EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS and a pensive chihuahua partly explain the success of two of Japan's consumer-finance firms.

ECONOMIST: Japanese consumer finance

With his hair hanging low over his forehead, Ashton Kutcher, seen in closeup, looks like a pensive mushroom.

NEWYORKER: No Strings Attached

Wasikowska had a pensive presence in Kids, an understatedness that seemed refreshing but which in retrospect may have been the result of tentative acting skills.

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