is a

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese film written and directed by

Juzo Itami , born , was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director. He directed eleven films (one short and ten features), all of which he wrote himself. Early life Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto. The name Itami was passed on from his fath ...

. It won numerous awards, including six major Japanese Academy awards. The title character of the film, played by

Nobuko Miyamoto is a Japanese actress. She was born in Otaru, Hokkaidō, and raised in Nagoya. She was married to director Juzo Itami from 1969 until his death in 1997, and regularly starred in his films. She has been nominated for eight Best Actress Japane ...

, is a tax investigator for the Japanese

National Tax Agency The is the official tax collecting agency of Japan. As of October 2018, the Commissioner of NTA is Takeshi Fujii. Mission Mission: To enable taxpayers to properly and smoothly fulfill their tax responsibility. To achieve the mission stated abo ...

who employs various techniques to catch tax evaders. The director reportedly was inspired to make the film after he entered a much higher

tax bracket Tax brackets are the divisions at which tax rates change in a progressive tax system (or an explicitly regressive tax system, though that is rarer). Essentially, tax brackets are the cutoff values for taxable income—income past a certain point ...

after his success with '' The Funeral''. A sequel, ''

A Taxing Woman 2 is a 1988 Japanese comedy film written and directed by Juzo Itami. It is the sequel to Itami's 1987 comedy ''A Taxing Woman''. Nobuko Miyamoto plays female government tax investigator Ryoko Itakura. She investigates a Japanese new religions, rel ...

'', 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 she persuades her boss to let her investigate the owner of a string of

love hotel A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing guests privacy for sexual activities. The name originates from "Hotel Love" in Osaka, which was built in 1968 and had a rotating s ...

s 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. She is promoted to the post of government tax inspector. When the same case reappears she 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. On the same day, she helps Gondō with his relationship with his teenage son. While she is doing all of this, she is neglecting her own son at home, calling him from her office at night and saying, "You can heat up your own dumplings in the microwave! You are big now! You are five!" Six months later the two meet again. The man is tired after daily interrogations. She tries to persuade him to surrender his last secrets for the sake of his son. After she declines an offer to work with him, 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

: Ryōko Itakura *

Tsutomu Yamazaki is a Japanese actor. He won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actor in 1984 for '' The Funeral'' and '' Farewell to the Ark''. Yamazaki is well known for his role "Nenbutsu no Tetsu" on the television jidaigeki '' Hissatsu Shiokinin'' and ''Shin Hi ...

: Hideki Gondō *

Masahiko Tsugawa , born Masahiko Katō (加藤雅彦 ''Katō Masahiko''; January 2, 1940 – August 4, 2018) was a Japanese actor and director. Career Tsugawa was born January 2, 1940, in Kyoto, Japan. After acting as a child, he made his major debut at the age ...

: Hanamura *

Yasuo Daichi is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in more than 50 films since 1979. Selected filmography Films Television References External links * * 1951 births Living people Japanese male film actors {{Japan-film-actor-stub ...

: Ijūin * Kinzoh Sakura: Kaneko *

Hajime Asō is the Japanese word meaning . In the Japanese traditional martial arts such as karate, judo, aikido, Kūdō and kendo, it is a verbal command to "begin". Hajime is also a common Japanese given name for males. In the Amami Islands, Hajime (元) i ...

: Himeda *

Kiriko Shimizu Kiriko may refer to: People *Kiriko Nananan, Japanese manga artist *Kiriko Isono, Japanese comedian *Kiriko Takemura, Japanese tarento, singer, and model known professionally as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Places * Kiriko, Kenya, a settlement in Kenya * K ...

: Kazue Kenmochi *

Kazuyo Matsui is a Japanese actress, investor, businesswoman, essayist, university professor (special appointment), and lifestyle (household chores) adviser. Her married name was . She divorced her husband Eiichiro Funakoshi is a Japanese actor, ''tarento'' ...

: Kumi Torikai *

Hideo Murota was a Japanese actor who specialized in playing villains and tough guys. In 1957, he signed a contract with Toei Studio and appeared in over 1000 films. He won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Yokohama Film Festival for his role in '' Shi ...

: Jūkichi Ishii *

Machiko Watanabe is a feminine given name of Japanese origin. It can be written with the characters for ''know; wisdom'' (machi) and ''child'' (ko), although it can have a number of other different meanings depending on which kanji characters are used to write it. ...

: Nurse *

Shōtarō Takeuchi Shōtarō, Shotaro or Shoutarou (written: 正太郎, 昭太郎, 正太朗, 章太郎, 庄太郎, 祥太郎 or 翔太郎) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese photographer *, Japanese photographer *, ...

: Rihei Hakamada *

Hideji Otaki Hideji (written: 秀治, 秀司 or ひで次) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese writer and playwright *, Japanese baseball player *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese actor {{given name Japane ...

: Tsuyuguchi *

Moeko Ezawa Moeko (written: , or in hiragana) is a feminine Japanese given name. People with this name include: *, Japanese singer and actress *, Japanese professional wrestler who formerly used the stage name *, Japanese ice hockey forward *, Japanese bas ...

: Gondō's mistress * Mitsuhiko Kiyohisa: Gondō's chauffeur *

Akira Shioji Akira may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Akira'' (franchise), a Japanese cyberpunk franchise ** ''Akira'' (manga), a 1980s cyberpunk manga by Katsuhiro Otomo ** ''Akira'' (1988 film), an anime film adaptation of the manga ** ''Akira'' (vide ...

: Realtor * Yoshihiro Kato: Yamada *

Mariko Okada is a Japanese stage and film actress who starred in films of directors Mikio Naruse, Yasujirō Ozu, Keisuke Kinoshita and others. She was married to film director Yoshishige Yoshida. Biography Okada was born the daughter of silent film actor ...

: Mitsuko Sugiura *

Shinsuke Ashida was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1952 and 1996. Selected filmography Film * ''Gendai-jin'' (1952) * ''Mahiru no ankoku'' (1956) * ''An Actress'' (1956) * ''Underworld Beauty'' (1958) * ''Arashi no naka o tsuppash ...

: Ninagawa * Kōichi Ueda: Ninagawa's confidant * Yūsuke Nagumo: Ninagawa's henchman *

Shirō Itō is a Japanese actor and comedian. Filmography Film * ''Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman'' (1971) * '' Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy'' (1974) * ''Princess from the Moon'' (1987) * ''A Taxing Woman'' (1987) * ''Minbo'' (1992) * ' ...

: Owner of a game center *

Eitaro Ozawa , also credited as Sakae Ozawa (小沢栄), was a Japanese actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1935 and 1988, directed by notable filmmakers such as Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Kaneto Shindō. Selected fi ...

: Tax accountant *

Keiju Kobayashi was a Japanese actor who appeared in 253 films in a career spanning 67 years. Born in Gunma Prefecture, he began acting at the Nikkatsu studio after dropping out of Nihon University and made his film debut in 1942. In 1956 he moved to Toho film ...

: Boss *

Tokuko Sugiyama Tokuko (written: ) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese handball player *, Japanese dancer and actress *, Japanese empress *, Japanese photographer {{given name Japanese feminine given names Femi ...

: Grocery store owner's wife

Video game

An eponymous

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

video game was published by

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

for the

Family Computer The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...

in 1989.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Taxing Woman, A 1980s sex comedy films 1987 films Best Film Kinema Junpo Award winners Films directed by Jūzō Itami 1980s Japanese-language films Japanese sex comedy films Picture of the Year Japan Academy Prize winners 1987 comedy films 1980s Japanese films