A Taxing Woman
Theatrical poster for A Taxing Woman (1987)
Directed byJuzo Itami
Written byJuzo Itami
Produced bySeigo Hosogoe
Yasushi Tamaoki
StarringNobuko Miyamoto
Tsutomu Yamazaki
Masahiko Tsugawa
Keiju Kobayashi
Mariko Okada
CinematographyYonezo Maeda
Edited byAkira Suzuki
Music byToshiyuki Honda
Distributed byToho
Release date
February 7, 1987
Running time
127 min.
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

A Taxing Woman (マルサの女, Marusa no onna)[lower-alpha 1] is a 1987 Japanese film written and directed by Juzo Itami.[1] It won numerous awards, including six major Japanese Academy awards.[2] The title character of the film, played by Nobuko Miyamoto, is a tax investigator for the Japanese National Tax Agency who employs various techniques to catch tax evaders.[3]

Itami took inspiration for the movie after entering a higher tax bracket following the success of his first film, The Funeral.

A sequel, A Taxing Woman's Return, featuring some of the same characters but darker in tone, was released in 1988.

Plot

A female tax auditor, Ryōko Itakura, inspects the accounts of various Japanese companies, uncovering hidden incomes and recovering unpaid taxes.

One day Itakura persuades her boss to let her investigate the owner of a string of love hotels who seems to be avoiding tax, but after an investigation no evidence is found. During the investigation the inspector and the inspected owner, Hideki Gondō, develop an unspoken respect for each other.

Itakura is promoted to the post of government tax inspector. When the same case involving Gondō reappears Itakura is again allowed to investigate. During a sophisticated series of raids against the hotel owner's interests, she accidentally comes across a hidden room containing vital incriminating evidence.

Six months later the two meet again. Gondō is tired after daily interrogations. Itakura tries to persuade him to surrender his last secrets for the sake of his son. Gondō asks Itakura to leave her job and come live with him, but she declines. He cuts his finger and writes the name of the secret bank account in blood on a handkerchief of hers that he saved from the first time she investigated him.

Cast

Video game

A visual novel video game of the same title was published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989.

Notes

  1. ↑ Marusa (マルサ) is slang for the tax inspection division (査察部, sasatsubu) of the National Tax Agency, which uses a 査 in a circle (visually a seal) as their symbol. Reading this as a Japanese rebus monogram yields 〇査 = maru + sa.

References

  1. ↑ Infobox data from マルサの女 (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-05-12. and Marusa no onna (1987) at IMDb
  2. ↑ "Awards for Marusa no onna (1987)" (in Japanese). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  3. ↑ Erickson, Hal. "Marusa no onna (A Taxing Woman) (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes Movie Review. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
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