Happy Flight

Happy Flight

Synopsis

Shinobu Yaguchi is the man behind popular cult following of “Waterboys” & “Swing Girls”, now reached for the sky with this movie about aviation. A comedy which will unfolds between the journey flight from Tokyo to Honolulu. Watch as pilots, flight attendants, the ground crew, mechanics, dispatchers, controllers, and passengers untangles the accident-prone journey.

Official Site: NA

Singapore Release Date: 26th November 2009, Thursday

Running Time: 106 minutes

Ratings: PG

Genre: Comedy

Cast: Saburo Tokito, Seiichi Tanabe, Kazue Fukiishi, Haruka Ayase

Crew: Director (Shinobu Yaguchi), Writers (Shinobu Yaguchi), Music (Micky Yoshino), Cinematography (Tokusho Kikumura)

The Trailer

The Review

Shinobu Yaguchi might have hit the mark with his comedies such as Waterboys, and Swing Girls, but Happy Flight for me particularly was lacking the gag.

The plot follows the various character that works at the airport, from the pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, flight control, weather control, and airport staff.

Each have their own situations and issues at hand. In this particular movie, the film entails of one particular ANA flight from Haneda Airport to Honolulu.

You have the co-pilot, Kazuhiro Suzuki (Seiichi Tanabe), in his final assessed flight that will determine whether he gets promoted to full pilot status, based on the assessment of the grim-faced Captain Noriyoshi Harada (Saburo Tokito).

Then you got the ditsy flight attendant Etsuko’s (Haruka Ayase) first international flight, who is under full scrutiny of lead attendant, Reiko Yamazaki (Shinobu Terajima).

And on the ground, you’ve the check-in counter, Natsumi (Tomoko Tabata) to Ittoku Kishbe playing a flight operations controller who adds more comic relief to the movie.

Overall I felt there was just too many characters with plenty of viewpoints to save the movie.

It’s more suited for a breezy material for a season of TV series, rather than compacting it, and stuffing it all in 106 minutes.

Happy Flight is a movie of convenience, once watched, you won’t miss it.

The Good

• Tight screenplay
• Good comic timing
• Props to the detail given about the on-going aviation stuff in the movie

The Bad

• Makes me think about work … really!
• Too short, you wish there was more
• Has a documentary feel to it, I couldn’t tell the difference

Editor’s Ratings