*I Page 10- The Michigan Daily- Monday, November 27, 1989 Death, taxes and freckles A Taxing Woman's Return 1 dir. Juzo Itami Bt NABEEL ZUBERI What Berlin dadaist George Grosz did for political cartoons in the '30s, Juzo Itami does for movies in the '80s. His A Taxing Woman was a cops-and-robbers+ romp about tax inspectors trying to nab small-time tax dodgers, but the sequel takes a broad swipe at the big boys - the corporations and corrupt politicians. It's re-+ freshing to see political filmmaking with a bite and a funky sense of humor. In A Taxing Woman's Return, the feisty heroine Ryoko Itakura (Nobuko Miyamuto) and her faithful sidekick Mishima (Tor Masuoka) attempt to uncover tax evasion by Teppei Onizawa (Rentaro Mikuni), the chief elder of a fundamentalist religious order. As the in- trepid duo investigate, they discover that Onizawa is in- volved in fraudulent dealings on a much larger scale. His financial clout is used to buy thugs who carry out illegal evictions, as well as politicians who can cut through red tape so that real estate development can go ahead What Itami does in this movie is explore the nature of greed in contemporary Japan; where A Taxing Woman was more concerned with the mechanics of tax inspec- tion, its sequel focuses on the gargantuan appetites of the wealthy and powerful. Itami's villains are bloated monsters; shot in wide angle close-up, they resemble tbe capitalist caricatures in Grosz's drawings. The direc- tor really goes for the jugular, sparing no one and avoid- ing any traces of liberal sentimentality. The greedy Ozi- nawa is a tour de force of grotesquerie. With his domi- nating performance, Mikuni runs away with the picture. His dedication to money is religious, his sexual ap- petites cannot be contained, he's entranced by a teenage girl presented to him as payment for a debt. With huge, drooping bags under his eyes Ozinawa is at once pa- thetic and monstrously aberrant. While you despise him, you're also fascinated by the depths of his deca- dence. The figurehead of his religion, the Holy Matri- arch, is more concerned with jewelry and fur coats than she is with the faithful. It's difficult to avoid compar- isons with our own Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Miyamoto, the tax inspector with the Bernice bob, is as endearing as she was in the first film, one of the few well-written women characters on the screen today. There's a subtlety in her performance: as she watches her boss interrogate a corrupt politician, her face regis- ters all the expressive nuances of a novice seeing a mas- ter at work. The movie is a little too long, with an unnecessary amount of time spent on the tax raid itself, but this is a minor quibble. The strength of A Taxing Woman's Re- turn is its Swiftian edge. Reflecting on the vileness that is capitalism,'it shows the system to be ridiculous, ab- surd and very, very ugly. A TAXING WOMAN'S RETURN plays through Thurs- day at the Michigan Theater. A Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) see eye to eye literally but not figuratively: in this scene from Back to the Future, Part It, Doc's a lot more keen on unusual vacation plans than Marty is. Back to the old storyboard Back to the Future, Part II dir. Robert Zemeckis BY TONY SILBER 'Twas the movie sequel season and all on the screens, a Spielberg adventure was so popular it seemed. They're baaack! Yes, it's that time of year again as house payments are due at the Steven Spielberg resi- dence. He's the film phenom, the wiunderkind wizard, the movie mogul, and in the past has had no problem paying the bills. This year, Back To The Future, Part II will warm many a cold room on a wintry night at his cavernous Bel Aire man- sion. As is his recent habit, Spielberg is again in the background for a film bearing his name. Box office spec- tacular/Spielberg protege Robert Zemeckis (Who Framed Roger Rab- bit) directs again after the original 1985 smash, but not much is differ- ent. This is basically the same film, literally. Marty McFly, Biff, Doc Brown - they're like family to us,aren't they? Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and Lea Thompson reprise their roles in this weird sequel that is somewhat innovative, but also cheap. Part II starts where part I ended (appropriately enough), but the entire film is based on the first one. There is very little original material here. Doc and McFly strap in to the "supercharged" DeLorean and cruise to the year 2015 to get Marty Jr. out of a mess, but of course, the two time travelers get into some mildly amusing messes themselves. Later they travel back to 1985 to find it looks like something out of Batman - a crime world where all the neighbors on the block have subma- chine guns and barred windows. Fi- nally, they must return to 1955 to prevent Biff from screwing up the future by betting on sporting events using a sports almanac from 2015. Confused? You won't be, but you also won't be as entertained as you were the first time. Back To The Future II is identi- cal tQ the original. The story is basi- cally the same and the characters are absolutely the same. There are some welcome twists, however, which make the film somewhat interesting. The future sequences offer some of the best moments here. Hovercraft automobiles, flying skateboards, hy- drating pizzas, and a Japanese-con- trolled business world dominate the Hill Valley of 25 years from now. Not surprisingly, Marty runs into his future self and the resulting chaos ensues, but the resourceful Lloyd and the comical Fox always;. manage to get themselves out of a time-travel stick, sort of like Bill and Ted. The evil-1985 middle passage of the film is one of the more unique segments of either part I or II. Biff, the irresistable bully of this series, controls the Hill Valley economy: because of his enormous wealth from betting on sporting events which he knew the outcomes of. He becomes a kind of Donald Trump as he builds a towering Pleasure Palace offering any avalable vice to this wonderfully immoral world. e Back To The Future Parts I and If overlap each other in the final third&* of the film as Doc and McFly at- tempt to prevent Biff, in 1955, from screwing up the future. Zemeckis and the crew have refilmed entire scenes from the first film with exquisite continuity, but without a shred of creativity. Although the fact that two films overlap each other is somewhat unique, it is also a cheap,. excuse not to create any new mate-. rial. The first film has provided Ze-O meckis and Spielberg with all the. material they need the second time around so there is virtually no risk.. here. The formula is the same. Back to the Future II lends cre- dence to the clichd "history repeats itself' as it applies to its mystical,: magical executive producer Steven Spielberg. As the film ends with the, immortal words "To Be Continued" followed by scenes from the already See FUTURE, page 11 flCINEMA DIRECI.7VT Ryoko Itakura (Nobuko Miyamuto) is probably investigating tax deductions. She's a tax collector wvho fights for justice - a complete turnaround from the traditional do-badder. A cutter Miv i.E S EPse i Plasma Collection Facility V ' ' PEOPLE PEOPLE * 40 million hospital patients rely on PLASMA industry products each year. 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