Console best movie i've ever seen.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

WILLIAM FLANIGAN A TAXING WOMAN / TAX INSPECTOR WOMAN (Lit) (MARUSA NO ONNA). Viewed on Streaming. Director Juzo Itami's satirical take (he is also credited as story writer) on the eternal battle between taxing authorities and tax cheats especially involving yakuza run/affiliated businesses. Itami's star is his wife Nobuko Miyamoto (a stunningly gifted comedienne) who plays a sweet-looking, but relentless and hard-nosed government tax agent for Japan's version of the US IRS. Apparently, she is only one of two women in the Tokyo office. Like rust, Miyamoto's character "never sleeps" and employs a unique (and amusing) set of tools and techniques to sniff out hidden income and tax evasion (such as counting cars and turnover in the parking lot of a love hotel). She is fearless and ferocious as her character ventures alone into dangerous situations armed only with an ID badge, writing notepad, and hand-held calculator! The Director also adds a touch of romantic farce here and there. Miyamoto almost manages to tie together what is really a collection of shorts (or skits)--labeled by the seasons--into a movie that smoothly progresses and builds to a climax. Unfortunately, she often disappears or is lost in the huge cast (including the Director's stock company) Itami deploys whose members are decidedly not funny! Loss of focus (and opportunities) results in a drifting film that is much too long with gratuitous soft-porn and nudity making it still longer (and unfunny)! "Score" is monotonous and quickly becomes irritating due to alto sax overkill. Disappointing, but worth watching once. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD. Details: streaming/restoration = 9 stars; cinematography (narrow screen, color) = 7 stars; lighting and color correction = 7 stars; subtitles = 7 stars; direction = 6 stars; score = 3 stars.

ebiros2 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.

domino1003 =======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.

Jeffer-2 Besides the great performances by the two leads, portraying antagonists with similar world-views while on different sides of the law, I especially liked the permeating atmosphere of Japan that came through with the cinematography, the soundtrack, and the scene set-ups. The final scene culminated the film's strong reminder of the almost unpleasant yet intense fascination I often felt in the urban environments of Japan in the late 80's and early 90's. "That," I thought of the movie when it was over, "after setting aside all the comic exaggeration, is the real Japan." Like the movie "Shall We Dance?", it clearly showed a true aspect of Japan.