VividSimon Simply Perfect

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Melvyn Foo This film is impressive for how much meaning it manages to capture in it's small scope – two main sets and two main actors, with hardly any special effects. Set within the narrative frame of a censure review process, the drama unfolds from Day 1 to Day 7 as a playwright's (Goro Inagaki) script is rejected time and time again by the censor (Koji Yakusho). As the censor demands more changes each day, he finds himself caught up in the creative process.Herein lies the film's starkest satirical point. On an individual level, a censor aids, rather than stifles the creative process. While he begins as an inhuman personification of the institution and/or the state, he is humanized by his developing friendship with the playwright. This 'humanization' is depicted through scenes of his daily activities (eating at a sushi bar, traveling, outside his uniform etc) towards the end of the film. On a structural level, the narrative frame – the censure review process – is contrasted against the end result of that process: the playwright produces a brilliant comedy, and we too, enjoy a brilliant comedy.The film culminates in the playwright confessing his true intentions, which meets the censor's own philosophy head on. What was previously ignored or forgotten because of their growing friendship can no longer be, and the censor is forced to issue an ultimatum. The buildup in poignancy was not overdone, though it could have been more subtle. Nevertheless, this development threatens to derail the entire buildup in plot, for it rendered all other changes to the playwright's script nugatory. But the risk paid off, and the result is, instead of being left with an unsatisfying cop-out of a friendly agreement to disagree, we get to watch a true transformation of character.

sawii29 Sakisaka, working as an inspector of comedy script, hardly laughs. One day, he meets a scriptwriter named Tsubaki Hajime. Tsubaki comes to him to get the script checked, then it can be on at his theater. However, Sakisaka doesn't say "ok", he asks him to rewrite and bring it the next day. Tsumaki follows his advice and the two come to make the script more interesting together. But it doesn't last so long. One day, Tsubaki brings a sad news with a great comedy script and then,,,I laughed a lot seeing this movie. Koji Yakusho, acted Sakisaka, is one of the greatest actors in Japan. I'm a big fan of him. Sakisaka is a serious person. He doesn't laugh and dislike comedy, but gradually changes. Yakusho expressed the small change faithfully in the film. And I'm also a fan of Koji Mitani. His movies are always funny and interesting.This movie must make you laugh and give you bravery to keep going what you like to do.

anandserpi 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.

mariafefauk 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.