Yasushi Tamaoki

A struggling Japanese neighborhood supermarket manager chances upon an old classmate, who has plenty of ideas for revitalizing his business.

An upscale Japanese hotel hires Mahiru Inoue, a lawyer adept at dealing with the Yakuza, to help them rid their hotel of the local gangsters so they can get a contract for a meeting of important foreign officials.

A behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind Juzo Itami's "Marusa no Onna 2" a.k.a. "A Taxing Woman's Return".

Ryōko Itakura returns as the tough-as-nails government taxing agent. This time she must figure out a way to expose a fanatical religious cult lead by a corrupt sociopath.

A behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind Juzo Itami's "Marusa no Onna" a.k.a. "A Taxing Woman".

Intrepid tax investigator Ryoko Itakura sets her sights on the mysterious and philandering Hideki Gondo, a suspected millionaire and proprietor of a thriving chain of seedy hourly hotels, who has for years succeeded at hiding the true extent of his assets from the Japanese authorities. Itakura and Gondo soon find themselves engaged in a complicated, satirical battle of wits.

Documentary about the making of Juzo Itami's film "Tampopo" (1985).

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.