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.
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