Hong Kong movie Love Off The Cuff (春嬌救志明) in Pittsburgh, from April 28.

The 2017 Hong Kong romantic-comedy Love Off The Cuff (春嬌救志明) will be released worldwide on April 27, and will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront theater from the 28th. A Variety review on the third movie in the series:

[T]he movie packs Pang [Ho-cheung]’s trademark smart-ass humor, plenty of colloquial Cantonese wordplay, and a stream of cameos by dishy starlets — all of which should guarantee a robust box office in Hong Kong, but a meh reaction in China.

Pang, who started out as a whiz kid making off-color indie comedies, shot “Love in a Puff” in 2010 as a snarky rejoinder to a new anti-smoking law in Hong Kong. The protagonists, Sephora-lady Cherie (Miriam Yeung) and ad-man Jimmy (Shawn Yue) were chainsmokers who meet cute huddling over a garbage-can. The film became a sleeper hit, spawning the sequel “Love in the Buff,” which relocated events to Beijing as the couple kept falling in and out of love. By 2017, they have returned home from their expat stint and settled into the convenience of cohabitation. Neither wussy Jimmy nor chronically insecure Cherie feels ready to take things to the next stage.

The movie is in Cantonese with English subtitles. Tickets and showtime information is available via Fandango. The theater is located at 300 West Waterfront Dr. in the Waterfront shopping complex in Homestead (map), across the Monongahela River from Greenfield, Squirrel Hill, and the rest of Pittsburgh.

Yayoi Kusama-inspired cookies by Yummyholic coming to Mattress Factory.

Yummyholic cookies crafted after the art by Yayoi Kusama will be available at the Mattress Factory - Museum of Contemporary Art starting this weekend. The yellow cookie replicates the "Pumpkin" installation at Benesse Art Site in Kawagawa prefecture, Japan; the red and white designs reference "Repetitive Vision", the 1996 installation at the Mattress Factory.

Management Science Associates hiring bilingual Chinese-English Marketing Research Analyst.

Management Science Associates, headquartered in one block from Bakery Square in Larimer, is hiring a bilingual Chinese-English Marketing Research Analyst. From the job posting:

Responsibilities

• Maintain existing models, update existing reports and assist higher-level analysts with market research project activities;
• Work closely with more experienced analysts to develop an understanding of MSA and the client’s marketing/sales operation;
• Produce independent analytical work for projects where client responsibility remains with higher-level analysts or managers;
• Communicate directly with subsidiary employees located in China on common project initiatives;
• Translate documentation from Chinese to English;
• Serve as a translator for clients visiting from China.

Required Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Quantitative Business, Mathematics, Statistics, Economics or related field;
• Knowledge of statistics, mathematics and marketing;
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office products and statistical packages, including R and SAS;
• Fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Applications can be submitted via the MSA site.

Oakland's Sushi Boat replaced by sushi, donut, and taco place.

Though the awning remains at 128 Oakland Ave., Oakland's Sushi Boat was recently replaced by Mount Everest, specializing in raw fish salad, sushi, tacos, and donuts.

Dubbed version of Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale (劇場版 ソードアート・オンライン -オーディナル・スケール) at Hollywood Theater, April 23.

If you missed the Pittsburgh premiere of the Japanese animated movie Sword Art Online The Movie: Ordinal Scale (劇場版 ソードアート・オンライン -オーディナル・スケール) on March 9, the Hollywood Theater in Dormont will show a dubbed-in-English version on April 23 The official site provides a plot summary of the movie, which opened in Japan in February:

In 2022, the world of virtual reality was upended by the arrival of a new invention from a genius programmer, Akihiko Kayaba, called NerveGear. It was the first full-dive system, and with it, came endless possibilities to VRMMORPGs.

In 2026, a new machine called the Augma is developed to compete against the NerveGear and its successor, the Amusphere. A next-gen wearable device, the Augma doesn't have a full-dive function like its predecessors. Instead, it uses Augmented Reality (AR) to get players into the game. It is safe, user-friendly and lets users play while they are conscious, making it an instant hit on the market. The most popular game on the system is "Ordinal Scale" (aka: OS), an ARMMORPG developed exclusively for the Augma.

Asuna and the gang have already been playing OS for a while, by the time Kirito decides to join them. They're about to find out that Ordinal Scale isn't all fun and games…

Tickets for the 2:00 pm show are available online for $15. The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.

2015 movie The Beauty Inside (뷰티 인사이드) at Maridon Museum, April 20.

The Maridon Museum will show the 2015 movie The Beauty Inside (뷰티 인사이드) on April 20 as the second installment of this spring's Korean Film Series. A Los Angeles Times review summarizes:

Everyday, Woo-Jin wakes up with a new face. New face, new body, new eyesight, new shoe size, completely new outer-facing identity. Though he remains the same inside, the world sees him as an old woman, a middle-aged man, a young lady, a child.

Predictably, this makes relationships, particularly romantic ones, difficult. Although Woo-Jin enjoys waking up as a handsome young man, the relationships last for only one night. That is until he meets the lovely Yi-Soo (Hyo-ju Han) in a furniture store, and he imagines what it might be like to have a love that's more lasting.

The movie starts at 6:00 pm and the museum requires reservations made at 724-282-0123. The Maridon Museum is an Asian art museum at 322 N. McKean St. in downtown Butler (map)

Menu and flyer for 2017 Korean Food Bazaar (제22회 선교바자회), May 6 in Shadyside.

In late-March the Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh announced its 2017 Korean Food Bazaar (제22회 선교바자회). Today there is a flyer and menu.



The highly-anticipated annual Korean food festival is in its 22nd year, and is held at 821 S. Aiken Ave. in Shadyside (map).

K-pop, J-pop, C-pop dance performances at FRESA's Spring Music Countdown, April 14 at Pitt.

Pitt's Fresh Entertainment by Student Artists will host a night of K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop dance performances at its Spring Music Countdown on April 14. It runs from 7:00 to 9:00 pm in the William Pitt Union's Assembly Room (map).

"Muslim Identities Among Uyghur Populations in China" at Pitt, April 14.

The University of Pittsburgh's Center for Russian & East European Studies and Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Rian Thum of Loyola University and his talk "Muslim Identities Among Uyghur Populations in China". The talk runs from 3:00 to 4:30 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Kizumonogatari Part 3 (傷物語III 冷血篇) at Hollywood Theater on April 15, 16, and 18; parts 1 and 2 on April 15 and 16.

Parts 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will be the only theater in Pennsylvania to show Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (傷物語III 冷血篇 ) when it makes its US premiere in April. The theater will also show Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (傷物語Ⅰ 鉄血篇) and Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu (傷物語II 熱血篇) on the 15th and 16th, both of which played at the Hollywood last year.

Tickets for the three Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu shows on April 15, 16, and 18 are available at the theater's website. Tickets for the two $15 double features of parts 1 and 2 are available there as well.

The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.

"Science in Nationalist China: A Confrontation between Academia Sinica and Dr. Kishinouye’s Biological Expedition Along the Yangzi River" at Pitt, April 14.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will present its final colloquium of the semester on April 14, with M.A. candidate Aijie Shi and her talk "Science in Nationalist China: A Confrontation between Academia Sinica and Dr. Kishinouye’s Biological Expedition Along the Yangzi River".

My study addresses the institutionalization of science in the nation-building era of China through the establishment of Academia Sinica, the national academy of China, founded by the Nationalist Government in Nanjing in 1927. My presentation will focus on a confrontation between Academia Sinica and a Japanese biological expedition along the Yangzi River in 1929. As a result of the confrontation, Academia Sinica, a research institute, was empowered to promulgate scientific laws regulating foreign-funded research trips in China. The empowerment of Academia Sinica, I argue, was jointly shaped by four interrelated factors: the Japanese scientific expedition in Chinese territory, China’s nationwide anti-imperialism movements, Academia Sinica’s monopoly on representing the Nationalist government in the scientific realm of China, and the emergence of a new ideology of science in connection with modernity.

The talk starts at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Original Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) at Row House Cinema, closing night of Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival, April 13.

The 1995 Japanese animated movie Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) will play at the Row House Cinema on April 13, the last film of the second annual Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival. The distributor provides a summary:

In the year 2029, cybernetic government agent, Major Motoko Kusanagi and the Internal Bureau of Investigations are hot on the trail of “The Puppet Master”—a mysterious and threatening computer virus is capable of infiltrating human hosts. Working closely with her fellow agents from Section 9, the Major embarks on a high-tech race against time to capture the omnipresent entity.

Don’t miss the movie the Examiner called “…one of the pioneering films of anime history.”

Tickets are $10 and are available online. Tickets for six other films showing through the week are available as well. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Jennifer Lin and "From Missionary Cook to Counterrevolutionary: The Saga of a Chinese Christian Family" at Pitt, April 11.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host journalist and author Jennifer Lin and her talk "From Missionary Cook to Counterrevolutionary: The Saga of a Chinese Christian Family" on April 11.

Journalist Jennifer Lin examines the tumultuous past and present of Christianity in China through five generations of her family.  A former Beijing correspondent for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Lin chronicles 150 years of family history in the recently-published "Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family" (Rowman & Littlefield).  The book includes a compelling cast: a doctor who treated opium addicts; a Penn-educated Chinese pastor; and the influential independent religious leader Watchman Nee, imprisoned after 1949 as a "counterrevolutionary".  Author Orville Schell called Lin's book "a beautifully written elegy to that generation of foreign educated, humanist and often Christian Chinese who had begun to form a cosmopolitan class in China that was comfortable on both sides of the East/West divide and might have successfully led China rom its cultural traditionalism into modernity."

See also the April 3 book review and profile in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Lin will also speak at Duquesne University on the 10th and will give a reading at St. Vincent's College the evening of Tuesday the 11th.

The talk begins at 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

2016 Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen part of 2017-18 Ten Evenings lecture series.

Via Nguyen's Facebook page.

Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures just announced its lineup for the 2017-18 Ten Evenings series and Vietnamese-American Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen is among the season's ten speakers.

Bold, elegant, and fiercely honest, Nguyen’s debut novel, The Sympathizer, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016. His collection of stories, The Refugees, gives voice to lives led between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth.

The Refugees is a collection of perfectly formed stories exploring questions of immigration, identity, love, and family. From a young Vietnamese refugee who suffers profound culture shock when he comes to live with two gay men in San Francisco, to a woman whose husband is suffering from dementia and starts to confuse her for a former lover, to a girl living in Ho Chi Minh City whose older half-sister comes back from America, the stories are a captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration. The Refugees is a beautifully written and sharply observed book about the aspirations of those who leave one country for another.

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America, His novel The Sympathizer is a New York Times best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War is a nonfiction exploration of the conflict Americans call the Vietnam War and Vietnamese call the American War.

Nguyen will speak on April 9, 2018, and tickets go on sale July 5. The lectures are held at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.

Seventh annual Matsuri at CMU, April 11.

The Japanese Student Association at Carnegie Mellon University will present its 7th annual Matsuri on Tuesday, April 11. The spring matsuri (meaning festival in Japanese) benefits Minato Middle School in Ishinomaki city, which was destroyed by the March 11, 2011 tsunami. More information, from the festival's official site:

Originally a sacred ceremony of the Shinto belief, now a night full of street food, arcade games, and joyful performances, Matsuris are of great importance to the Japanese people, its culture and its traditions.

We wanted to share a snippet of this eventful festival here in Pittsburgh, right on the CMU campus. Come by to try a taste of Japanese street food, play some traditional Japanese games, and enjoy a range of performances from Japanese Taiko Drumming to Pop + Rock Fusions of Contemporary Japanese Music.

We have put in a lot of effort into authenticity; we purchase things online and ship them from Japan. We hand craft our booths to make it look like what you see on the streets in Japan. Enjoy the event to its fullest by paying attention to the small details!

We are also proud to annouce that 100% of the profits we make at this event will be donated to Minato Middle school in Ishinomaki, Japan. This school lost their whole campus due to the East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011. Please read more about our cause here.

Admission is free and the event is open to the public at the rear of the Cohon University Center (map). Additional information is available at the Japanese Student Association's website.

El Futuro Perfecto, 2016 film about young Chinese immigrant to Argentina, in Pittsburgh April 9 and 10.

The 2016 film El Futuro Perfecto will play in Pittsburgh on April 9 and 10, as part of the Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival and at Carlow University, respectively. The film festival's website describes:

El Futuro Perfecto tells the story of a young Chinese woman named Xiaobin who emigrates to Argentina. Sharing her sense of displacement, we follow Xiaobin as she attends Spanish classes, works her day job at a butcher shop, and struggles to pass through the language barrier in a new culture. A subtle love story permeates the surface of this quiet drama as Xiaobin’s journey of self-identification leads her to a crossroads where she must find the courage to determine her own future, rather than the future her family intends for her.

The April 9 screening at CMU is the festival's closing film and features a Q&A session with director Nele Wohlatz. It starts at 4:00 pm in the Jared L. Cohon University Center McConomy Auditorium (map). Tickets for the April 9 show are available online; tickets for April 10 are not yet available.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side Of Dimensions (遊☆戯☆王 THE DARK SIDE OF DIMENSIONS) in Pittsburgh, April 14.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will show the 2016 movie Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side Of Dimensions (遊☆戯☆王 THE DARK SIDE OF DIMENSIONS) on April 14 at 4:00 pm. The movie opened at select Pittsburgh theaters in January.

The theater is located at 1449 Potomac Ave. in Dormont (map), and is accessible by Pittsburgh's subway/LRT at a block south of Potomac Station.

Second annual Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival at Row House Cinema, April 7 - 13.

The second annual Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival will run at the Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville from April 7 through 13. Seven movies comprise the 2017 iteration, and, as the Facebook event page describes it, the "key themes this year include felines, friendship, and the samurai code for 2017": 1977's House (ハウス), 1962's Harakiri (切腹), 1993's Sailor Moon R: The Movie (劇場版 美少女戦士セーラームーンＲ) , 2014's Samurai Cat (猫侍), 2002's short film Ghiblies Episode 2 (ギブリーズ episode2), and 2013's Why Don't You Play in Hell? (地獄でなぜ悪い). Special events include Pittsburgh Taiko on April 10, a tea ceremony on April 12, and the remastered 1995 Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) as the closing film.

Tickets and showtime information is available is available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

Nicky's Thai Kitchen North Hills location to open in mid-April.

The Nicky's Thai Kitchen coming to Mt. Nebo Road in the North Hills is planning on a mid-April opening. I photographed early signage back in January; earlier anticipated openings in February and March were delayed. The new restaurant will open at 1026 Mt. Nebo Rd. (map) in what was Recipes Remembered and, most recently, a Chinese restaurant.

Rashomon (羅生門) at Tull Family Theater, April 18.

The 1950 Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon (羅生門) will play at the Tull Family Theater in Sewickley on April 18 as part of it's Classic Tuesdays series. A synopsis of the film, from a 2002 Roger Ebert review:

The film opens in torrential rain, and five shots move from long shot to closeup to reveal two men sitting in the shelter of Kyoto's Rashomon Gate. The rain will be a useful device, unmistakably setting apart the present from the past. The two men are a priest and a woodcutter, and when a commoner runs in out of the rain and engages them in conversation, he learns that a samurai has been murdered and his wife raped and a local bandit is suspected. In the course of telling the commoner what they know, the woodcutter and the priest will introduce flashbacks in which the bandit, the wife and the woodcutter say what they saw, or think they saw--and then a medium turns up to channel the ghost of the dead samurai. Although the stories are in radical disagreement, it is unlike any of the original participants are lying for their own advantage, since each claims to be the murderer.

The movie starts at 7:00 pm and tickets are available online. he Tull Family Theater is located at 418 Walnut St. in Sewickley (map), about 15 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Caissa Touristic to start charter flights from Pittsburgh to China starting in June, first steps toward non-stop service.

Caissa Touristic will start offering charter flights from Pittsburgh International Airport to China starting in June, according to a press release and the local papers. Pittsburgh will be the first city in North America serviced by Caissa Touristic. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The flights are a product of an agreement with the airport authority, which operates Pittsburgh International; the VisitPittsburgh tourism group; and Idea Foundry, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that works with Chinese families and students to encourage educational ties and investment.

In addition to bringing tourists from China, Caissa will sell tickets in the Pittsburgh region for travelers interested in flying to the country on the return trip.

“This is huge step forward for the future, particularly for nonstop air service to China. The charter-to-scheduled service model has been successfully adopted in other parts of the world,” said Christina Cassotis, airport authority CEO. “We are the first U.S. market to tap into China’s fast-growing tourism market with this type of business model, and it shows Pittsburgh to be an industry leader.”