Naomi Kawase has been tagged as "Japan's leading woman director" since her first feature film, "Moe no Suzaku (Suzaku)," won the Camera d'Or prize at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

Given the scarcity of contenders until recently, this was a somewhat dubious distinction, but Kawase has long since risen above it; her films, including the autobiographical documentaries she made before "Suzaku," and the features "Hotaru (Firefly)" (2000) and "Shara Soju (Shara)" (2003), have been screened both theatrically in Japan and internationally at dozens of festivals, while winning many critical plaudits and awards. The biggest is the 2007 Cannes Grand Prix — the festival's second prize, given for her new film "Mogari no Mori (The Mourning Forest)."

Kawase, however, has never achieved or sought the sort of high international profile of a Takeshi Kitano or Takashi Miike. Far from being a celebrity in Japan, she has lived most of the last decade out of the spotlight. Media attention — even in Japan — accordingly focused elsewhere during this year's Cannes festival, where "Mogari no Mori" was one of 22 films in the competition. Kitano got much ink for a 3-minute short he made for a compilation film celebrating the fest's 60th anniversary, as did fellow comic megastar Hitoshi Matsumoto for his debut feature "Dai Nipponjin," which was screened in the Directors Fortnight section.