Happy Flight (2008)

A great variety of aviation professionals such as pilots, flight attendants, the ground crew, mechanics, dispatchers, controllers, and the bird patrol crew all support a single flight. They... See full summary »

Director:

Shinobu Yaguchi

Writer:

Shinobu Yaguchi

Stars:

Seiichi Tanabe, Saburo Tokito, Haruka Ayase

1 win.

Cast

Credited cast:
Seiichi Tanabe	...	Kazuhiro Suzuki
Saburo Tokito	...	Noriyoshi Harada
Haruka Ayase	...	Etsuko Saito
Kazue Fukiishi	...	Mari Tanaka
Shinobu Terajima	...	Reiko Yamazaki
Ittoku Kishibe	...	Shoji Takahashi
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bengaru
Noriko Eguchi	...	Air-traffic Controller
Akira Emoto	...	Etsuko's father
Shizuka Fujimoto	...	Passenger
Tomoharu Hasegawa
Mika Hijii
Kami Hiraiwa
Aiko Ito	...	Air-traffic Controller
Kumiko Ito	...	Kaori matsumoto

Storyline

A great variety of aviation professionals such as pilots, flight attendants, the ground crew, mechanics, dispatchers, controllers, and the bird patrol crew all support a single flight. They have only one mission: to secure the safety of the passengers! Today was supposed to be any other day on the job, departing on schedule and heading safely to Honolulu, but

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 November 2008 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Voo Feliz

Company Credits

Production Co:

Altamira Pictures Inc., Fuji Television Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Come Fly with Me"
Performed by Frank Sinatra

User Reviews

Everything You Want to Know About the Airline Industry (But Were Afraid to Ask)

I caught this film in a retrospective of Japanese films at a local mall this week. With a title like "Happy Flight", I expected a light comedy although I had no idea what sort of "flight" was referred to. An pre-flight instruction video that preceded the opening credits made it clear that this would be about a flight of an airplane.

In the first thirty minutes or so of the film, we see a slew of activity that went on behind the scenes before a commercial flight takes off from the airport. We meet the pilot-in-training on his final flight exam, the stern pilot examiner, the strict purser, the gaggle of excited new stewardesses on their first foreign flight, the team of mechanics on the tarmac, the ground crew, the people in the flight tower, the guy responsible to ward off birds, and of course, all those the quirky passengers. When the plane takes flight and encounters various problems with natural, mechanical, and human causes, the crew both onboard and on the ground all cooperate to ensure the passengers welfare.

These people all have their own little side stories to tell, mostly hilarious. But you can also feel an underlying seriousness the overall story the director wants to tell. This becomes more evident when the plane is in flight when every decision made is one of life and death. In the midst of the comedy, you cannot help but feel the tension and drama of the situations as well. This is indeed everything you are curious about the airline industry but were too afraid to ask or too afraid to even actually know. As I take my next flight, I will definitely think of this movie again.