ATTENTION PLEASE
THE PLOT
Uhm, what plot?
Attention Please is a comedy chronicling the progress of Misaki Yoko (Ueto Aya) from lead-singer of a punk rock band to Cabin Attendant of Japanese Airlines. Of course, she’s not just a punk-rock singer, she also gets a whole backstory that is hardly ever never referred to in the drama except in the first episode – she lost her mother at a young age, was raised amongst three brothers and this explains her being “a slightly boyish girl who is bullheaded”. This is so that the comedy serial can be as outrageous and (hopefully) as humorous as possible.
…It is certainly outrageous. Among the inevitable mistakes she makes as a Cabin Attendant in training, are her stealing (and dismembering) of one of those robot things on which people practice CPR* and her stealing of a uniform. (Yes, she’s supposed to be in her twenties and no, this isn’t primary school.)
*Ah, okay. They say “doll” but uhhh…you be the judge.
Also, the reason why she even makes the transformation from:
Punk-rocker Misaki
to: Cabin Attendant Misaki
Is because some Tsukasa guy Misaki used to have a crush on “tells Yoko he wonders what she’d look like dressed in uniform” and that is motivaiton enough for her to succumb herself to what is imaginably arduous training (Square Peg! Round Hole!) for one of the most dramatic transitions in JDrama History. Because she has such backbone – if that isn’t terribly needy and pathetic of our iron-willed, bull-headed heroine, I don’t know what is. I’m sorry, but that is such a feeble premise for such a drastic transformation – uh, hence, outrageous.
Indeed, you definitely aren’t going to find any clever scripting or plotting in this drama. It is patently mediocre, clumsily serves up slapstick gag after slapstick gag and relies too much on the bumbling, boisterous Misaki Yoko who verges on plain hateful in her childlish antics. I say “verges” but on the forums, I read of people dropping the serial after the first few episodes altogether because she’s such a piercing pain in the butt.
An example of how the treatment of this drama clearly lacks finesse would be:
The Second-Last Episode; typically, the climax of the show as a whole and featuring some Exciting Event. Against all film-making wisdom (and in an “exception that proves the rule”-kind of way), Attention Please’s Great Crisis/Exciting Event is…a flight delay because of some malfunctioning door. I don’t know, I guess I was expecting a little less passivity than just some…dragged out wait? I mean, obviously Good Luck! (the other Notable Drama about the commercial airline industry) was unrealistic in its portrayal of some mid-air crisis every other day but this is supposed to be a drama not some inane real-life documentary about Stewardesses-in-Training right? A little artistic license couldn’t have hurt – plus, its not like the producers were gunning for realism from the get-go anyway. Seems to me, more like some serious failure in plotting anything worth watching.
The Height of the Crisis: What is that couple going to do?! Carry on with their little hissy fit?! Pen a hissy letter of complaint?! KYAAA!!! The tension will kill you.
Oh and for that matter, a business meeting?! In “Good Luck!”, when the plane was similarly delayed, the customers were panicking because of scheduled life-saving operations and company-saving business meetings. The good people of “Attention Please”clearly couldn’t come up wiht anything better.
Ah, to their credit, they try and insert some vaguely effective tension-building music but I think they squandered all its tension-building value away earlier when they basically, shoved unnecessarily dramatic music all over the place Gokusen-style in the earlier, less eventful episodes. It’s like…okay, so is this a real crisis? Or another one of those mildly troubling obstacles happening?
In fact, from start to finish, a whole variety of disappointing anti-climaxes and deus-ex-machinas abound. Misaki and her two other Cabin-Attendant Musketeer(esses) spot their fellow Cabin-Attendant in training entering some shady building late at night. They tail her. They find out she’s actually training at some gym in the building. They find out that the horror stories about the kind of sordid activity going about the building actually involve the next-door building. It is such a convenient coincidence. Way to resolve a conflict.
The plot, on the whole, is unbelievable and uncompelling. You’d think that if they were prepared to stretch reality abit, it’d at least be to accommodate some vaguely exciting plot and yet…
THE ACTION
I think I’ve said it before, the Japanese can generally be relied upon to deliver strong, convincing performances. This is the case here – some people accuse Ueto Aya of overracting but I rather think she makes quite a believable (if not tolerable) character. It is easy to see why people hate the actress – it is easy to transfer some hatred of some unimaginably horrid character with a genuine EQ deficiency to the actress who plays it. It’s like some “shoot the messenger” complex alot of people, understandably, have. Misaki Yoko is shameless, stubbon and self-centred in the utmost extreme. She is frustratingly childish and alot of the times, you just want to strangle her.
(By a bunch of random male hotel guests in the lobby. Behind her are her two awesome kick-ass bitchy Senpais who overhear her and promptly quash her over-confidence. They help make her a bearable nuisance.)
(HAHAH, okaaaay…)
But what redeems her, are her moments of quiet wisdom (usually, after she learns the Lesson-of-the-Episode from (usually) Instructor Mikami – it’s all very formulaic, as usual.) And I think Ueto Aya is so awesome because she plays both parts with convincing sincerity and versatility. There is a genuine liveliness and infectious energy you cannot fake about Ueto Aya’s Misaki Yoko…and it helps that Ueto Aya’s also very pretty. 😀
But, (I have to agree with the many commentators on forums who think so), it is the supporting cast which really made this technically awful show imminently entertaining – loveable, even.
Aibu Saki as Wakamura Yayoi ! She is super cute in the show with her winning smile and earnest bumbling about. I love her!
And the formidable Maya Miki as the formidable Instructor Mikami! I love her too!
IN CONCLUSION
It’s a deeply mediocre drama but then, in general, dramas can be counted on to entertain. And it does. Just don’t expect anything intensely hilarious, or exciting, or anything worth jumping about for. It does shed some light on an industry steeped in mystery (in Singapore’s context, anyway) so its fascinating that way and worth watching if you’re curious about Cabin Attendants/Stewardesses and all that. You won’t fall asleep but neither will it keep you up at night, riveted to the drama. Try and get past Misaki Yoko’s first few episodes – she gets (marginally) better towards the end what with her many Lessons Learnt. Watch this if you are really curious about the profession/ have got spare time to kill.
Quality: 5/10
Loveability: 6/10
doramaphilic 