Directed by Byun Sung-hyun, Good News is inspired by real-life events, an incident that shook Japan in the year 1970. Before I get into how much of what’s depicted in the film actually happened in real life, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that Good News is, by far, the best film I’ve seen this year. In an era when cinema and media increasingly serve as mouthpieces for those in power, where artistic freedom, journalistic integrity, and even judicial independence seem compromised. Good News emerges as a rare and bold attempt to hold a mirror to the system. It doesn’t just tell a story; it challenges the status quo and reminds us of what socially conscious filmmaking can truly achieve. It then makes an even bolder creative choice by infusing humor and adopting a satirical approach in its storytelling. My problem with many films in recent years has been that humor often dilutes the seriousness of the subject matter for no reason, but not in this film. If anything, I believe the humor made everything feel more potent and striking. I didn’t see the film opting for such a philosophical ending and they executed it in a manner that leaves you pondering over the fact that what have we done to the world? As it is said, the real test of a man’s character comes when you give him power, as we saw in the film how it was misused, and that too unabashedly.
What Happened On Flight 351?
A bunch of students from a leftist group called the Red Army Faction, 9 to be precise, hijacked Japanese Flight 351 (that came to be known as the Yodogo Hijacking incident)that was going from Tokyo to Fukuoka. It was the 30th of March 1970, and I know it’s hard to believe, but hijacking was not illegal in Japan at that point in time. To be clear, there were no anti-hijacking laws in place, probably because such incidents hadn’t happened in the past. That was the reason why, according to eyewitnesses, the passengers didn’t get shocked when the hijackers told them that the flight was being hijacked. Captain Takahiro Kubo and Seigo Maeda were the pilots on the flight, and they didn’t know what they should do and what the right course of action was in that situation. Like shown in Good News, the hijackers had samurai swords with them and a few pipe bombs, though I don’t know if the bombs were actually real or not. The hijackers were inexperienced, and they didn’t know a thing about flying planes. That was the reason the captain was able to mislead them, and he made them believe that the plane only had enough fuel to make it to Fukuoka. The plane did land at Fukuoka in Japan, where it refueled, and then it left for North Korea. According to what I read in various reports, the hijackers were initially planning to go to Cuba, as they were very inspired by the entire revolutionary movement there. But obviously they couldn’t fly there on a domestic airline, and so they decided to go to North Korea. Once the plane left from Fukuoka, it was decided by the Japanese, South Korean, and American bureaucrats that they would disguise a South Korean airport and make it look like they were in North Korea. The authorities only had an hour to make all the arrangements and make a decision as to what needed to be done. I don’t know who was the face of the negotiations, but in the film it was shown that the politicians selected a scapegoat named Seo Go-myung. I don’t know if the bureaucrats and the politicians treated the negotiator the way they did in the film, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that actually happened in real life. I don’t think anybody in the world has ever pulled off such a feat. I mean, an airport in Seoul was made to look like a North Korean territory. I can’t imagine the kind of preparation and planning that would have taken.
When the hijacked plane landed in South Korea, at first the hijackers were relieved that they had succeeded in their mission. It is true that one of the hijackers saw a plane of Northwestern airlines, and they couldn’t understand what an American aircraft was doing in North Korea, a country that was known for its hostile relationship with the USA. Also, they didn’t see a single picture of the North Korean dictator at the airport. I am not sure if the hijackers saw an American soldier at the airport or not, but there are some reports that suggest that personnel of the US Army were present at the scene, which made it pretty obvious that they were not in North Korea. The hijackers were quite nice to the passengers, and they made sure that everybody was well fed and got what they wanted. A Catholic priest named Daniel Macdonald was one of the passengers on that plane, and he told various media outlets how they were scared that the hijackers would kill them. But the kidnappers did no such thing, and in fact, they treated them better than the Japanese airport staff.
The hijackers didn’t get off the plane, and exactly as it’s portrayed in the film, the deputy transport minister, Yamamura Shinjiro, was taken on board in exchange for the passengers. The hijackers realized that a member of the Japanese ministry was much more valuable than the lives of all 122 passengers combined. The pilot, co-pilot, and the minister were later released by the North Korean regime, but the hijackers stayed there. I believe there would have come a time in the life of hijackers when they would have felt that they committed a mistake by coming to North Korea. The North Korean regime used these 9 hijackers as pawns. They used them to carry out missions and benefited from it. Also, I don’t know if the pilots actually knew about the ruse, i.e. the entire plan of the South Korean government, or if they too were as unaware as the hijackers. One of the hijackers, Wakabayashi Moriaki, was a member of a rock band named Rallizes Denudes. That band gained fame overnight after the people got to know that one of the hijackers was a part of it. Tamiya Takamaro (nicknamed “Maro”), another hijacker, was never released by the North Korean government, and they used him to spread their propaganda. He was the leader of the pack who led those 9 people. I don’t think those so-called revolutionaries were able to make any sort of difference apart from the fact that aviation laws became much more stringent.
