is no such thing as perfection? And what does it take to convey this to the Japanese culture?

The American...