On Thursday, the winners of the 33rd Hochi Film Awards were announced. This year, director Yojiro Takita's acclaimed film "Okuribito" (also known as "Departures") took the prize for Best Picture. The movie, which earned the top prize at the Montreal World Film Festival in September, stars Masahiro Motoki and Ryoko Hirosue in a story about a man adjusting to his new job of preparing bodies for coffins.

Shinichi Tsutsumi was named Best Actor for starring in Masato Harada's "Climber's High" and playing the antagonist in "Yougisha x no Kenshin." Kyoko Koizumi earned the nod for Best Actress with lead roles in Isshin Inudo's "Gou-Gou Datte Neko Dearu" and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata."

Best Supporting Actor went to Masato Sakai, who appeared in "Climber's High," "After School," and "Jersey no Futari." Kirin Kiki received Best Supporting Actress for her role in Hirokazu Koreeda's "Aruitemo Aruitemo."

The title of Best Newcomer was given to Ayane Nagabuchi, the daughter of singer Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi. She made her film debut in Kiyoshi Sasabe's "Sanbongi Nougyou Koukou, Bajutsubu," which opened in October.

Ryosuke Hashiguchi ("Gururi no Koto") won Best Director. Best Foreign Film was awarded to "The Dark Knight."

Actress Miho Kanno will take on her first detective role in a drama series next season. She will star in NTV's "Kiina: Fukanou Hanzai Sousakan," in which she plays Kiina Haruse, the capable chief of an investigation unit. One of the show's selling points is that its mysteries are based on difficult real-life cases.

The supporting cast includes Yuta Hiraoka as a rookie cop, Eiko Koike as a colleague, Masao Kusakari as her superior, and Ikki Sawamura as an ace inspector.

The show will air on Wednesdays at 10:00pm, starting in January.

This past February, TBS released the film "Team Batista no Eikou," based on a medical mystery novel by Takeru Kaido. Due to its success, TBS immediately opted to produce a sequel, which has been dated for March 7, 2009.

"Team Batista" starred Yuko Takeuchi and Hiroshi Abe as a doctor and a government official investigating a series of deaths at a university hospital. The movie made 1.6 billion yen at the box office, and it was turned into a television drama starring Atsushi Ito, which is currently getting decent ratings.

The sequel is adapted from "General Rouge no Gaisen," which is the third book in the same novel series as "Team Batista." Considered to be the best of the series, the novel follows the same main characters as they deal with the issue of emergency medical treatment, which has become a hot topic in recent years. Takeuchi and Abe will again play the starring duo, while Masato Sakai has been cast as the antagonist, the director of an emergency medical center. Other supporting cast members, including Shiro Sano and Tetsuji Tamayama, will reprise their roles.

Yoshihiro Nakamura is again directing. Filming already started on November 19 and is scheduled to wrap up by the end of the year.

Munetaka Higuchi, the drummer and leader of heavy metal band LOUDNESS, passed away on Sunday. He was 49.

In April, Higuchi was diagnosed with liver cancer, and the band put its activities on hold while Higuchi underwent treatment. In October, the band's official website reported that his condition had worsened, even after more than half of his liver was removed.

Higuchi was also the drummer of the rock band LAZY, going by the nickname of Davy. The group disbanded in 1981 and Higuchi co-founded LOUDNESS the same year. LAZY reunited in 1998. Higuchi was also active as a producer, handling artists such as Mari Hamada.