University of Laughs (Warai no Daigaku) is a story by Japanese dramatist Kōki Mitani which began as a play in 1996 starring actors Masahiko Nishimura as the Censor and Yoshimasa Kondo as the Playwright. The play won the Best Play Award at the 1996 Yomiuri Theater Awards.
After success it was then made into a movie in 2004 starring actors Kōji Yakusho and Goro Inagaki by Fuji Television and Toho Studios. The major theme of the piece is the conflict between censorship and an artist’s freedom of expression, but it is a comedy.
In pre-war Japan, a government censor tries to make the writer for a theater troupe alter his comedic script. As they work with and against each other, the script ends up developing in unexpected ways.
Cast
Kōji Yakusho as Mutsuo Sakisaka
Goro Inagaki as Hajime Tsubaki
