Watch my video essay about Juzo Itami
here!
As I am wont to obsess over filmmakers, my sights have been set on Juzo Itami for the last few months. This will mark the fourth film of his I've seen, and while some of the whimsy is absent this go around, the energy, the vibrance, and the attention to detail are all there. I found myself transfixed, yet again, at the way he moves the camera, the way he composes shots, the way he can make something as mundane as tax evasion have the same propulsive energy as a murder mystery or a police procedural. The final act of this film acts as a raid on a business owner suspected of tax evasion, and it's treated with the same gravitas as the raid on Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. And like the Coen Brothers (who are always on my mind lately), this film blends the tones so well, with the severity that the tax bureau takes their jobs, with the absurdity with which they take their jobs (even rummaging in trash heaps to find fraudulently discarded tax documents). These people take their jobs VERY seriously and will go to the ends of the earth to stop fraudulent behavior. It's played so straight that I couldn't tell if the film was sincere about the tax man having a profession akin to violent crime stoppers or if it was mocking them. It constantly felt like there was a joke going right over my head, and I kept looking up, but then it would disappear.
I had to come back to add this: I nearly forgot to highlight the SCORE of this movie. I legitimately want to listen to this in my day-to-day. It was so much fun, riffing on L.A. Noir films and 70's cop dramas. Every time the music cut back in, it was a delight.
Nobuko Miyamoto puts in another dazzling performance. Like in Supermarket Woman, she has so much charm that you understand how so many of the other characters get sucked into her orbit. One of my main complaints about this, though, is that unlike Supermarket Woman, this film--titled A Taxing WOMAN--kinda sidelines her in the last act. It becomes an ensemble affair with the whole department conducting the raid, and she gets kind of put on the back burner while the men in the bureau do some investigative work.
And while I'm on notes, that whimsy of films like Tampopo and Supermarket Woman was missed a little bit. The moments of levity are sparse and effective here, but this did seem like a subject matter that could lend itself to more absurdity and hijinks.
Anyway, another banger from Itami--can't wait for the next one (a sequel to this film).
7.5/10
