What's impressive about the new Steven Soderbergh film, "Traffic," which opens here in April, is how thoroughly it presents all the ramifications of America's drug war by exclusively dramatic means: no charts, no explanations of cause and effect, no polemics. The movie's three separate plot vectors intersect only incidentally, but together they show how the drug war is actually fought by the people on both sides of the front line and, by clear implication, how it can never be won.

NHK's current 12-part drama series, "Bubble" (Fridays 9:15 p.m.), attempts something similar with regard to the effects of the financial speculation frenzy of the late '80s, but the script, by veteran "trendy drama" scenarist Tetsuo Kamata, doesn't incorporate its journalistic and editorial elements as smoothly.

Set in Osaka during the early '90s, when the bubble era had ended on paper but not in the public's imagination, the series follows the financial ups-and-downs of a group of characters centered around a family that owns a small factory. The theme is abukuzeni, meaning "easy money," which here is made through land and stock speculation. Intrigue is provided by a series of mysterious shootings, at least one suicide, and a lot of underhanded dealings between the public and private sectors.