A 1987 Japanese film written and directed by Juzo Itami that follows a wheel-dealer (Tsutomu Yamazaki) being chased by the titular character (Nobuko Miyamoto) for tax evasion.
The movie also stars Masahiko Tsugawa, Kazuyo Matsui, Hideo Murota, Hideji Otaki, Mariko Okada, and Shinsuke Ashida.
It was released on February 7, 1987. A sequel, A Taxing Woman 2, was released in 1988.
Tropes for the film:
- Intimidating Revenue Service: The titular character is an income tax investigator in Japan. A note in the beginning of the English dub says that the top tax bracket in Japan is over 90%, so tax evasion has more or less become a national pastime. She ends up ruining an honest mom-and-pop establishment because their daily meals include food they prepare for themselves at their own restaurant, and makes a grown pachinko arcade operator cry to save himself from a million (!) in back taxes. Then she transfers to a different department, whose job includes taking on the Yakuza - and it's a fair contest.
- Personal Seals: Tax evaders use all sorts of tricks to hide the extra personal seals associated with their hidden bank accounts.
- Stubborn Hair: Itakura-san, the eponymous taxing woman, has a stubborn cowlick that her boss is always reminding her about, but her swipes at it with a hand don't do much.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Subverted. Early in the film Itakura, newly promoted to tax investigator, arrives late to a raid on the apartment where a suspect's girlfriend lives. Confronted, she appears to drop a key she keeps for the target into her bra, giving the otherwise all-male group of agents the excuse to ask her to undress. The heroine points out that she really dropped it through her shirt and it's the floor beneath her.
