Well made documentary. Interesting to see viewpoints from both sides. Happy, hopeful, sad, embarrassing, thought provoking. Good to show to someone who always says "we need more factory jobs back in America"
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***spoilers ahead
***long review
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[spoiler] this was interesting & hopeful then also sad & depressing & can make you angry & disappointed.
Global economics, labor unions, local jobs, lack of education, overworking, disregarded by employers.... These all topics you can deep dive into.
It starts off hopeful that a foreign Company takes a chance in a town in middle America where many are desperately seeking work.
(as opposed to some billionaire company opening a location in a town that has very low unemployment, and many people decide to quit their locally owned job to work there..small businesses can't keep up and decide to shut down.. I am Personally in fear of this happening in my town in the next few months.. I literally do not know anyone who needs a job, yet I know many business owners that can even get anyone to respond to a job opening)
Even though I'm sure they got a great deal opening in a former Ford factory that shut down during the recession, it's still nice to see the stories of people happy to go back to work. It's nice seeing Americans being open to becoming friends & working together with workers that came over from China, many of whom, sadly will not see their families for many years as they came here for the job opportunity. It's nice to see people being open to Learning about a culture on the other side of the world.
It was nice to see the group of Chinese men all cooking food together.

Then the flipside starts to show, It's upsetting to see how many people are still racist and do not like people from other countries.
There will never be any solution that make a majority of a factory workers happy, while watching 1 business man getting richer & RICHER & richer every day while you & hundreds of your neighbors still struggle week to week. It's upsetting to see workers that work hard and just want to do their job and go home and not get involved in politics of joining labor unions while being pressured by fellow co-workers to join. There will always be people that work hard, don't get recognized & promoted, sometimes are treated unfairly but.... they are just happy... Or, I could just say..content to have a job:
there will always be people that don't want to work as hard as others and want raises & complain a lot (even though some complaints are justified).
The world is constantly changing, and the days of working at one company for 40 years & getting a pension are over)
You never know what tommorrow will hold and we live in constant fear of losing our jobs, weather it be an injury, lack of job improvement, OR businesses just decide to cut labor costs or just shut down and close shop.
It's upsetting to hear so many people talk about bringing factory jobs back to America and yet when one comes to a city that is desperate to put many people back to work... You see how much higher work expectations are & people are not used to that, but still want collect a paycheck.
It's insane to think an American Factory will ever be as productive as a Chinese Factory that pays their workers much less money, and has less regulations, so you could be in many dangerous situations.
Sometimes they overwork their employees, but that happens here as well.
The suicide rate is much higher in China, especially in white color jobs

Some U.S. Officials want to cut lots of safety regulations & pollution output for corporations. For some, they may have proven over time to be unnecessary and time to get rid of, but many are established for workers safety..... While costing more money and time for production......
But in China, much less regulations... The work related injuries and DEATH % in China is 16 times that of the U.S. (of those REPORTED... many people do not claim an injury was done on the job in fear of losing their job and bureaucrats are at work to disprove an injury happened at work so China can claim the injuries # are going down every year. Yes, the U.S. Does this as well.
Especially if it is an illness that has been years in the making.
It is estimated that around six million workers in China have contracted the deadly lung disease pneumoconiosis after working in mines, construction sites and factories filled with mineral dust. However, only about ten percent of these workers ever got their illness classified as work-related because of the numerous bureaucratic obstacles placed in front of them.
LooK at our own government trying to not provide adequete Healthcare for firefighters suffering many years later for being heros on 9/11.

The last sad embarrassing part is when U.S. Workers travel to check out the China factory and it is a big group of overweight men, what a STEREOTYPE.. not really interested in the art & culture of the special performances at the party. (I'm sure environmental influence has a lot to do with their personalities.
It's sad that so much beautiful art is not enjoyed by blue collar workers.
I'm sure many of the workers had a father that worked at the GM factory most of his life and had much exposure to cars and mechanics. Which is still and always be important, but you need a balance.
- It's sad that when a school cuts their budget, arts are usually the first to go.
Focus more is on the trades and what can get you work the fastest after high School

I couldn't stop rolling my eyes when they got on stage to perform Y.M.C.A
Blue collared Americans are so scared of art and culture.
You can see in China all the workers, blue and white enjoying dancing, singing together, eating & enjoying all the arts.
I've spent time in Dayton, and the exposure to art is limited, as compared to Cincinnati, 45 minutes away.

However, you have to take into consideration they are from Dayton, a city that had very high unemployment and poverty levels, and low Healthcare and being overweight is the result of not being able to afford healthy food everyday and there are many cheap fast food options.

Ugh...
Capatalism is always a double edged sword, you will never make everyone happy.
But we have to consider is it right for 1% ers to exist and have so much endless money that they made with the help of thousands of minimum waged employed that are
being disrgarded as just another #, another part of the inventory? among thousands
Yes, we want Capatalism to maintain global economy and hopefully all the $$ goes into opening new jobs and more opportunities, and freely helping and donating $ for good causes,
And not toward causes that are only to make more money for just a few people live an obscenely "money burning" lifestyle
We still need to take care of the people that helped along the way, and not let the 1% take advantage and control the world, influencing policies, governments and laws and the world's humans right to able to live a happy productive life.
So ya.... This movie really makes you think about so many things, and hopefully can open eyes and mind of someone who prefers to keep them closed
[/spoiler]

You always read about "cultural differences" as being something that must be overcome when dealing with international projects, but that language always felt so abstract to me; if anything, it seemed like more of an excuse as to why things might be delayed rather than a real problem. This doc did a great job of telling the story of what that concept really means in practice. _American Factory_ shows you how much friction is created due to the incongruity in cultural ideas about work ethic, personal freedoms, power, and process. I think that was the highlight of the story for me.

For me as an American, there were also feelings of frustration about having a country that doesn't have an answer for these people; their life goes from making $29 working for a US company, to making $12 for a Chinese company. The anti-labor-organizing that we see from Fuyao in the film isn't even unique to this being a China-based company; our home-grown Amazon does a pretty good job of hiring "labor relations" firms to weed out union organizing. I find myself agreeing with one of the speakers at a UAW event captured in the film: we've allowed our country to become one where the rich can exploit the poor, and it would be pretty cool to take it back.