TOKYO - A sleeper box office hit, now screening in Japanese theatres, has rankled the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) establishment though it will unlikely derail the party's odds of a resounding victory at the Upper House poll this Sunday (July 21).

The film, whose title Shimbun Kisha translates as Newspaper Reporter, tells the story of a correspondent's dogged pursuit of truth against a government that is strongly insinuated to be hiding skeletons in its closet.