A TAXING WOMAN
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1988 Jeff Meyer
See at the Seattle Film Festival: A TAXING WOMAN (Japan, 1987) Director/Screenwriter: Juzo Itami Cast: Nobuko Miyamoto, Tautomu Yamazaki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Hideo Murota
Rarely has a foreign, sub-titled film garnered so much attention in the U.S. I heard two NPR bits and a CBS news report on this before viewing it (I abstained from Stanley Kaufman's review in "The New Republic," not wanting to spoil any surprises). The great success of Itami's previous film, TAMPOPO, in both the US and Japan centered media interest on his latest effort -- especially since A TAXING WOMAN has been so popular in Japan. Also, it's subject -- tax evasion in Japan, with the main character a female tax inspector -- has raised the feelers of various news programs, and so has snowballed into popular interest.
Unfortunately, I had a midnight showing the night before and nights of film viewing before that; by the time I got to A TAXING WOMAN, I was dead tired and barely hanging in there. I think I drifted off for about twenty minutes during the first half hour, and while I don't feel I missed much, I wouldn't feel right about drawing any conclusions. For those of you expecting another outrageous comedy like TAMPOPO, don't; A TAXING WOMAN reminds me a little of those documentry-like police dramas that used to appear years ago -- great effort is expended to show what a tax inspector's life is like. It actually looks appealing; I mean, if you had to pick a job that required you to smoke cigarettes and work 70 hours a week, this would probably be my choice. However, Itami centers on some of the amusing aspects of the job, and ends with an ironic tone that seems to question whether or not the taxing is in the best interests of the citizens.
No grade, but I liked what I saw of it. Can anyone up on popular Japanese culture explain the significance of the blood-stained handkerchief that the financier gives Ryoko (Miyamoto)? I'm curious.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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