The movies Mr. baseball and Gung Ho are very insightful as far as cultural interaction is concerned. The movies provide a clear and vivid description about the differences between American culture and Japanese culture.mr. Baseball is basically the embodiment of American culture trying to coexist with Japanese culture while gung ho is the mirror opposite in that it is the depiction of Japanese culture trying to inculcate itself into the American culture. Both movies are very important in terms of understanding both American culture and Japanese culture. These movies present the perfect juxtaposition of these two cultures that exist at opposite ends of the world and enable the audience to clearly compare the two cultures with the opinion of which culture stands out as better being left entirely at the discretion of the audience.
Gung ho is a movie about hunt Stevenson and his attempts to save the auto plant in Haleyville Pennsylvania. With the plant on the verge of closure hunt travels all the way to Tokyo in an attempt to salvage much needed aid for the plant. He manages to capture the attention of Assan motors which agrees to take up the auto plant and make it a success once again. The Assan motors corporation sends Takahara Kazuhiro to be the chief executive of the auto plant and make it a success. As Takahara moves to America he finds out that administration of a car plant in America is very different from the same venture in Tokyo Japan. The workers at the plant are nothing like the workers Takahara is acclimated to back in Tokyo and the management style of Takahara is tantamount to slavery in America. This therefore brews the perfect recipe for cosmic conflict between Takahara and his new employees. Both sides are faced with utter shock at the techniques employed by the other side. Takahara sets goals for his employees that by the standards of the employees are nothing short of impossible. In the end however the Japanese management and the American work force reach a compromise in terms of work ethics and management. Although the plant does not meet its final goal as far as vehicle manufacturing is concerned the Japanese chief executives are very impressed with the work done at the plant and are in praise of the team at the plant for the valiant effort shown as far as workmanship is concerned and as far as the standards of working hard go.
The themes in the movies are similar in their underlying doctrines but very different in terms of their execution and final presentation. The theme in both movies is cultural interaction and cultural shock. The difference between these themes as brought out in the two movies lies in the packaging and execution. In the movie Mr. Baseball the cultural interaction is brought out in terms of an American trying to blend in and fit into a Japanese society. This is evident when Eliot moves to Japan to play baseball with a Japanese team. Gung ho presents cultural interaction in terms of the Japanese moving to America and trying to fit into the American cultural construct while at the same time clinging on to the Japanese cultural practices. This movie presents the Americans being shocked by the cultural practices employed by the Japanese. An example is the American workers at the auto plant laughing at the Japanese executives because they eat their food using chopsticks. The American workers also find humor in the fact that the Japanese executives take a bath together in a river .this is clearly an alien cultural practice as far as the American workers are concerned and by all means this is tantamount to comedy.
In both movies the transplanted characters are in shock at the cultural practices of their host countries. In the movie Mr. Baseball hunt primarily displays his superiority complex as far as the Japanese team is concerned. In his opinion he is better than all the other players on the Japanese team. He is even better than the Japanese coach of the Japanese team. As such hunt opts to do things on his own terms because in his opinion he is the best thing that ever happened to the Japanese team. He chooses to fly alone in terms of teamwork and by all means looks down upon his Japanese team mates. According to him, they are all inferior and he just happens to be the superior one. In the movie gung ho the Japanese management is primarily shocked at the American work force. This workforce is very different from the work force they are used to back in Japan. The Japanese workforce is hard work oriented and every body works as hard as they can in order to optimize productivity for the company. The American workforce is however very different. The Japanese management is shocked to discover that slacking around is the order of the day as far as the3 American work force is concerned. This means that the people will work hard but they will not go that extra mile. They will do exactly what is required of them but nothing more. The Japanese management is thus frustrated at the nature of this American workforce. In Japan people motivate themselves to work hard but in America they need an added incentive to go that extra mile for example promises of bonuses and other forms of rewards which are chiefly monetary in nature will do the trick just fine.
The host countries portray different reactions to the transplanted individuals in both movies. In the move Mr. Baseball the Japanese team mates welcomed Elliott with open arms. They were more than ready to work with him and learn from him as much as they possible could about American baseball. The attitude of the Japanese team members only hanged in line with the attitude changes of Elliott. As Elliott started putting himself high on a pedestal above everyone else the team members started being resentful both of him and of his attitude. As the situation escalated out of control the Japanese team members started ignoring Elliott all the same. They acted as if he did not even exist and they went on with their business constantly giving him a cold shoulder. This continued to a point where no one was talking to Elliott anymore. He was all alone in a field full of people. The reception of the Japanese management by the American workers at the auto plant in the movie gung ho was cold to say the least. The workers did not appreciate the strict rules being imposed upon them by their new Japanese bosses. Among the rules was the outlawing of workers unions. This means that the workers were denied to form unions and thus they felt that their freedom and work ethic or rather work integrity was being curtailed. This led to ill feelings between the American workers and the Japanese management. These workers were very resentful of the Japanese management because they felt that the new Japanese management was stomping all over their rights as workers and taking advantage of them.
On hearing new of his transfer Eliot was less than happy. He was frustrated to say the least. He felt disenfranchised by his own team. To say the least Elliott did not want to go to Japan. On hearing news of his transfer Takahara was more delighted. This is because back in Japan he was a failure. He had brought shame upon himself by failing repeatedly. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for him to redeem himself. He was happy because he knew that if he could convert the American auto plant into a success then he would redeem his name back in Japan and earn the respect of his peers. The stereotypes being brought out in gung ho are about the Japanese workforce in comparison to the American work force. The stereotype is that labor in Japan is basically slave labor. People are force to work very hard and even denied basic rights of workers such as the rights to form unions and other legal worker organizations. The stereotype about the American work force is that American workers are lazy. They are allergic to hard work and going the extra mile to ensure productivity and growth of the companies which have employed them and which they work for.
Works Cited
"Automotive marketing agency thrives with Gung Ho philosophy.."Waterloo Courier [new york] 4 Dec. 2005: 6. Print.
Gung ho!.Dir. ad k. Perf. -Michael Keaton .Republic Pictures Home Video, 1992.DVD.
