Warai no daigaku

It is amazing and rare when a film manages to reach us and surprise us by succeeding our expectations. In my personal experience, THE UNIVERSITY OF LAUGHS is one of such films. What I loved the most about this particular film is how complex issues which throughout history have affected cultural expression can be represented and illustrated in such a fine and simple fashion.

Sakisaka, a government official entrusted with creating favorable conditions for the maximum expansion of the ruling ideology, through the censorship and manipulation of messages in popular culture meets his counterpart in a humble theater script writer seeking approval for his latest project. The movie evolves and progresses as both, censor and writer work together, with and against each other to achieve their individual interests.

My favorite moment is that in which Hajime Tsubaki becomes aware that his interest and passion for comedy writing, transcends the personal and collective interests of his boss, his colleagues and even his nation. He can live with the criticism and punishment offered to him by friends, peers and society at large but he cannot live without being true to himself, therefore, he is left with no option but to follow his comic nature through his gift of writing. This is the most purely political phase in the film, and it marks the decisive passage of struggle from the individual structure, to the sphere of the complex superstructures.

In all, this is a beautiful and clever display of Japanese culture and worldwide struggle for freedom of speech, and a subtle reminder of how far we have come to reach the stage of cultural freedom that many of us enjoy today.

Not a film for the easily bored or sub-title phobic, as this film is a strictly dialogue based story between a comedic writer and his draconian censor set in pre-war Japan, where humanity is pitted against authoritarianism. As flat as that may sound, the dialogue that ensues between the protagonists is both incredibly comedic and emotional, and moreover brutally insightful into a dark period of imperialistic Japanese history that a Western audience has dwindling knowledge of. I cannot recommend this film enough, perhaps even best watched alone, which helps the viewer empathise more personally with the embattled comedic writer pitted against the brick wall of the state. This film will remain with you.

In Showa era, before the World War 2, a prosecutor named Sakisaka and a dramatist named Tsubaki meets in an investigation room of the metropolitan police department. At first Sakisaka tries to prevent Tsubaki's theatrical company "University of Laughs," but as they rewrite the script, Sakisaka comes to enjoy the rewriting with Tsubaki…

This movie is almost composed of the conversations of the two and the situation hardly changes from the investigation room. Thus, some people may think this movie do not have passionate scene and the images are boring. On the other hand, the two actors play the contrastive characterized men. I think it great that their conversations which draws the attentions of the audience. Tsubaki has a ready wit and promptly thinks of the lines which are full of humor. The humor which Tsubaki think every time made me laugh.

I was also impressed with the set of the structure. Actually they are buildings now exist, they looks like the real Tokyo in the beginning of Showa era.

Writing comedy is hard, especially, if you have to face an authoritarian, ex-soldier censor officer who never laughed all his life and was proud of it. That's the premise of this extraordinary movie which is set in Japan during WWII. It is originally a play, so we can hope for tons and tons of witty dialogs between the young playwright and the censor officer. The former is struggling to get approval of his next comedy script while the latter is determined to close down all theater performances in the city, simply because "…it is inappropriate to get a few laughs during this time of war…" Then, suddenly, the movie turns into a lesson of how to write a good comedy as the censor officer keeps criticizing the script and demands changing. There are lots of warm and funny moments, but toward the ending, it suddenly becomes tense and heartbreaking. It almost becomes a tragedy. The whole movie is basically played by those two characters. Other characters can easily be extras. The setting is very minimalist as nearly 80 percent of the movie is located inside the interrogation room. The message we can get from this movie is that there is always comedy inside anybody's life, whether you want it or not. It is no use denying it. Just as it is no use denying not to like this incredible movie once you see it.

Entirely realistic depiction of the relationship between a government censor and a writer. They each come to respect the other - to enjoy each other's company - with interesting results. The action, such as it is, mostly takes place in one room. Yet the picture isn't stagey, it flows like a movie, the viewer keen to know what will happen next. This wouldn't work except for the marvelous chemistry between the younger and older actor, who close the generation gap while each staying true to himself. The end is especially moving.