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.

1985 - TAMPOPO, the ramen noodle comedy

 I'll have to admit when I saw this film back in the 1980's I didn't really get the jokes about food and the correct way to serve ramen noodles. Ramen wasn't really that popular in the United States at that time. After seeing it at a revival theater this week I can say this film is hilarious.

Nobuko Miyamoto plays a widow struggling to run a successful ramen noodle bar in Tokyo I believe.  Just when all is lost, in walks Tsutomu Yamazaki as a truck driver wearing a cowboy hat and driving a semi with the horns of a steer on top of it.  Yamazaki commits himself to helping her.

To do this, Yamazaki recruits a team to help Miyamoto become a success.  Right away the parallels to Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven become obvious and amusing.  The performances  throughout the film catch the comedic spirit of the story.  Nobuko Miyamoto as the put upon ramen chef may be down but she is not about to give up on her dream of running the best noodle bar in Tokyo.  Tsutomo Yamazaki is also hilarious as the brooding truck driver acting like an Asian John Wayne.

 

 Throughout the film the director Juzo Itami cuts to some brief vignettes showing other characters and their relationship to food.  Some of these vignettes walk the line between tragedy and comedy but all of them are very amusing.

Tampopo was a complete delight in this viewing and is highly recommended. 

The film was written by the director Juzo Itami and the running time is 115 minutes.