A funny and fun film that just misses on greatness: A Taxing Woman

Juzo Itami’s 1987 film (writer and director) A Taxing Woman is a nearly great film; it has so many winning qualities, but JI just was not able to maintain in the second half of the film the surprising, witty, and lively tone of the first half. The film stars the wonderful Nobuko Niyamoto as Ryoko, a examiner and auditor for the Japanese tax bureau. Her role, which she takes on with deadly devotion, is to ferret out small-business tax scheme; in the first part of the film we see her take down a few schemers through her intelligence and unflappable fortitude: She’s great at what she does, but we feel sorry for the tax cheats she uncovers, most of them small business people struggling along. She soon suspects another potential target when she spots a Rolls Royce parked in front of a somewhat rundown apartment complex and “love hotel,” and this sets her off on the sometimes dangerous pursuit of a crew of mobsters. OK, so what we love about the film from the start is Ryoko’s intelligence and devotion, but in the 2^nd half the movie loses much of its mojo as JI gets way too tied up in the intricasy of the tax scam, and Ryoko, now just one of many in pursuit of the evil (though soft-hearted – building a crush on Ryoko!) mobster Gondo, and Royoko is a minor player in the game. Itami, wisely, brings Ryoko back to the fore at the conclusion, but it felt to me as if this was a great in some ways film that couldn’t get out of the way of its cumbersome plot. Special note, however, on the excellent, lively score, ranging from contemporary (ca 1987) jazz to a Phillip Glass-type contemporary-classical motif.