A Taxing Woman

Starring:Nobuko Miyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Shinsuke Ashida, Mariko Okada, EitarÃ´ Ozawa, Tokuko Sugiyama, Moeko Ezawa, Hideji Otaki, Hideo Murota, ShirÃ´ ItÃ´, Kiriko Shimizu, Mach Fumiake, Yoshihiro Kato (II)
Director: Juzo Itami
Studio: Fox Lorber
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

A Masterful Director who was murdered for his art
Good movie but...
Good citizens pay their taxes!
Classic movie undone by dvd remastering
Middle of the road

A Taxing Woman
Starring: Nobuko Miyamoto , Tsutomu Yamazaki , Masahiko Tsugawa , Shinsuke Ashida , and Mariko Okada
Director: Juzo Itami
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Satire | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

A Taxing Woman's Return
The Funeral
Tampopo
Tampopo
Minbo

ASIN: 6305069689
Release Date: 1998-10-07

Customer Reviews:

A Masterful Director who was murdered for his art.......2005-12-06

This movie is one of the most perfect crime films I have ever seen. From the first frame to the last frame, it displays total mastery of filmmaking. Despite the language barrier, the acting is breathtaking. This is a director who uses the physicality of his actors in ways that few can. If you are lucky enough to rent or see this film, pay attention to the way the actors move on screen, particularly the genius Tsutomu Yamazaki. Finally, the intricate mechanics of crime and law enforcement are captured in this film, much like HBO's "The Wire" has done in a longer format.

Yet all of this has been said in the other reviews posted here. What I would like to share with the Amazon community is a little-known truth in America: Itami Juzo did NOT commit suicide, but died under extremely suspicious conditions. A well-known and accepted fact in Japan, Juzo was murderd by the Yakuza for making this and the film's sequel.

Like the impact of his films, the reasons for his murder are hard to understand in America. This film and its sequal were made when discussing the Yakuza's crimes publically was a forbidden thing in Japan due to fear of reprisal. Even today, the Yakuza's corruption that permeates Japanese society and politics is very rarely discussed in detail in publications and movies. It is both their extremely violent means and their extremely complex methods of moneymaking using real estate and banking that make this invisible corruption easy to ignore for most middle and upper class Japanese people. For the poor and helpless who are the victims of the Yakuza, they are an accepted fact, to be avoided at all costs instead of being confronted.

Juzo and his wife did not accept this. What Juzo did in his films was expose both the intricate and complicated nature of the Yakuza's crimes and also the methods with which ordinary people could fight them. It was this last part that truely infuriated the Yakuza. After this film as released in Japan, Juzo was attacked in the street and severly beatened, his face scared by razors. It was a clear threat that he must never make a film like this again. He, his wife and his production company defied this threat and completed the sequel, which meticulously documents a complicated real estate and religious scheme just as the first does with a financial scheme. Soon after the release of the sequal, Juzo "jumped" out of a hotel balcony, commiting "suicide".

It is a testement to the realism of Juzo's films that the Yakuza cowards who murdered him considered him such a threat. Juzo's films are that incredibly rare instance where a master artist commits himself to a social cause. That most people who watch his films find them fascinating even without knowing the level of realism that Japanese people find in his work also speaks to his strength as an artist. When I watched this film for the first time, I did not know of the Juzo family's story. After learning more about their bravery, their determination and the tragedy that he and his wife knowingly faced while making this film, I value it even more.

I'll end this review with the plea that you show this film to people and inform them of the truth behind Juzo's unsolved murder. The film is beautiful, savage, and passionate. The acting is simply incredible. And the story of the filmmaker and his beautiful wife working together to help ordinary people stand up the Yakuza is one of the greatest filmmaking stories of all time.

Good movie but..........2005-07-14

You people actually paid the $85 Amazon is asking for this movie?!

Good citizens pay their taxes!.......2005-06-19

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").

Unfortunately, this current DVD release is insulting, with a poor quality image and terrible subtitles. Aside from Tampopo, Itami does not really get the respect that he deserves in the US, possibly due to the positive nature of his films being at odds with what one expects from Japanese movie making. Hopefully, a better Region I release is in the future, along with releases for all of Itami's films.

Classic movie undone by dvd remastering.......2004-04-11

I have two copies of this movie-one on VHS and this one on DVD. I received the DVD as a present. Itami is one of the greatest modern directors in Japan who unfortunately committed suicide. This movie was enormously popular in Japan and deservedly so with its many touches of black humor, story, writing, acting and direction. The VHS is quite watchable. However, when I put the DVD on I immediately had to adjust my picture settings to even see the picture. It's unclear and fuzzy throughout the movie. In all of the film the English subtitling is difficult and sometimes impossible to read. I would say it is a prime candidate for a recall by the company. Since I can't give separate ratings for the movie vs. the DVD treatment I'm forced to give it 2 stars.

Middle of the road.......2002-03-07

R-Rated for a small amount of sex and nudity, this is pretty much a movie like most others, a human interest story involving a diligent tax collector (female) and a tax dodger. I found it interesting for casual entertainment (I rented it), for a look at a slightly different society, and a look at Japan that isn't kimono's and Geisha girls - this is modern Japan as such and a breath of fresh air from the "Yes'm massa" eyes-bowed-down type of Japanese movie. The lead female is freckled, not a sex-pot, but a nice looking gal and the main male is a hard nosed, limping fellow. In general, this is for a mature, general audience who isn't cranked over into some offbeat genre (if you need violence, military, porn, true romance, kiddie cartoons, space ships, whatever you'll find it dull - but an ordinary person in a good mood looking for a casual view might like it). ...thought I'd give a more honest opinion.

I myself am looking for more non-European/American movies featuring real people in real settings, but alas that is rare. I'd like seeing Japanese and Asiatic and African movies, even dubbed, which are something besides "Morphen Power Ranger" ... or "Kill 'Em All" garbage, but rather feature human beings getting along in life. But, they don't seem to exist here in the USA. Too much artsy or glitzy Holloywood hype gets in the way, it seems.

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