Woman in Witness Protection (1997)
"Marutai no onna" (original title)

Director:

Jûzô Itami

Writer:

Jûzô Itami

Stars:

Nobuko Miyamoto, Masahiko Nishimura, Yuji Murata

6 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nobuko Miyamoto	...	Isono Biwako
Masahiko Nishimura	...	Detective Tachibana
Yuji Murata	...	Detective Chikamatsu
Kazuya Takahashi	...	Oki Tamayo
Masahiko Tsugawa	...	Shingyoji temple chief clerk
Tôru Emori	...	Nihonmatsu, Defence lawyer
Akira Nagoya	...	Hatano, Older detective with glasses
Tarô Yamamoto	...	Nakamura
Hôka Kinoshita	...	Eiji
Daisuke Ryû	...	Religious cult leader
Yoshimasa Kondô	...	Koshimizu Maneja
Aki Takejô	...	Assistant Miwa
Noboru Mitani	...	Theatre Producer
Tôru Masuoka	...	Prosecutor
Akira Takarada	...	Police commissioner

Storyline

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

27 September 1997 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Woman in Witness Protection

Company Credits

Production Co:

Itami Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

131 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Fun and engaging movie!

Itami's final film is not easy to locate outside of Japan, but Marutai no Onna (Woman in Witness Protection) is worth the extra effort. Miyamoto portrays a vain, shallow, middle-aged actress who witnesses a brutal murder and chooses to stand up to a deadly cult and its thoroughly slimy defense attorney. Realizing that the very public life of the woman makes their sole witness vulnerable to the killers, the police provide her with specially trained witness protection officers until the trial. In the interim, the lives of the actress and everyone surrounding her are changed in unexpected ways.

Masahiko Nishimura, familiar to fans of "Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald," plays an uptight police officer assigned to guard the unconventional witness. His transformation provides the funniest moments in the film. In a couple of brief scenes, Daisuke Ryu (Kagemusha, Ran, Gojoe) is sufficiently menacing as the cult's bad-ass leader. And Toru Emori creates a real bottom feeding defense lawyer, complete with the worst comb-over on the planet.

This isn't a brilliant or moving film, but Marutai is good entertainment, and it does suggest that it's never too late to become a better and/or more interesting person.