Japanese satirist Juzo Itami tackles yet another popular obsession in this often bitter comedy sure to strike a chord with any long-suffering taxpayer. The film lacks the playful free-form structure of his earlier 'Tampopo', but compensates with more of the same inflated, deadpan humor, diluted here by a cruel (but not incompatible) streak of anger no doubt reflecting the director's own relationship with the Japanese IRS. Itami's heroine is a plucky, incorruptible Internal Revenue agent (played by his own off-screen wife) involved in a high-tech, fast-paced game of cat-and-mouse with a ruthless, lecherous businessman trying to protect his illicit income by any means possible. Her single-minded pursuit of the Almighty Yen in the service of her government is no less compulsive than the creative tax-dodges of her money-hungry target, and the exaggerated methods of detection and evasion give the film an irresistible comic energy. The tempo doesn't really take off until the second hour, when the entire team of tax agents joins the chase, and their obsessive devotion to duty carries the film beyond the level of absurdity, transforming a colorless world of glorified accountants into an exciting, romantic adventure and showing just how shark-like the lure of money can be, on both sides of the law.

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.

The plot of A Taxing Woman is interesting/enthralling, regardless of the production date or language of the film. Watching tax evasion cases unfold is surprisingly interesting, presented in a manner that shows the more human side of government organizations. (OK, if not the 'human side', at least you get to see what it's like on the inside.) From a cultural perspective, a 1980s Tokyo is also interesting, with shots of the cityscape, pachinko parlors, love hotels, etc.

One last comment: There is nudity in this film, but It adds to the story of the film, justifying why some of the characters do what they do.