A Taxing Woman

Ryoko Itakura is a tax inspector. Her work is reading records, finding the gap and working out who is hiding what where. She goes after Hideki Gondo, who runs hotels and moves large money through pachinko parlours and property, and who knows how to get past every audit. A long pursuit begins between them. Jūzō Itami writes and directs. Nobuko Miyamoto plays Ryoko and Tsutomu Yamazaki plays Gondo. Miyamoto was the director's wife and took the lead in all his films. The idea is to turn a dull profession into material for suspense. The chase is not physical; it proceeds through documents, bank records and invoices, and the film cuts it like a detective story. The narrative describes Japan in the eighties. The country was inside the bubble economy, land prices were soaring and money did not know where to hide. The film takes that on directly and was made a few years before the bubble burst. Itami does not tell it from one side. Gondo is likeable, clever and consistent within his own logic; the inspector is obsessive and at times merciless. It drew large attention in Japan, was named best film at the academy awards there, and a sequel followed the next year. Itami's films took on domestic institutions and he came under pressure for it; he was attacked after his next film. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese satire and thrillers on unusual subjects. Who it is not for: the tax detail is dense, the rhythm is uneven, and some comic passages interrupt the narrative.