English subtitles, Japanese language, Full Frame, All Region Import. Ryoko Itakura is a government tax agent who has just landed a big promotion. Her first assignment is to catch wheeler-dealer Hideki Gondo. She has a tough job, since in Japan tax evasion is an art and Gondo is, in effect, Rembrandt. Her job is complicated by a growing sympathy for the rogue and by political pressure to lay off.

Itami Juzo is the Frank Capra of Japanese movies. His plots are always upbeat, the characters quirky, and the good guys always win. Like Capra, he wanted to show people a better way, to show Japan a world where corruption and evil could be brought down by a smiling and plucky woman who doesn't let anyone tell her what she can't do

"A Taxing Woman" ("Marusa no Onna") is his third film, following his masterpiece Tampopo, and is the first in a series of "-Woman" ("-no Onna") films staring his wife Nobuko Miyamoto as the smiling and plucky woman. In this film, she plays a tax collector, on a mission to bring the corrupt and shady businessmen of Japan into line, and get them paying their taxes. Her target is Hideki Gondo, an owner of a chain of Love Hotels who uses a complicated system of phony bank accounts to avoid registering his real income with the government.

Because this is an Itami film, Gondo (played by Tsutomu Yamazaki, also the cowboy Goro in "Tampopo") is not a bad man per se, but just someone out to take a bigger slice of the pie. He is unable to resist the charms of Nobuko, who takes him down smiling, and also patches things up between Gondo and his wayward son Taro. Nobuko is irresistible, and Itami found an amazing muse in his beautiful wife. Here, she is speckled with freckles to give her character a unique look, but her beaming smile and determination are impossible to hide.

However, make no mistake in thinking that "A Taxing Woman" is a G-Rated feel good film. In true Japanese style, Itami has no fear of sex or toilet humor, and plenty of both are on display here. The darker sides of life are not dumbed down, and the Yakuza are nasty people. But, stronger than their nastiness is Nobuko's goodness, and that is the message on display.

Itami is one of Japan's finest modern film makers, and his happy world is always lent a taint of sadness due to his own troubles and unhappy suicide. "A Taxing Woman" is among the best films of his short career, and the only one to merit a sequel, A Taxing Woman's Return ("Marusa no Onna II").

Itami almost never disappoints and his skills have taken a big leap in this film since the time he made "Tampopo" (another must-see movie). A clever script gives a look inside a world must of us will never know--the high-end tax evasion and political corruption that finance the upper ranks of Japan. I spent several years in Japan (and learned more than I wanted, frankly, about the tax system) but this is a level I never saw, although I heard and read a lot about it, and Itami is not exaggerating here. These things really happen!
The actors are all wonderful, cast to perfection and fitting with Itami's slightly slapstick style perfectly.
Now if they'd just get "A Taxing Woman 2" out on DVD--it's 90%+ as good as this one--I'd be a happy man. And I'd be twice as happy if they'd re-release "Minbo no Onna," Itami's brilliant film about the yakuza extortion rackets. It got the yakuza so mad at him he was attacked and stabbed outside his home by a yakuza "street soldier."
Actually, I was surprised to see his relatively weak 1996 effort, "Super no Onna" is out on DVD, and these other, superior, films are not. Licensing decisions can be a real mystery.

'A Taxing Woman' is funny, dramatic, and very inventive. The acting is wonderful, the plot is full of surprises, and the social commentary is sharp and interesting.