Nice Flight! (2022)

It takes a Village to have a Safe and Nice Flight!

Completed: 9/12/2022

“Nice Flight” is a simple but educational drama about those that work at the airport - pilots, air traffic controllers, cabin attendants, ground crew, mechanics and more. This is a short and easy watch, and for the most part will put a smile on your face.

I was surprised by the amount of technical talks in the first two episodes. While introducing our male and female lead and their occupations, the drama does go into quite a lot of detail in the communication between a pilot and an air traffic controller. I don’t mind and quite like the educational aspect of this drama, but it just took me by surprise. If you do not enjoy all the technical/professional jargon, you might not like this drama as much.

The romance is simple and sweet. We have two individuals who work closely together by profession, yet have very different personalities. They are quite adorable and awkward together (my kind of cuteness). I might have wished for a more mature romance since the leads are not teenagers but professionals. I also wanted more cuteness when they’re a couple. Because the drama is so short, once they get together, we only get a few scenes of fluffiness and then we get into challenges of being in a relationship.

I enjoy seeing the character development of our female lead and her background story. Her tight bond with her grandfather is touching. We might have not seen much change of personality in our male lead, we do follow his career path and I learn a great deal about the process of being a pilot. Who knew you needed to go through full training again if you wanted to pilot a different aircraft? I didn’t but I do now!

Though the focus is on the leads, I appreciate the fact that this drama also sheds light on other important professions. “Nice Flight” stresses the importance of team work and passing the baton from one professional crew to another, in order to have a safe and successful flight. If the drama is longer, then we can learn even more about each profession.

Other Random Observations;
1. I wish to visit a gyoza restaurant like that. So many interesting and crazy gyozas!
2. Pilots must make a lot more money than air traffic controllers. Just check out the apartments that the leads are living in. Night and Day!
3. JAL must be a big sponsor. You don’t need any other product placements.

Special thanks to Windflows for subbing.

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Impressive level of blandness.

There isn’t anything wrong with the drama, but there is nothing truly right? No highs, no lows, nothing to truly grab my attention. Such a smooth flight, one might actually fall asleep.

I loved the idea behind the drama - seeing different professions that are related to airports. Usually we see the “glamorous lives” of flight attendants and pilots, but here we saw a greeted variety of jobs. So how come it did not work out?

I think the biggest issue was how all the issues and conflicts got resolved within five minutes of screen time. There was no suspense, no stakes. What’s more, while I understand they wanted to stay true to reality, sometimes cutting short the realistic depiction of procedures is not a bad thing - at the end of the day I am watching a drama, not a manual.

I did like all the characters, but I also disliked how most of them did not need any character development. They were smart, great, kind, and the “bad traits” were simply miscommunication. Nothing to work on. And because of that Kawahara Kasumi became my favorite character - she was the most dynamic in writing - both in external presentation and internal growth.

The production was fine. As most things in the drama. But fine is such a mid level of entertainment.

One thing to appreciate was for sure the acting. The whole cast did an amazing job.

Overall, I will probably forget this drama exists in a month.

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