Product Details

• Actors: Nobuko Miyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Yasuo Daichi, Kinzoh Sakura
• Directors: Jûzô Itami
• Writers: Jûzô Itami
• Producers: Seigo Hosogoe, Yasushi Tamaoki
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: October 16, 1997
• Run Time: 127 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303011055
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,612 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Item Name: A Taxing Woman; Studio: Itami Productions

Product Description

Barjo is a slightly psychotic story of love and life in the modern world and beyond. Fanfan lives with her husband Charles and their two daughters in a stark, modern house in suburbia. Her nerdy twin brother Barjo lives nearby, busily waiting for the UFOs to come that will signal the end of the world.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars By the VHS version instead, July 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Taxing Woman (DVD)

This outstanding (five star) movie has illegible captions in the DVD version. If you want to be able to read the captions, buy the VHS version instead. Only get the DVD if your Japanese is good enough to understand the movie without captions.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Delightful ..., February 26, 2001

By 

Irene Suver "Irene Suver" (SEATTLE, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Taxing Woman (DVD)

As Tampopo is truly delicious, this film is an unadulterated joy. Fans of Juzo Itami and his wife, Nobuko Miyamoto will recognize old friends from other adventures in this offering. Like a much beloved repertory company, familiar faces are to be found new and surprising roles.

Taking an unlikely subject for heroic portrayal, Itami's (as usual) delightfully feministic touch on that dreaded villain the tax auditor is effective and engaging. Unlike MINBO, which for some inexplicable reason bores me beyond redemption, this film is easily accessible and eminently watchable. Aside from some quite graphic nudity at the very beginning, (view by parents first), the film is an excellent overall story accessible to an audience over about 15. (Depending on your feelings about sex and taxes).

In reference to the subtitling, I must say that ALL subtitling for Itami's films leaves a great deal to be desired, and I frankly don't see that much difference between the DVD and VHS versions ... but I must admit I am not a connoisseur on the matter, either. The ease of use and storage outweigh all other concerns for me.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good citizens pay their taxes!,, June 24, 2008

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Taxing Woman (DVD)

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").