Voo Feliz

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.

We've all been let down by a service that proves an inconvenience, but perhaps isn't the complete disaster we make it out to be. But with so many components to service provision, the poor people on the floor take the brunt for a lot when they are quite simply doing their job and following procedure. You see it as incompetence, but it's quite the opposite in reality.

In what is essentially a feature length promotional video for ANA and the sheer number of people and steps required in getting a flight from A to B, "Happy Flight" is an informative and entertaining journey part-way across the Pacific Ocean, in a plea to not be so harsh on them the next time your flight is delayed.

With a large and strong cast of many recognisable faces, this is much more enjoyable than you would think, walking a fine line between entertainment, goofball comedy and being informative about the various roles and what is required in each. There is much to learn about commercial aviation, and that knowledge makes the laughs more plausible, with the extended cast in different settings breaking things up nicely and never getting bogged down in one single aspect. The story itself is a very realistic scenario, away from sensationalising or disaster movie tension. In fact, you learn as you go and get a sense of reward. It's very much "Airplane!" (1980) from a very administrative perspective.

Trainee pilot Suzuki (Seiichi Tanabe) is flying his final flight as a novice before attaining full pilot status. It is his final test. Flying as co-pilot for Harada (Saburo Tokito) from Haneda in Tokyo to Hawaii, he is nervous about passing this last examination. Also starting a first international journey on a much bigger jumbo jet is cabin crew member Etsuko (Haruka Ayase). On a longer flight with more, increasingly demanding passengers, it's stressful for all, not just the first timer.

But while taking off, the "bird man" tasked with ridding the runway of birds is distracted, and damage is caused to a seemingly small part of the plane, but one that will affect the various readings necessary to keep the plane safely in the air. With the plane less than halfway through its journey, procedure dictates they must turn back to Haneda Airport as a storm approaches.

Compartmentalising (I actually used that word) the storyline into the various groups of people involved make this a collection of intertwined shorts. The check-in staff need to get everyone on the flight; the weather room need to monitor conditions; the hangar mechanics need to ensure no missing tools may have compromised the plane; air traffic control must do whatever it is they do. All are under pressure and time constraints to make sure their part of the job is completed.

And as the team follow their procedures, the film itself is a very professional job. There is nothing spectacular about this, turning a disaster into a set of steps to follow, as you'd expect from a film made in collaboration with an airline. But it is much more realistic, and deserves credit for it. It is well paced and the story develops nicely, with a good balance between humour and detail. It is never too dull, nor too silly.

All is overseen by the safe pair of hands that is Shinobu Yaguchi, with a string of similar films that are universal and crowd-pleasing, but also offer some genuinely good moments of cinema, with "Swing Girls" (2004), "Water Boys" (2001) and "Wood Job!" (2014).

Safe is very much a word to describe this, in the sense that you know where you are, so you can just sit back and enjoy.

Politic1983.home.blog.

Later this week I'll be on my way overseas on a flight, but no that's not the chief reason why this film appealed to me. I had chanced upon the film's release when in Tokyo last year and the trailer had caught my attention for its potential to provide some madcap humour. What's more, it stars one of my favourite Japanese actresses in Haruka Ayase, whose performance in Cyborg, She I had enjoyed, so it's only logical that I picked this film over others releasing this week.

Happy Flight is a delightful surprise surpassing my expectations, where it features a myriad of characters and an ensemble cast to bring about an end to end presentation of just about everything that goes on behind the scenes from the operations of the ground crew at the check in counter, to the maintenance team, from the control tower operations centre and right up into the aircraft with the duties of the pilot and that of the cabin crew. Frequent travellers usually treat everything behind the scenes as a black box which just clicks and works, and this film provides that extra awareness and appreciation of the one million things that can and are happening, and in the worst case scenario, something simple that can go so wrong.

Which to All Nippon Airways, it's quite gutsy of them to open up and brand this film. I cannot see how a similar film can be done locally without jumping through some major hoops, and probably end up with folks being unhappy about how things can get portrayed on screen. But unlike films such as Flightplan, this one doesn't belittle any of the departments, but smartly fuses comedy without becoming veiled insults. I suppose Shinobu Yaguchi, who had helmed films like Water Boys and Swing Girls, proved to be the right person to craft a potentially complex tale on what goes on in aviation, and what he did was simply put, amazing.

Cleverly fusing all the different narratives and subplots, he had presented the films as a series of quick short stories, although each engaging enough to make you want to know more. While some characters can be caricatures, he pumped them up with enough engaging incidents to ultimately bring out that smile. It's also key that he had provided some behind the scenes insights from the industry, that would make you sit up and take notice, with nuggets of trivia coming from every angle and every department featured.

And not to forget the office politics within the department themselves, and when they interact with each other (I chuckled at the tai-chi attempt), everyone depending on one another's professional expertise to ensure a pleasant flight experience for every single passenger the minute he or she steps into the airport ready for their flight out. But of course sometimes things tend to rub off the wrong way, and for dramatic sake, could be slightly exaggerated especially on what takes place within the cabin, which most of us would be aware of, or from hearsay support some urban myths.

Narratively, we follow many viewpoints. We have a first officer Kazuhiro Suzuki (Seiichi Tanabe) in his final test flight to become a captain, and his Flight 1980 is assessed by an unsmiling Captain Noriyoshi Harada (Saburo Tokito) in the cockpit, which puts him under additional pressure given his disastrous attempt at the flight simulator. Then we have the ditzy cabin attendant Etsuko Saito (Haruka Ayase) who's a Calamity Jane under the supervision of Reiko Yamazaki (Shinobu Terajima) and a competing peer Mari Tanaka (Kazue Fukiishi). On the ground the subplots also extend to Tomoko Tabata's ground crew Natsumi Kimura, and Ittoku Kishbe's flight operations controller, and the list goes on, extending even toward an incident at the maintenance hangar, and a trio of comedic aviation geeks. And if all these don't seem enough, there's an oncoming typhoon to add to the chaos!

But the beauty of it is that you won't be a wee bit confused, or at any time does the story seem bloated, or sub plots unnecessary. Everything comes together in good time like clockwork, almost exactly the same experience you'll feel when boarding a plane for a trip. Working dynamics and office politics also deftly creeps into the film and presents to you the not-so-glamorous side to any job, although it does take the time to remind you that reputations that precede could also be misconstrued, and there's nothing wrong in holding back pre-judgements until you experience something yourself first hand.

Opening with an inflight safety video, I like the film enough to rank it one of my favourites of this year, for being that perfect balance between comedy, drama, and that valuable look into what makes aviation tick. Highly recommended, so do flock to the only screen in Singapore that's showing this as an exclusive showcase!

Shinobu Yaguchi made his directorial mark with giddy comedies like My Secret Cache, Waterboys, and Swing Girls, and this film takes his comedy (of sorts) to the friendly skies.

Happy Flight is a buoyant entertainment, with situations springing from the familiar context of the airport and environs. The cast is uniformly agreeable, showing their skills at light, breezy material. If anything, the comedy is perhaps too light; unlike Yaguchi's other blithe offerings, there's a certain paucity of fresh gags to keep the whole thing running smooth. The talented Haruka Ayase proved her comic skill with Hotaro no Hikaru; the movie Cyborg Girl gave her a platform for a clever, funny dual role. Here, however, the writing doesn't allow Ayase to make much of her character or situation. Other actors have the same problem.

The situations were engaging for the most part, but never seemed to result in comic payoff. Given the level of talent here, one expect a bit more. If anything, this comes off like a gently comic drama, always careful to treat ANA with kid gloves - but in the process depriving the comic elements of bite.

It would be a mess if all the crew on a jet liner are this inept. They all act like they're fresh out of school. In reality, there's a mixture of experienced, and not so experienced crews on board.

The movie was fun to watch. But it seems like the producers including the director really had to learn the subject that they were not so well prepared to take on. Every scene looked like regurgitating something they've learned from ANA. The airline will be out of business if they had this many problems within 2 hours of the flight.

Saburo Tokito, and Shinobu Terajima was good as the captain and the head cabin attendant. It seem like the movie followed the format of another series "Attention please" staring Aya Ueto. The formula of inept flight attendant(s), and the strict instructor is strait out of that story.

Ittoku Kishibe also was great in his supporting role. If they collected the actors of Tokito, Terajima, and Kishibe's caliber in other roles, this movie would have been better.

Not a bad film, but could have been better. It had a charm of its own, and was worth watching.