A Taxing Woman's Return

For fans of the terrific Japanese comedy "A Taxing Woman," this is one sequel that won't be resented.

It should be said up front, however, that "A Taxing Woman's Return" is quite different from its predecessor in that the emphasis is less on comedy as the film unfolds more like a hard-edged cop thriller. And for some reason the title character is not really the film's central focus — she's on-screen for less than half the film.

Those aspects made "A Taxing Woman's Return" less fulfilling than the first film, but it's still an intriguing blend of comedy and thrills, and works on its own level as an alternately funny and exciting picture.

Again directed by Juzo Itami ("Tampopo") and starring his wife Noboku Miyamoto as the zealous tax inspector, "A Taxing Woman's Return" has her uncovering a much bigger fish than the adult motel business that was the central figure in the original film.

Here it is no less than a Japanese version of Jim Bakker, whose fundamentalist church is a flamboyant tax shelter for his personal wealth, providing the impetus for an aggressive investigation. (It also provides a surprising twist at the end of the film.)

The same cast of colleagues surrounds Miyamoto as they build their evidence before gathering for a massive raid. It seems the corrupt minister has ties with both mobsters and politicians, which takes the inspectors from religious fantatics to small-time hoods to powerful movers and shakers.

One of the more bizarre subplots has to do with squatters on a piece of land the mobsters want to vacate for their own purposes. To run five families from an apartment building the mobsters use vicious Dobermans, loud jackhammers, winos and round-the-clock phone calls to harrass the tenants. Failing that, blackmail, threats and abuse follow.

Although you might think such goings-on would be played for laughs, most of it is deadly serious. But the film's more serious tone is set up right at the beginning as the opening scene shows a group of children playing on the shore when they discover a gangster's bloated, decayed, waterlogged body floating in the river.

Not that "Return" is without humor. Especially funny are Miyamoto's new partner, a younger, college-educated sidekick, which is rather a staple in similar American films. And there's the expected joke, used to better effect the first time around, about Miyamoto's freckle-faced, innocent demeanor belying her aggressive zeal for the business at hand.

But the emphasis is clearly on the story, which is not nearly as complex as the first film, and therefore probably more accessible to the audience. And there are a couple of scenes that are very exciting, as when Miyamoto encounters a thug in the basement of the tax office.

Different, but highly entertaining, "A Taxing Woman's Return" is also a bit more raunchy than the first film and, though unrated, would doubtless receive an R for violence, sex, nudity and profanity, all treated with the typical casual abandon of the Japanese cinema at large.