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 in 2008, hands down. Most people know of Yaguchi for his two teen idol zeroes to heroes blockbusters, Waterboys and Swing Girls, but before that he had quite a run on tough luck comedies. Throughout the 90s he released movies like Down the Drain, My Secret Cache, and Adrenaline Drive in which people would get caught up in the worst possible situations that just snowballed from there as if they were on a mission to prove out Murphy’s law. Sure he clings to formulas for dear life, but it doesn’t really matter because his scripts are always funny and his actors always seem to hit the right comedic marks.

In “Happy Flight” Yaguchi chose an airline for his setting and as he did research for the script he discovered just how much is involved in making sure airplanes are able to fly safely. He spent years learning about every detail of airlines, from flight controllers to cabin attendants to the guys who are responsible for looking out for birds in the sky. The movie begins at a huge airfield where hundreds of planes take off every day. Passengers prepare to board charter flight 1980 to Honolulu. It’s a beautiful day and the giant jumbo jet is glistening in the sun. Everything is set for take off. That’s pretty much all that’s available so far in the way of story, but I’m sure more will be coming out very soon. Stay tuned.

Cast:

Seiichi Tanabe .... Kazuhiro Suzuki (co-pilot)
Saburo Tokito .... Noriyoshi Harada (pilot)
Haruka Ayase .... Etsuko Saito (cabin attendant)
Kazue Fukiishi ... Mari Tanaka (cabin attendant)
Tomoko Tabata .... Natsumi Kimura (grand staff)
Shinobu Terajima .... Reiko Yamazaki (chief parser)
Ittoku Kishibe .... Shoji Takahashi (operation director)
Takashi Sasano .... passenger
Fumiyo Kohinata .... pilot
Ryosei Tayama .... grand manager
Daikichi Sugawara .... passenger
Tetsushi Tanaka .... line mechanic
Bokuzo Masana .... passenger
Kami Hiraiwa .... grand staff
Ryu Morioka .... dock mechanic
Mika Hijii .... dispatcher
Bengal .... bird patrol
Yoshiyuki Morishita .... bird protection club
Mayumi Akeboshi .... bird protection club
Sanae Miyata .... controller
Noriko Eguchi .... controller
Tomoharu Hasegawa .... controller
Aiko Ito .... controller
Ryousuke Takei .... controller
Shizuka Fujimoto .... passenger
Naoto Takenaka .... passenger
Hana Kino .... Etsuko’s mother
Akira Emoto .... Etsuko’s father

Teaser:

Official website

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Tags: aiko ito, akira emoto, bengal, bokuzo masana, daikichi sugawara, fumiyo kohinata, hana kino, happy flight, haruka ayase, ittoku kishibe, kami hiraiwa, kazue fukiishi, mayumi akeboshi, mika hijii, naoto takenaka, noriko eguchi, ryosei tayama, ryousuke takei, ryu morioka, saburo tokito, sanae miyata, seiichi tanabe, shinobu terajima, shinobu yaguchi, shizuka fujimoto, takashi sasano, tetsushi tanaka, tomoharu hasegawa, tomoko tabata, yoshiyuki morishita