Posts
An early Ron Howard film that dared to broach a sensitive topic with satirical humor,Japanese quality production vs American complacency.Released in 1986 and not to be confused with a early war movie,and running 112 minutes this film looks at a closed US auto factory reopened by the Japanese.Timely but dated and full of cliches,its still worth a view and I only took the 2 stars off because the subject matter really isn't funny and should have been done as a "black"comedy if done right.Still Howard managers to pull if off as a light weight farce mainly because of 2 fine acting jobs and a whole bunch of good acting in supporting roles as well.Michael Keaton as Hunt Stevenson,leader of the old union trying to get the townsfolk on course with the new Japanese way of doing things and Gedde Watanabe as Oishi Kazihiro,a failing Japanese executive who gets one last chance to redeem himself running this new plant.
There are some fine cultural clashes and both are a little over the top portraying their characters as overt cliches.The softball game is classic as is a scene showing how Oishi kids are being"americanized"However my favorite is when our two leeds are discussing the upcoming softball game and they state how both drink beer after the game and the americans piss for distance and the Japanese piss for accuracy.
Expect some laughs and a light look at what was a very serious problem then.Trailer URL follows the pix.IMDB summary below
Hunt Stevenson works for a large car manufacturer that has just been bought out by a Japanese firm. Suddenly finding himself having to justify his own job, he's forced to choose between redundancy or the seemingly inhuman Japanese work ethic that the new owners have brought with them. Written by Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>
No comments:
Post a Comment