Gung Ho

Gung Ho (1986) is a Ron Howard comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Michael Keaton plays Hunt Stevenson, a Pennsylvania factory worker who travels to Japan and talks a major car company into reopening his shuttered hometown plant. The plant reopens. Hunt just forgot to read the fine print.

The Japanese managers — led by Gedde Watanabe — arrive with strict output targets, group calisthenics at dawn, and zero tolerance for the American "good enough" philosophy. Hunt's buddy Buster (George Wendt) and the rest of the union floor are ready to walk. Hunt is stuck in the middle, having promised the Japanese side results and the American side their old routine. Neither deal is holding up.

Made at a moment when US-Japan trade tensions were front-page news, the film is a sharp workplace comedy about two entirely different ideas of what work should mean — with Keaton three years before Batman. Stream Gung Ho (1986) in full online on iFILM.