1987 - A TAXING WOMAN, a film about an heroic tax auditor

This is Juzo Itami's follow up to his ramen noodle epic Tampopo and is equally as entertaining.  The film again stars Tsutomu Yamazaki and Nobuko Miyamoto although this time playing very different characters than they did in Tampopo. 

It seems in the 1980's the Japanese government had some of the highest tax rates in the world.  This fostered a climate where many Japanese citizens attempted to hid their wealth from the government instead of being taxed to death.  The plot of A Taxing Woman is basically Nobuko Miyamoto playing a very sharp tax inspector who matches wits with Tsutomu Tamazaki a business man who owns a series of for want of a better word "sex hotels."  

 

You would have to give Juzo Itami credit, it would seem almost impossible that a film could be made out of not paying your taxes and have the heroic tax inspector detective played by a woman.  The film has a lot of interesting and amusing encounters with the Japanese public as they attempt to outsmart the Japanese National Tax Agency.  A high recommendation for this film.

 

A Taxing Woman was a big hit in Japan and unsurprisingly led to a sequel called what else, A Taxing Woman Returns.

Written by  Juzo Itami, the running time is 127 minutes.