OSAKA -- Over the past year or so, Japan has figured in several popular Hollywood films.
Tom Cruise starred in "The Last Samurai," a cheesy period drama that drew rave reviews, while Bill Murray turned in arguably his finest dramatic performance in "Lost in Translation" -- an otherwise vastly overrated film set in a Tokyo that looks, and acts, like a "manga" cartoon.
These were films that make anybody familiar with Japan groan or mutter, "Typical Hollywood."