University of Laughs (笑の大学, 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.
After that success, it was then made into a movie in 2004 starring actors Kōji Yakusho and Goro Inagaki by Fuji Television and Toho Studios.
Set in 1940,[1] a young playwright, Tsubaki Hajime (Inagaki / Kondo) comes up against a government censor, Sakisaka Mutsuo (Yakusho / Nishimura).
in Osaka and Parco Theatre in Shibuya previewed the West End scheduled English-language version of the play (with a new title, The Last Laugh), starring British actors Martin Freeman as the Playwright and Roger Lloyd-Pack as the Censor.
The only major differences in the two versions was the addition of other non-speaking characters in the opening sequence of the film for placement, and the cut of a running gag about a stranded crow being cared for by Sakisaka (the Censor) in the original play.