A Taxing Woman's Return (1988)

What makes A Taxing Woman’s Return so deliciously watchable is how Jūzō Itami turns the unglamorous business of tax investigation into a sly, propulsive cat-and-mouse thriller—funny one moment, razor-edged the next—without ever losing its human pulse. Nobuko Miyamoto’s Ryōko is all steel and smarts, a heroine you can’t help rooting for as the film threads her through a web of sanctimony, money, and power, while Rentaro Mikuni brings a chilling charisma that keeps every scene humming with danger. Itami’s screenplay has the confidence to juggle comedy, mystery, and drama in the same breath, building momentum with sharp dialogue and satirical bite rather than cheap twists. Fair warning: it’s not for the prudish, with severe sexual content, but if you can handle that, you’ll get a smart, entertaining takedown of corruption that plays like a crowd-pleaser with teeth.

A Taxing Woman’s Return is clearly trying to be a sharp, grown-up satire: a tax investigator takes on a “holy” organization and uncovers a web of money, power, and hypocrisy, with Jūzō Itami aiming his camera like a scalpel at institutions. The catch is that it’s busier and more scattershot than the original—stacking cult antics, yakuza pressure, and political maneuvering until the mystery-thriller engine can feel cluttered rather than cleanly escalating. It also leans into explicit sexual material (and some uncomfortable exploitation-adjacent moments) that can read more provocative than purposeful depending on your tolerance. If you like talky, detail-heavy Japanese social commentary with dark comedy and a formidable lead performance, there’s plenty to admire; if you want a tight thriller or you’d rather avoid severe nudity/sexual content, this one may test your patience.