Note: This is the un-edited version of the interview with Mitani Koki that appeared in The Japan Times on 11/17/04.

Interviewing Koki Mitani -- a playwright and director who is Japan's closest equivalent to Neil Simon in both comic sensibility and success -- should have been a barrel of laughs. But Mitani, whose credits include "Radio no Jikan," "Minna no Ie" and his most recent hit, "Warai no Daigaku," was like many comedy writers in being deadly serious about his craft -- and explaining it with all due earnestness. Our conversation, in the Hibiya headquarters of distributor Toho, was punctuated by laughter -- though this interviewer was cracking most of the jokes.

Q: At the screening I saw at the Tokyo Film Festival, the audience was laughing at every joke -- the film was a huge success. Aren't you sorry now that you didn't direct it? (laughs)

Mitani: (laughs) No, not really. It was originally a stage play. Plays and films are two very different mediums -- and I thought that this play would be especially difficult to film. So when I was approached about making a movie, I said I would give my OK only if Mr. (Mamoru) Hoshi directed it. I'd worked with him before and I knew he understood the difference between plays and films. I thought he would be the best one for the material.

Q: How did you come to know him?

A: He directed a script of mine for a TV program called "Keibuho: Furuhata Ninzaburo." That was a two-man drama about a detective and a criminal -- in that way it resembles ("Warai no Daigaku") So when the producers came to me with the idea of filming the play, his was the first name that came to mind.

Q: I understand why you chose Koji Yakusho to play the part of the censor, but the casting of Goro Inagaki wasn't as obvious.

A: I wanted someone who wasn't an "average Joe" type -- and that's Inagaki exactly. He's playing a character, Tsubaki, who's something of an intellectual, who makes a living with his mind. He's not living in the everyday world.

Q: He's also very much the professional, who will sacrifice his ego to get his play on the stage.

A: Being a scriptwriter myself, I know what that sort of character is like. For one thing, scriptwriters may be dedicated to their work, but they're different from novelists in that, whether they're writing for the screen or stage, they're not just writing for themselves, but for a larger community, including the actors who will play their roles. They have to pay attention to human relationships. They have to be able to coolly evaluate what works and what doesn't.

Inagaki has the coolness a scriptwriter needs -- that's another reason why he was right for the role.

Q: Not only Inagaki's character, but the heroes of the two films you directed -- "Radio no Jikan" (Welcome Back Mr. McDonald) and "Minna no Ie" (My House) -- are scriptwriters. Can't you pick any other profession? (laughs)

A: Well, it's something I understand. (laughs) Also, I like to make films about people who make something together, about the process of creation. There's a lot of drama inherent in that situation -- and (scriptwriting) is a profession that lends itself to drama.

Q: When you wrote the script did you imagine yourself in Tsubaki's shoes and what you would do if you were?

A: Tsubaki is a type of ideal scriptwriter -- there's no one like him now. But I've had to write TV dramas where I've had various limits placed on what I could do. Restrictions in terms of schedule or subject or actors. For example actor A and actor B don't get along. So I'll be asked not to put A and B together in the same scene. Or another actor has a poor memory, so I'll be asked to give him shorter lines.

Demands like that are always being made on the set. Some scriptwriters will object, but I'll try to accommodate them as much as possible, while writing the best script I can. So in that way I'm like Tsubaki I suppose.

Q: The film is based on the reality of wartime censorship -- but it's also a fantasy.

A: Tsubaki is lucky to have a censor like Sakisaka, who is both considerate and flexible. In reality censors were scary people, so the story may be somewhat removed from reality in that way.

Sakisaka is a complex character. He likes comedy, but can't admit it to himself. In the course of his seven days with Tsubaki he doesn't change so much as recognize what he really likes and who he really is. He finds out that he shares a common interest with Tsubaki.

Q: Tsubaki's case is a bit different. Every day he walks through Asakusa on his way to see Sakisaka and every day the people in front of the theaters are doing the same sorts of things -- it reminded me of "Groundhog Day," where Bill Murray is stuck in the same day forever.

A: True, he goes through the same routine every day -- but little by little the war is getting closer. Of course, the political situation didn't change as quickly as it does in the film -- so it's something of a fantasy in that way too.

Q: But the political situation in both Japan and America is making the film look more and more timely. The government is now enforcing the raising of the Hinomaru flag and the singing of "Kimigayo" at school ceremonies. We aren't quite back to 1940 yet -- but the trend is in that direction.

A: ("Warai no Daigaku") was originally a radio drama, then it became a play. Both times I was told that it was timely. Back then I wondered how it could be timely, but now I'm starting to understand. I just hope we get to the point when no one can call the film timely.

Q: The film also reflects the period -- it may start off as a comedy, but towards the end the tone darkens. We realize that Sakisaka and Tsubaki occupy different positions in society and that Sakisaka has to play a certain role. He can't just be Tsubaki's collaborator and friend.

A: Those two put their heads together and make something they both enjoy -- it's a happy time for them. Then the mood changes and becomes more serious. Their relationship changes as a result.

The film may be called a comedy, but I never thought of it as one. I wanted the ending to be serious.

Q: I wonder how it will be received abroad -- whether foreign audiences will understand why you had to end it the way you did.

A: The play was performed in Russia -- in a Siberian city called Omsk and then in Moscow. The Russian audiences enjoyed it. The story about a censor and a playwright was more familiar to them than it would be to Japanese.

Q: The world premiere was at this year's Pusan Film Festival -- I heard the reaction there was good as well.

A: I didn't go, but I heard the Korean audience liked the film. What surprised me -- there's a lot of word play in the film, but they seemed to get it.

I never thought of showing the film abroad when I wrote it. I was just concerned with making the Japanese audience laugh -- I wasn't thinking of the foreign audience at all. So I put of lot of puns in the script and I wondered how anyone could translate them. I was surprised to see how the translators were able to find equivalents in Korean and English.

Q: The subtitles are well done. Just one thing bothered me -- The name of "Okuni" -- one of the characters in the play -- is translated as "Ms. Neyshon" -- but that's not a real name. "Nation" is a real last name, though. There was Carry Nation -- a famous temperance crusader.

A: Really? Well, we'll have to change it (laughs).

Q: This film resembles the two you directed yourself in so many ways that people will inevitably think of it as a "Mitani film." But it's not.

A: No, it's Mr. Hoshi's film -- and I'm happy now that he directed it. If he hadn't I wouldn't be as nearly as satisfied with the result.

Q: The subject matter and treatment are more distinctively Japanese than in your other films, which have more of a Western flavor. Did you want to write something closer to your historical and cultural roots?

A: It just so happened that the film was set in that place and period. The situation of two people coming together to make something is not exclusive to Japan.

After I wrote the radio drama I saw a film by Woody Allen called "Bullets Over Broadway." It was about a playwright who gets his play financed by a gangster -- and then has to change it according to the gangster's whims. I thought it was interesting that Allen could have the same basic idea as me -- it had nothing to do with nationality. Comedy is comedy.