Happy Flight on AllMovie

Comedy and suspense take turns in this crowd-pleasing picture from popular Japanese director Shinobu Yaguchi. Flight 1980 is preparing to take off from Tokyo to Hawaii, and a team of trained professionals is working to see the flight goes smoothly. Capt. Harada (Saburo Tokito) is a tough, by-the-book pilot who is training young co-pilot Suzuki (Seiichi Tanabe) who is eager to move up to full pilot's status. The flight is also carrying a new stewardess, Saito (Haruka Ayase), who is nervous about working under exacting Chief Purser Yamazaki (Shinobu Terajima), a taskmaster who also intimidates the more experienced Mari (Kazue Fukiishi). Meanwhile at the airport, Kimura (Tomoko Tabata) deals with lost luggage and disgruntled passengers, and the head of the ground crew (Ryosei Tayama) and his chief weather adviser (Ittoku Kishibe) strive to get the flight off the ground safely and on time. Despite the hard work and expertise of everyone involved, two unexpected crises put the flight in grave danger -- a new computer system aboard the jet malfunctions, and as Capt. Harada turns back to Tokyo, it's discovered a hurricane is brewing just off the coast. Can Flight 1980 safely land before the storm hits the airport? A major box office success in Japan, Happy Flight was also screened in competition at the 2008 Pusan International Film Festival.