Tetsuya Nakashima is being hailed as a genius by the Japanese film world, an epithet that didn't occur to many in the 1990s when his pitch-black comedies, including "Natsu Jikan no Otonatachi (Happy-Go-Lucky)" (1997) and "Beautiful Sunday" (1998), were playing to tiny audiences here and getting little attention abroad.

That began to change in 2004 with "Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls)." The candy-colored film about two wildly different girls — a spitting punk biker and an eyelash-fluttering "Lolita look" fashionista — who become allies and friends was a sensation on the international festival circuit, though it was a modest hit at home.

Then in 2006, Nakashima released "Kiraware Matsuko no Issho (Memories of Matsuko)," a downbeat drama about a woman who never gets a break, but never gives up her dream of love. Spiced with brassy musical numbers a la "Chicago" and splashed with brightly colored, charmingly fantastic CG animation, "Matsuko" was a mainstream smash and won armloads of awards. That's when Nakashima officially graduated from "brilliant TV CM director who dabbles in films" to "genius." He had turned what should have been a marketing nightmare into a box-office dream.