Happy Flight (2008)

Happy Flight is a Japanese movie written and directed by Shinobu Yaguchi. It was released by Toho in Japan on November 15, 2008.

Yaguchi spent several years studying the airline industry before making the film and developed a healthy respect for the professionalism of the workers involved. The result is a film that is much an ode to them as it is a comedy.

Movie info

Original title: ハッピーフライト
Release date: November 15, 2008
Directed by: Shinobu Yaguchi
Written by: Shinobu Yaguchi (screenplay)
Distributed by: Toho

Plot

The film revolves around the airline workers involved in flight No. 1980 from Japan to Honolulu. Seiichi Tanabe stars as the co-pilot, Kazuhiro Suzuki, who will be promoted to captain when they return if all goes according to plan. Haruka Ayase plays Etsuko Saito, a new cabin attendant struggling to learn the ropes on her first international flight.

When the plane hits a bird soon after takeoff, they’re forced to turn around and attempt a landing in typhoon conditions. Through all the technical troubles they face, the various people responsible for keeping commercial airline flight safe work together and experience growth through their ordeal.

Featured Cast

Actor		Role
	Seiichi Tanabe	Kazuhiro Suzuki
	Saburo Tokito	Noriyoshi Harada
	Haruka Ayase	Etsuko Saito
	Kazue Fukiishi	Mari Tanaka
	Shinobu Terajima	Reiko Yamazaki
	Ittoku Kishibe	Shoji Takahashi
	Bengal
	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
	Kiho Kashiro
	Hana Kino	Etsuko's mother
	Fumiyo Kohinata	Captain
	Bokuzo Masana	Passenger
	Sanae Miyata	Air-traffic controller
	Ryu Morioka
	Yoshiyuki Morishita	Magazine Reporter
	Yasuhi Nakamura
	Takashi Sasano	Passenger
	Daikichi Sugawara	Passenger
	Tomoko Tabata	Natsumi Kimura
	Iku Takamatsu	Nana Hayashibara
	Naoto Takenaka	Passenger
	Tetsushi Tanaka
	Ryosei Tayama

Latest news

Another 32 seconds of Shinobu Yaguchi’s “Happy Flight”

The official website for Shinobu Yaguchi’s Happy Flight was recently updated with a fancy new layout; and with that update comes a brand new 32-second teaser taking the place of the old one. For...

8 years ago
Full cast info, first teaser for Shinobu Yaguchi’s “Happy Flight”

Forget everything I’ve written about this year; all I really care about is Shinobu Yaguchi’s Happy Flight. Okay, maybe that’s an overstatement—but it is the movie I’m most excited about...

8 years ago