Gung Ho (1986) review

Foreman Hunt Stevenson (Michael Keaton) flies to Japan from his hometown of Hadleyville, Pennsylvania (which doesn't exist but is supposedly near Pittsburgh) to Tokyo to convince the executives of Assan Motors to reopen their automobile factory - they agree and send Kazihiro (Gedde Watanabe) and a team of Japanese workers to monitor the production, but there's a severe culture clash and Hunt has to act as mediator.  This remains, over three decades later, an extremely important (if deeply depressing) topic - namely, the welfare and dignity of the blue collar employee - that doesn't get talked about enough: they try to go so fast one of them almost gets severely injured and the response from their overlords is to "keep working."  Even the smaller moments matter: for example, the way Buster (George Wendt) becomes demoralized after being taken off the line and made a custodian is the same thing that happened to my own grandfather at Ingersoll Rand.  In truth, both "sides" make decent points: Americans do think they are too unique and special ... but the Japanese belief that you should essentially sacrifice your life (and neglect your family) for a corporation is insane.  But that might be the Westerner in me....