1964 film Mothra vs. Godzilla (モスラ対ゴジラ) at Row House Cinema, June 9.

The 1964 Japanese film Mothra vs. Godzilla (モスラ対ゴジラ) will play at Row House Cinema on June 9.

Journalists Ichiro Sakai and Junko cover the wreckage of a typhoon when an enormous egg is found and claimed by greedy entrepreneurs. Mothra’s fairies arrive and are aided by the journalists in a plea for its return. As their requests are denied, Godzilla arises near Nagoya and the people of Infant Island must decide if they are willing to answer Japan’s own pleas for help.

The show is in Japanese with English subtitles, and tickets for the 7:25 pm show are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

2021 Japanese animated movie Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution (交響詩篇エウレカセブン ハイエボリューション) in Pittsburgh, May 17 and 18.

The 2021 Japanese animated movie Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution (交響詩篇エウレカセブン ハイエボリューション) will play in Pittsburgh on May 17 and 18.

Humans and Scub Coral (intelligent coral-like lifeforms) have been in conflict on Earth. The Scub Coral created Eureka, a humanoid Coralian, to help bring the two races together. Eureka becomes a combatant in the U.N.’s Acid unit and is ordered to protect a girl named Iris who has the ability to control scub coral. With the world in crisis, Eureka must find a way to protect Iris and the world.

It plays locally at the Cinemark in Robinson, and tickets are available online. The May 17 showing is dubbed in English, while the May 18 show is in Japanese with English subtitles.

Japanese choreographer and artist Hiroaki Umeda at Wood Street Galleries, December 28 - 30.

Japanese choreographer and artist Hiroaki Umeda will perform at downtown Pittsburgh's Wood Street Galleries from December 28 through 30, it was announced recently.

Hiroaki Umeda is a choreographer and a multidisciplinary artist recognized as one of the leading figures of the Japanese avant-garde art scene. Since the launch of his company S20, his subtle yet violent dance pieces have toured around the world to audience and critical acclaim. His work is acknowledged for the highly holistic artistic methodology with strong digital background, which considers not only physical elements as dance, but also optical, sensorial and, above all, spatiotemporal components as part of the choreography. Based on his profound interest in choreographing time and space, Umeda has spread his talent not only as a choreographer and dancer, but also as a composer, lighting designer, scenographer and visual artist.

Join us at Wood Street Galleries for special, small group performances of Hiroaki Umeda’s high intensity solo work, Intensional Particle. The piece showcases Umeda’s signature style of mixing digital imagery, minimal soundscape, and extremely potent corporeality.

Tickets go on sale August 5. Wood Street Galleries is located at 601 Wood Street, atop the Wood Street T Station (map).

Kimjang Workshop with Sunni Park (manduhandu), May 15 at Carnegie Museum of Art.

via @manduhandu

JADED will present a Kimjang Workshop with Sunni Park (@manduhandu) on May 15. This workshop on preparing kimchi will be held at the Carnegie Musem of Art in Oakland (map) from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, and registration is required.

Launching Spring 2022, JADED is a public programming series celebrating the art and culture of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Organized by a collective of AAPI artists and organizers, also named JADED, the programming series builds interethnic coalitions to create more safe spaces of kinship and addresses racial trauma while celebrating cultural heritage. Programming and intimate events aim to reanimate local histories, preserve cherished family recipes and practices, and nurture intergenerational dialogue.

Japanese experimental sound artist Fuji||||||||||ta at Warhol Museum, June 20.

via 33-33.

Japanese experimental sound artist Fuji||||||||||ta will perform at the Warhol Museum on June 20.

We welcome Japanese experimental sound artist, FUJI||||||||||TA (pronounced Fujita) on his first U.S. tour. His unique practice utilizes various natural phenomena that respond to his interest in wanting to hear unheard sounds and noises. In 2009, Fujita hand fabricated a pipe organ that has only 11 pipes and no keyboard. Designed to create a soundscape rather than function as a more traditional musical instrument, he has added a water element, with sound synthesized water tanks. The music blends water sounds from multiple aquariums alongside his pipe organ and voice. Since 2006 he has had many solo performances and collaborative works with musicians, including ∈Ｙ ∋ (Boredoms), Akio Suzuki, Keiji Haino and Koichi Makigami. He has presented his sound installation works in many contexts and was exhibited in Sapporo International Art Festival 2017.

The show starts at 7:00 pm and tickets are available online. The museum is located at 117 Sandusky St. on the North Shore (map).

2008 Hayao Miyazaki film Ponyo ( 崖の上のポニョ) in Pittsburgh, May 15, 16, 18.

The 2008 Hayao Miyazaki film Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ) will play in Pittsburgh on May 15, 16, and 18 as part of GKIDS Studio Ghibli Fest 2022. A synopsis, from the distributor:

When Sosuke, a young boy who lives on a clifftop overlooking the sea, rescues a stranded goldfish named Ponyo, he discovers more than he bargained for. Ponyo is a curious, energetic young creature who yearns to be human, but even as she causes chaos around the house, her father, a powerful sorcerer, schemes to return Ponyo to the sea.

It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark theaters in Monroeville, North Hills, and Robinson. Tickets are available online, but please note the May 15 and 18 shows are dubbed in English, while the May 16 shows are in Japanese with English subtitles.

Chinese Cemetery & Squirrel Hill Photo Tour with Leo Hsu & Lena Chen, May 21.

From Journey of the Hungry Ghost by Lena Chen.

Leo Hsu and Lena Chen will offer a Chinese Cemetery and Squirrel Hill Photo Tour on May 21, part of this spring's JADED public programming. This event is free and open to the public. It runs from 11:00 to 12:30, and those interested in joining should meet at the parklet at Murray and Darlington Aves. in Squirrel Hill (map).

"We Learn: Japanese Learning Circle" hybrid meetings continue at Carnegie Library in East Liberty (and online), Thursdays in May.

"Osaka, Japan" by Pedro Szekely (Creative Commons).

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branch in East Liberty, which resumed its Japanese classes in April with "We Learn: Japanese Learning Circle" meetings, will continue them Thursdays in June (and perhaps beyond). The events will be hybrid, both in-person and remote.

Join us for interactive Japanese language learning. We will cover basic, intermediate, and advanced topics based on students’ experience and interest. We are happy to share cultural knowledge from Japan as well. Register on the P2PU website: https://learningcircles.p2pu.org/en/signup/carnegie-library-of-pittsburgh-east-liberty-2006/

The classes run from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. The library is located at 130 S. Whitfield St. (map).

2021 Japanese animated movie Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution (交響詩篇エウレカセブン ハイエボリューション) in Pittsburgh, May 17 and 18.

The 2021 Japanese animated movie Eureka: Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution (交響詩篇エウレカセブン ハイエボリューション) will play in Pittsburgh on May 17 and 18.

Humans and Scub Coral (intelligent coral-like lifeforms) have been in conflict on Earth. The Scub Coral created Eureka, a humanoid Coralian, to help bring the two races together. Eureka becomes a combatant in the U.N.’s Acid unit and is ordered to protect a girl named Iris who has the ability to control scub coral. With the world in crisis, Eureka must find a way to protect Iris and the world.

It plays locally at the Cinemark in Robinson, and tickets are available online. The May 17 showing is dubbed in English, while the May 18 show is in Japanese with English subtitles.

Video release of Pittsburgh Opera's In A Grove, based on short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, May 15.

Pittsburgh Opera will present a video release of In A Grove, the opera based on short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa that played in Pittsburgh this February and March, on May 15.

If you missed our world premiere run this past February, this is your chance to see what onStage Pittsburgh calls "an all round, world-class collaboration," and what the Wall Street Journal dubs "alluring and dramatically hypnotic."

Music by Christopher Cerrone, libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, based on the short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. Antony Walker conducts; Mary Birnbaum directs.

The video release will be 7:00 pm on the 15th, and registration is required.

2021 Japanese animated film Pompo: The Cinéphile (映画大好きポンポさん) remains in Pittsburgh through (at least) May 4.

The 2021 Japanese animated film Pompo: The Cinéphile (映画大好きポンポさん), which opened in Pittsburgh on April 27, will remain here through (at least) May 4. A synopsis, from the distributor:

Pompo is a talented and gutsy producer in “Nyallywood,” the movie-making capital of the world. Although she’s known for B-movies, one day Pompo tells her movie-loving but apprehensive assistant Gene that he will direct her next script: a delicate drama about a tormented artistic genius, starring the legendary and Brando-esque actor Martin Braddock, and a young actress seeking her first break. But when the production heads towards chaos, can Gene rise to Pompo’s challenge, and succeed as a first-time director?

Directed by veteran animator Takayuki Hirao and produced by brand-new animation studio CLAP, Pompo the Cinephile is a rollicking, exuberant ode to the power of the movies, and the joys and heartbreak of the creative process, as a new director and his team devote their lives to the pursuit of a “masterpiece.”

After the initial screenings on the 27th and 28th, it will play through (at least) May 4 at AMC Loews Waterfront, and tickets are available online.

Director's cut of 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル) at Row House Cinema, from May 20.

The director's cut of the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル) will play at the Row House Cinema from May 20, part of its Y2K film series. A summary from Row House's 2019 Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival:

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary “Battle Royale” act.

Battle Royale became a cultural phenomenon, and has been highly influential in global popular culture. Since the film’s release, the term “battle royale” has been used to refer to a fictional narrative genre and/or mode of entertainment inspired by the film, where a select group of people are instructed to kill each off until there is a triumphant survivor. It has inspired numerous media, including films, manga, anime, comics, visual novels, and video games; the battle royale game genre (including Fortnight), for example, is named after the film.

It plays from the 20th through 25th, and tickets are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

"Japanese-English Social Hour," May 24 at Pitt.

"Tokyo," by Marc Veraart.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host a "Japanese-English Social Hour" on May 24.

Japanese-English language social hour with students studying foreign language (English or Japanese)

The in-person event starts at 4:00 pm at the Global Hub on the first floor of Posvar Hall, and is open to the Pitt community.

"We Learn: Intermediate Korean Learning Circle" at Carnegie Library in Oakland (and online), every Saturday from May 7.

via the Republic of Korea's Flickr page.

The Carnegie Library Main Branch in Oakland will host "We Learn: Intermediate Korean Learning Circle" every Saturday in May.

In this intermediate-level class, we will cover the textbook published by the Korean government for foreigners who learn Korean as a secondary language. We will cover basic Korean grammar and vocabulary, and practice how to speak and write using what we’ve covered in each lecture.

The hybrid event runs from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. Registration is required. This is in addition to the "We Learn: Beginner Korean Learning Circle" to be held every other Saturday at the same library from 12:00 to 1:00 pm.

Kimjang Workshop with Sunni Park (manduhandu), May 15 at Carnegie Museum of Art.

via @manduhandu

JADED will present a Kimjang Workshop with Sunni Park (@manduhandu) on May 15. This workshop on preparing kimchi will be held at the Carnegie Musem of Art in Oakland (map) from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, and registration is required.

Launching Spring 2022, JADED is a public programming series celebrating the art and culture of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Organized by a collective of AAPI artists and organizers, also named JADED, the programming series builds interethnic coalitions to create more safe spaces of kinship and addresses racial trauma while celebrating cultural heritage. Programming and intimate events aim to reanimate local histories, preserve cherished family recipes and practices, and nurture intergenerational dialogue.

2021 animated Japanese film Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (劇場版 呪術廻戦 0) to remain in Pittsburgh through (at least) May 4.

The 2021 animated Japanese film Jujutsu Kaisen 0 (劇場版 呪術廻戦 0), which opened in Pittsburgh on March 17, will remain here through at least May 4. From the distributor:

When they were children, Rika Orimoto was killed in a traffic accident right before the eyes of her close friend, Yuta Okkotsu. "It's a promise. When we both grow up, we'll get married." Rika became an apparition, and Yuta longed for his own death after suffering under her curse, but the greatest Jujutsu sorcerer, Satoru Gojo, welcomed him into Jujutsu High. There Yuta meets his classmates, Maki Zen'in, Toge Inumaki, and Panda, and finally finds his own determination. "I want the confidence to say it's okay that I'm alive! While I'm at Jujutsu High, I'll break Rika-chan's curse." Meanwhile, the vile curse user, Suguru Geto, who was expelled from the school for massacring ordinary people, appears before Yuta and the others. "This coming December 24th, we shall carry out the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons." While Geto advocates for creating a paradise for only jujutsu sorcerers, he unleashes a thousand curses upon Shinjuku and Kyoto to exterminate all non-sorcerers. Will Yuta be able to stop Geto in the end? And what will happen when breaking Rika's curse...?

It will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront and tickets are available online. Please note, some shows are dubbed in English while others are in Japanese with English subtitles.

1995 film Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) at Row House Cinema, from April 29.

The 1995 film Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) will play at Row House Cinema from April 29, part of its Artificial Intelligence series. A 2014 Telegraph review provides a summary:

Oshii’s film, which was adapted from a manga series by Masamune Shirow, saw everything coming. In its near-future world, countries are like corporations under siege, whose protective walls are slowly being washed away by an ocean of communal data. Hackers are treated like terrorists, while programmers’ movements are restricted as part of a global arms embargo.

Helping to keep the uneasy peace is Section 9, a team of government agents who include Motoko Kusanagi: a cyborg who can plug herself into the data-sea via four jack ports in the nape of her neck.

. . .

We follow Kusanagi on her hunt for The Puppet Master, a hacker who can access the ‘ghosts’, or souls, of ordinary citizens and carry out cyber-crimes by proxy. Now entirely synthetic, her original human body replaced and improved on piece by piece, Kusanagi is unsure whether her ghost still lingers in her man-made form[.]

It will play in Japanese with English subtitles. Tickets are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Chinese Cemetery & Squirrel Hill Photo Tour with Leo Hsu & Lena Chen, May 21.

From Journey of the Hungry Ghost by Lena Chen.

Leo Hsu and Lena Chen will offer a Chinese Cemetery and Squirrel Hill Photo Tour on May 21, part of this spring's JADED public programming. This event is free and open to the public. It runs from 11:00 to 12:30, and those interested in joining should meet at the parklet at Murray and Darlington Aves. in Squirrel Hill (map).

"We Learn: Beginner Korean Learning Circle" at Carnegie Library in Oakland (and online), very other Saturday from May 7.

via the Republic of Korea's Flickr page.

The Carnegie Library Main Branch in Oakland will host "We Learn: Beginner Korean Learning Circle" every other Saturday, starting May 7.

In this beginner-level class, we will use the textbook published by the Korean government for foreigners who learn Korean as a secondary language. We will start from writing/reading Korean characters, ‘Hangul’, and learn how to organize sentence structures. Register for the event here.

The event runs from 12:00 to 1:00 pm.

"Kawasaki, A City of Japan's Multicultural Vanguard" with Japan-American Society of Pennsylvania, April 28.

via @savvytokyo

The Japan-American Society of Pennsylvania will host Dr. Yoshihiro Yasuhara of Carnegie Mellon University and his talk "Kawasaki, A City of Japan's Multicultural Vanguard."

It has been long since the notion of multiculturalism (tabunka shugi or tabunka kyosei) emerged in the social and political discourses during the 1990s while the “myth of Japan’s homogeneity” was widely challenged by various scholars, thinkers, and business leaders in Japan and abroad since the 1980s. However, there are still issues regarding the diversity, equity and inclusion in Japan, a country where the population is declining and yet the number of foreign residents continue to grow. How is it possible for Japan to reinvent itself in response to the fast-paced global trend of multiculturalism?

To facilitate a discussion of multiculturalism in Japan today, this talk will introduce the case of Kawasaki, a city that “became the first municipality to pass an ordinance that makes hate speech a punishable offense”* and its repercussions.

The talk runs from 6:30 to 9:00 pm at Margaret Morrison Carnegie Hall on the CMU campus (map). Registration is required.