Marusa no onna 2

I am a big fan of Nobuko Miyamoto and her work with her husband, Juzo Itami, in such films as "Minbo" and the first "Taxing Woman" but this film dissappoints. It starts out with a great setup, a religious cult is involved with yakuza real estate dealings, but the payoff is unsatisfying. The money is difficult to keep straight, ie. who payed what to whom, and in the end I wasn't sure if the bad guys had been punished or not. Some fine moments with Miyamoto but in the end it was very forgettable.

"A Taxing Woman's Return" seems like a strange title for a movie, but somehow Juzo Itami makes Japanese tax investigation quite entertaining and interesting. The film has a carefully constructed, intricate plot and well-written screenplay; good acting and a *wonderfully* caustic sense of humor make this movie hilariously entertaining. Some of the best moments, though, come from showing how the fraudulent religious cult works (in evicting stubborn tenants, for example), and from Itami's gradual peeling away of plot layers to give us a peek at the never ending corruption in the system. This movie sits comfortably in my favorite 20 films.

I found this movie confusing in that I couldn't uniquely identify the characters. Also, the movie seems to switch gears (first it seems to be comical, then it is serious, then it is comical) and it can't seem to make up its mind about what it wants to be.

I did like some of the characters, but the movie was confusing and FAR to long.

I enjoyed Tampopo immensly but this film was dissapointing considering it was made by the same director.

Rating 4 out of 10

Juzo Itami's sequel to his popular 1988 comedy has energy to spare, but there's more than a hint of redundancy in the further adventures of his intrepid, freckle-faced tax agent and her one-woman war against corporate greed. The new film is even more exaggerated than its predecessor, with enough sex, skullduggery, intrigue, and action to fuel any three James Bond thrillers, but as with most sequels the novelty is gone, and the scenario is desperately over-plotted (to say the least). Contrary to the film's title the heroine herself doesn't even return until well into the second half-hour, and then in a more limited role. What made the character so appealing in the original was her resemblance to a pint-sized Popeye Doyle (with most of the same obsessions), but here's she's reduced to being just another cog in a very stylish, very busy machine, running more or less on autopilot.

This is my favorite of Itami's films. Some of his fans may not like it because it has much less humor than his more well-known works. It has a remarkable soundtrack, and a completely different tone than A TAXING WOMAN. It has an intricate and unconventional screenplay, and has the great technical qualities you expect from Itami.