The new Hollywood spy thriller "Salt" has received good reviews, even if a sizable portion of them admit that the plot is preposterous. What critics appreciate is the protagonist's uncertain nature as a hero. Angelina Jolie is a CIA operative outed by a Russian defector as a sleeper agent. The question of whether she is a good guy or a bad guy is what maintains audience interest even as the situations become more ludicrous. The part was supposedly written for Tom Cruise, who turned it down because he doesn't do ambiguous.

Moral ambiguity would seem to be the theme of the five-part NHK drama series "Tetsu no Hone" ("Bones of Steel"), which just ended. Based on a novel by Jun Ikeido, the series looks at the machinations behind Japan's public works projects. It specifically explores the age-old practice of dango (bid-rigging), which is illegal but nonetheless central to the survival mindset of Japan's construction companies.

Ikeido reveals the sticky ethics of this system by presenting it through the eyes of an innocent. Baby-faced idoru (personality) Teppei Koike plays Heita Toshima, a trained architect who has secured a job with Ichitani Construction and is looking forward to designing condominiums. After he gets into a fight at a work site he's transferred to the sales section of the civil engineering department, which he believes is punishment for his intemperate actions.