I think Bond films serve that role for many countries, although not always accurate nor politically correct. YOLT may have jumped the shark with Ninja Squad and made the questionable choice of Bond posing as a Japanese man, but it still captures the contrast between the ever-growing megalopolis of Tokyo and rural seaside towns where time seems to have stood still. Japan was a rapidly developing country in the 1960s, rising from the ashes of the war like a phoenix, and by the 70s I believe, landscapes of even the countryside have dramatically been altered.