鬼干部

我小时候在正大综艺一类的节目里看到这种日本的胶囊旅馆时，就渴望居住其中。

我特别喜欢紧凑、高效的空间。

现在我对胶囊旅馆没有向往了。

毕竟，小时候是不懂 sex 的需求的。

而且，我因为某个经历，还生出了一点幽闭空间恐惧的毛病。

★

《工合》是一部技术没有任何毛病的电影。

对了，片名 Gung Ho，是「工合」，不是「干活」。

维基百科上有词源解释： //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gung-ho

一部讲美日文化冲突的电影，片名用了一个来自中文的词，隐患就已经埋下了。

★

但技术上真没毛病。很多细节甚至是教科书式的。

比如这样的台词：

「喂，是我呀，汉特 · 斯蒂文森……不，是『斯蒂文森』。……你肯定认识我啦。……是啊，我们一起上过幼儿园的。……不是，不是我跟你。我是跟你表弟一起上过幼儿园，他睡午觉的时候老是提起你。……没错。没错。听我说，我给你打电话的原因是……」……「我可以来找你啊，我现在开车过来的话，只要二十九个小时就可以到你那儿了。」

（仔细一品，「只要二十九个小时就可以到你那儿了」宜改为「明天下午就能到你那儿了」。「二十九小时」用的是「细节数字」的公式，但细琢磨会显得假了，因为这个时间的计算是复杂的，且包含途中休息等不确定因素。如果说「明天下午」，路程之远一样彰显，但真实感强了很多。）

★

时过境迁，今天再看这部电影，我们可以很轻松地把中国人代入片中的日本人角色。

毕竟，美国人的工作效率，跟东亚哪一国都没法比。

片中对日本文化的描写还是浮于表面的，所以抓不住美日文化冲突的灵魂。

这当然就导致了编剧写到结局时的困境。

这样营造的矛盾冲突，如何靠主角解决？

最后，在一百零七分钟的正常铺垫之后，编剧只能让日本大老板毫无征兆地转变，才能解决问题。

所以毫无力量。

★

其实片中有力量的片段很多。

迈克尔 · 基顿的几次演讲，都是教科书式的台词撰写。起承转合，推进有度。有时欲擒故纵，有时树上开花，有时顺水推舟……不是故作高深的「高智商」戏，不是软绵绵凑字数的口水文，不是强行喊口号的打鸡血。就是实打实的生活智慧。

★

电影嘛，很多时候都是这样。

技术上成功了，电影不一定能成功。

但技术上若不成功，电影几乎不可能成功。

《工合》至少留下了许多值得后辈研习的东西。

★

P.S. 有个角色姓 Googleman。在1986年的当时，人们对这个名字当然没有什么特别的感觉。

这部电影拍摄于1986年，距今已有27年历史。之所以能大浪淘沙般把这部电影挖出来，是因为纽约时报上的一篇文章。文章在讲述“双汇收购史密斯菲尔德”时，扩展到当前中国赴美投资热，又回忆起80年代的日本赴美投资潮，而Gung Ho这部电影就是当年好莱坞记录那个年代的代表作之一。 其实，Gung Ho这个英文词来源于汉语，是“干活”的音译。清末中国穷苦劳工在美国内战结束后被掳至美国修筑铁路，这些劳工的吃苦耐劳精神让美国人印象深刻，而劳工们经常说的“干活”（Gung Ho）一词就被老美用来形容做事积极高效，后来发展出引申义狂热。 不过，Gung Ho这个明显具有舶来色彩的英文词显然与做事积极高效的内涵不完全一致，这个词还包含了个人服从集体，做事整齐划一的意思。 这部电影取名为Gung Ho，也确实很好地描绘了什么是具有中国特色，特别是日本特色的干活。现在看来，拍摄质量平庸，许多空洞无谓的镜头；文化印象刻板，日本人一丝不苟到像机器人一般的工作精神，一起下河洗澡反映出的集体主义；桥段设计生硬，老婆生孩子也要在工厂加班的夸张情节。尽管如此，我相信当年美国人就是这么看待一个崛起的日本经济，现在的美国人也许依然这么看待正在崛起的中国经济。 电影中有一段在酒吧的情节，上班时压抑的日本人到酒吧就完全变了另一个人，酗酒、喧哗、狂舞，而老美在酒吧仍局限于休闲社交，狂欢仅限私人家中的派对，而不在公共场合。更有趣的是，日本经理酒后吐真言说：“我麻烦大了，生产任务完不成，我的事业要毁了。”他的美国下属安慰他说：“我的麻烦才大，我跟工人们说产量只要提高就可以加薪，即便完不成预定的更高目标。”日本经理听后狂笑说：“你说得没错啊！”美国经理一听乐了，以为日本经理同意产量提高就可以加薪，结果日本经理接着幽幽来了一句：“你的麻烦确实比我大，呵呵！”

发展中国家的工人假如都像欧美那样注重生活质量注重亲情友情，那么劳动力成本一定会猛涨，像巴西南非一样陷入中等收入陷阱。可是这些发展中国家的人就活该被牺牲吗？妈的，除此还真是别无他法。要么牺牲几代人走向发达国家，要么困在中等收入之中社会逐渐混乱。

从来都没有人人平等。人和动物没什么区别，社会其实就是金字塔，一切社会革命有哪个真正实现了理想的内容？没有的。因为这些都违反了自然定律。那到底该怎样活？参考动物世界吧。

｜｜

对话摘录 “我没办法把它组装好”“我今晚没空”“我希望儿子明天醒来就能看到它”“...”“和博”“我在工作，我没空！！”“为什么美国的爸爸就有空？？？”“为什么？因为他们的工作成效烂透了”妻子摔东西。丈夫“巴嘎”和博：“日本工人加班不是为了工资，是为了公司”日本人看到美国老婆对丈夫瞪眼看呆了哈哈哈哈

If you create a user account, you can add your own review of this DVD Released 9-Sep-2003 This review is sponsored by BUY IT Details At A Glance General Extras Category Comedy None Rating Year Of Production 1986 Running Time 107:28 RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew Start Up Menu Region Coding 4 Directed By Ron Howard Studio Distributor Paramount Home Entertainment Starring Michael Keaton Gedde Watanabe George Wendt Mimi Rogers John Turturro Soh Yamamura Sab Shimono Case ? RPI $24.95 Music Thomas Newman Video Audio Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.05:1 16x9 Enhancement Video Format 576i (PAL) Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous Jacket Pictures No Subtitles None Smoking Yes Annoying Product Placement No Action In or After Credits No NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here. Plot Synopsis This film is called Gung Ho in the US, but I guess they thought that title wouldn't be understood elsewhere, so we get it as Working Class Man (yes, the Jimmy Barnes song does appear, under the closing credits). I think that I first saw this film on video, shortly after it had played in the cinemas. The film is set in Hadleyville, which is basically Small Town, USA. The town is dying, because this is the late 1980s, when the USA is going through the most painful part of its transition from industrial to post-industrial society. Hadleyville used to have two large factories, one turning out underwear and one making cars. The underwear factory closed, leaving the town dependent on the car plant as the major employer in the town. Now the car plant has been shut down for months, and the town is fading fast. People are leaving, shops are closing. In a last-ditch effort, they send the factory foreman, Hunt Stevenson (Michael Keaton) to Japan to try and interest Assan Motors in taking over the plant. After a mildly offensive (in today's terms) trip through Japan, which includes him barging into places where he doesn't belong, Hunt returns home, convinced that he has failed. But he hasn't. Assan Motors sends a jet-full of executives, led by Kazihiro-san (Gedde Watanabe, who puts in an excellent performance) to take over the plant. This film is about culture shock, and it runs both ways. The jingoistic Americans see the Japanese as uptight, unreasonable, dictatorial, and strange. The Japanese see the Americans as lazy, egotistical, not team-players, and strange. The process is not helped by Hunt's appointment as employee liaison. Hunt lies to both sides, and does next to nothing in terms of helping them to understand one another — not because he is intending to deceive them, but because he is cowardly, afraid to tell them things they don't want to hear. As matters deteriorate, he comes up with the bright idea of setting a challenge: if the plant can turn out 15,000 cars in one month, the Japanese will raise wages and guarantee full employment (if you're young, you've probably never heard the term "full employment"). Now things get interesting. Unfortunately, Hunt lets the employees think that there's a lesser target for which they'll receive a smaller raise. Add to this a suggestion of nepotism, in that Kazihiro has a second-in-command called Saito (Sab Shimone), who is Kazihiro's boss's nephew. Saito is reporting back to Mr Sakamoto (Soh Yamamura), who is reporting back to his uncle on how things are going. This is Kazihiro's last chance: he failed in his last job, and was sent through a retraining programme for shamed executives. It's amusing to see the portrayed American attitude to a policy of zero defects — something that is now common. I found this film rather funny back in the late 1980s. Now I find it quite dated, and occasionally a bit offensive, but I think that is rampant political correctness at work. If you watch carefully, this film gives as much time to making points about small-town American mentality as to pointing out oddities in Japanese culture. It's given to George Wendt to display the worst intolerance, and it is clear that his behaviour is not approved of by the others. All in all, this is a dated comedy, but still amusing, providing you view it in the context of the culture that produced it. Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration. Transfer Quality Video This transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of about 2.00:1, 16x9 enhanced. The original theatrical aspect ratio was 2.35:1, shot in Panavision. This is better than pan-and-scan 1.33:1, better than 1.78:1, but still not the original aspect ratio. Still, there are no obvious mis-framings, so it's not too bad. The image is uniformly quite soft. Shadow detail is dreadful — darker shades drop off into black far too quickly. Film grain does not appear to be a big problem, but it could be a contributor to the softness of the transfer. There is no low-level noise. Colour isn't too bad, but comes across as dull and lifeless. There are no colour-related artefacts, but there are some scenes that feature over-hot whites, particularly at the start of the film. There are plenty of small film artefacts: spots, flecks, and chips; but they are generally untroubling. There is only a little aliasing and just hints of moiré, but there are no MPEG artefacts. There are no subtitle tracks. There are some subtitles burned into the image for some of the Japanese dialogue — they are easy to read, and seem well-timed to the dialogue, but without the ability to speak Japanese I cannot assess their accuracy. The disc is single-sided and single layered. That means there is no layer change. Video Ratings Summary Sharpness Shadow Detail Colour Grain/Pixelization Film-To-Video Artefacts Film Artefacts Overall Audio The soundtrack is only provided in English. Strangely, it is Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 kbps — strangely, because there's no use of the subwoofer (except in the 4th of July fireworks), no significant use of the surrounds, and next to no stereo image. Heck, a Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack would have been adequate to convey what we get here. There's a little distortion in one or two places, but it's quite minor. The dialogue is clear and easy to understand. There are no obvious audio sync problems. Thomas Newman has provided an adequate score, although more than a little of it sounds somewhat clichéd. Audio Ratings Summary Dialogue Audio Sync Clicks/Pops/Dropouts Surround Channel Use Subwoofer Overall Extras There are no extras. Not a single one. Menu The menu is static and silent, and features only Play and Scene Selection. Despite the movie being 16x9 enhanced, this menu is not, so it looks too wide on a 16x9 display. R4 vs R1 NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible. The Region 1 version of this movie (released over a year ago) is reported as being 1.78:1 aspect ratio on one site (which is worse than this disc), and 2.10:1 on another (which might be what we have here) — I suspect that the latter is more accurate. The R1 disc has English and French soundtracks, and English subtitles — that's more than the R4 — but it doesn't make enough difference to make me give the win to the R1. Summary A movie that's pretty much past its use-by date, but that still offers a few laughs. The transfer is sub-standard, though. The video quality is poor. The audio quality is adequate. The extras are utterly absent. Ratings (out of 5) Video Audio Extras Plot Overall ©