As if forecasting the current recession, more Japanese films about life's losers are hitting the screens now.

The range in tone and quality is wide, from tear-jerking tripe like "Homeless Chugakusei" ("Homeless Student") to imaginatively crafted dramas such as "Tokyo Sonata" and "Okuribito" ("Departures"), but the underlying message is the same: The bubble-era dream of ever-bigger-and-better everything, from careers to consumer goods, has ended.

Many people in their 20s to mid-30s, who entered the workforce as Japanese companies were frantically downsizing full-time staff, have known nothing but a series of temporary, part-time and contract jobs that lead to nothing. At an age when members of the middle class are supposed to have a home and family, they are still living like students or, more humiliatingly, total dependents.