It's all pretty simple as far as I'm concerned: Watch Gung-ho if you want to watch a comedy. Watch Last Samurai if you want to watch a decent action pic. Watch Memoirs if you want to watch artsy-fartsy crap. Whatever you're in the mood for. I'd probably go for Last Samurai followed by Gung Ho.
Memoirs of a Geisha was pure ****. Nothing like the book at all and frankly just a bad movie. Read the book if you want to actually enjoy it.
I have no idea what gung ho is, but I would pick that because samurai sucked and geisha looks like it sucks.
I'd agree with that except mosst of the clash end up being both sides flinging poo at each other that are largely product and results of ironically, the cenimatic depictions.
Gung Ho will be the easiest and probably the best for a class project, simply because the issues are so in your face and you can draw upon several characters to study. Plus, the ideas in that film are very familiar to people: you got the hard working Asians w/ team first above personal gratification vs The Brass Flamboyant attitudes of Americans. In those other films, you really have to know something about the subject matter to really delve deep into analyzing the culture class. I mean, I have no idea what is the culture of the Samurai and how it would class with American values. The same goes for Geisha. I mean how does those films really relate to culture differences anyway?
