Stratosphere girl lost in translation

It seems to me that many Westerners are bewildered by Japan and the Japanese. And that bewilderment is often reflected in films they make about this country. In the past, there was a lot of attention on the Japanese corporate and criminal worlds (or are these two just the same?). Now the focus is more on life in Japan as a foreigner. I may need to make a qualification here. Most of these films are set in Tokyo (in fact the most cosmopolitan and post-modern part of Tokyo). They don't seem to be able to make sense out of living/staying in this city as a foreigner.

Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola is a well known example. Less well known, and deservedly so, is Stratosphere Girl by M.X. Oberg. It is about young Angela, who is passionate about drawing comics, running away from home to work as a hostess in Tokyo. She then plunges, or so she believes, "into a dark story of cruelty and murder, of naive young European women swallowed up into the brightly lit nights of downtown Tokyo, of men so powerful that even the police steer clear of them. Aware that she is – and must be – the heroine of her epic, Angela the Stratosphere Girl feverishly sketches the story that will reveal the truth..."