terrible... so disappointed.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The movie delves into popular Japanese myths about how people hide their money, and how the government investigates people.This movie made Jyuzo Itami, and his wife Nobuko Miyamoto very famous in Japan. The title "Marusa" became common word in Japanese culture after the release of this film. Very rare that a husband and wife team succeeds so much in the film business for so many years. The story is about government tax investigators investigating a love hotel magnate's flow of money. Both sides are ingenious in the way they hide the money and how they investigate into the trail of those money. Yakuza, concubine, wife, and even the bank are all in it.In Japan, where both corporate and personal taxes are astronomical, tax avoidance is topic of most successful people. One such notable individual was Konosuke Matsushita who was the founder of Panasonic. He quoted "If this was in the feudal era, such tax system (as Japan) would have caused a massive revolt by the farmers.". People can be taxed up to 97% in Japan, which makes us wonder if the people in this movie had the right to do what they were doing. Taking 97% of your income is stealing of your income, and that should be deemed a crime, not the ones who are protecting their share of their wealth. People in this movie no doubt were in this tax bracket.To put this in perspective, in the US, many high income salaried workers working in IT and other higher paying jobs are only facing around 57% tax. Even at this rate, your high wages becomes only a so so income after IRS and local government gets their share (Did you know that IRS is not part of the Federal Government, just as the Federal Reserve ?). Much of these taxes are used or managed in incompetent ways. Taking all this into consideration, I think it's perfectly justifiable for people to try and shelter their wealth.So, the movie is somewhat gray in who were the real bad guys. If I were in Gondo's shoes, I might have opted for novel ways to avoid tax too. The movie then turns into the real bad guys picking on the weak.

I love all Jyuzo Itami's films and especially this one. The movie gives you the feeling of being able to glimpse behind the wall of many closed worlds, from the multi-millionaire's exclusive world, to the back rooms of pachinko parlors and yakuza offices, love hotels and mistresses' apartments, to the inner workings of the banks and tax department. Very funny with a strong, suspenseful pace, interesting settings, lovable characters, and heart warming moments. Great jazz soundtrack. For me, the combination of the humor + Japanese settings + tax evasion detective story + colorful characters + great soundtrack was just irresistible.

This is a charming film about a tax collector in Tokyo pitted against a gangster. They fall in love. Directed and written by Juzo Itami, "A Taxing Woman" stars his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto, as the tax collector and Tsutomu Yamazaki as the tax-evading criminal.It's a fascinating glimpse into Japanese culture in 1987, when the picture was made. Yamazaki plays the owner of a chain of love hotels, and he hides his income. Miymato plays a recently-promoted tax auditor, and she is given the job of ferreting out his hidden income so that the proper tax is collected. The cat and mouse game begins.The opposing actors have a real chemistry between them, and their blossoming love comes as no surprise. Since the plot involves love hotels, we get some nudity, and because the cops and crooks are involved, there's a chase scene, too. Miyamoto is shown as a tired woman with bags under her eyes, but she's an attractive and worthy opponent to our tax cheat. That the crook is a complex man capable of - and worthy of - love takes the movie out of the ordinary comedy genre.If you like this comedy, there's an even lighter farce with the two lead actors you might enjoy: "Tampopo," which preceded "A Taxing Woman." "Tampopo" involves setting up the perfect raman restaurant, with chefs closely guarding their noodle recipes and other such nonsense. An amusing movie with food eroticism."A Taxing Woman" was so popular, they did a sequel, but I liked the original so much I didn't see the sequel.

=======POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD======When can tax inspectors make you laugh? In "A Taxing Woman," it is possible. Ryoko is a divorced mother who also works for the Japanese Revenue Service. She, with the freckles and page-boy hair cut, is a workaholic, steadfast and incorruptible in her duties (You can sort of understand why many people evade their taxes while watching this film.). Her one stumbling block is Hideki Gondo, an expert on tax evading. A business man that runs hotels, he uses scams and works with underworld figures, bankers and political figures to keep his money. He's also a fool for love (he has 2 mistresses and a common law wife), and a devoted father. When the 2 meet, it becomes a comedic battle. There's sexual tension between them but the question is: will he be able to keep his money hidden from her? Will she be able to get his money from him? It's a very funny movie, showing the depths that people will sink to hold onto taxable income (one tax evader tried to hide the signature seals in lipstick tubes), and the depths that the tax inspectors will go to catch their man/woman (inspectors digging into HUGE bags of trash to find documents). The late Juzo Itami did an incredible job with this film, working with his usual group of actors, including his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto as Ryoko. Don't worry about the subtitles, because the action on the screen are clear enough to understand.