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) in Pittsburgh, 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.

2016 Korean zombie movie Train to Busan (부산행) at Pitt, March 31.

The 2016 Korean movie Train to Busan (부산행) will play at the University of Pittsburgh on March 31 as part of the Department of East Asian Language & Literatures' Korean Film Festival. A July 2016 New York Times review summarizes the 2016 hit zombie movie:

The setup is lean and clean. A flattened deer, mowed down in a quarantine zone in Seoul where some kind of chemical spill has occurred (echoes of Bong Joon-ho’s 2007 enviro-horror film, “The Host”), springs back to life. Then, in just a few swiftly efficient scenes, we meet a harried hedge-fund manager and his small, sad daughter (Gong Yoo and an amazing Kim Su-ahn), see them settled on the titular locomotive and watch in dismay as a vividly unwell last-minute passenger lurches onboard. And we’re off!

Sprinting right out of the gate, the director, Yeon Sang-ho, dives gleefully into a sandbox of spilled brains and smug entitlement. (“In the old days, they’d be re-educated,” one biddy remarks upon spying an undesirable fellow traveler.) As zombies chomp and multiply, an assortment of regular folks face them down while furthering an extended critique of corporate callousness. The politics are sweet, but it’s the creatures that divert. Eyes like Ping-Pong balls and spines like rubber — I’d wager more than a few chiropractors were required on the set — they attack in seizures of spastic energy. They’re like break-dancing corpses.

The movie will play from 4:00 to 7:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

"Distant Reading and Modern Japanese Literature" at Pitt, March 30.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center is hosting the University of Chicago's Hoyt Long and his talk "Distant Reading and Modern Japanese Literature" on March 30. It starts at 3:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

"San Mao: Oasis or Mirage? The Phenomenon of the 'Chinese Woman of the Desert'" at Pitt, March 31.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures will present graduate student Sandi Ward's colloquium "San Mao: Oasis or Mirage? The Phenomenon of the 'Chinese Woman of the Desert'" on March 31.

San Mao (三毛, 1943-1991) was one of the most popular writers in the Chinese-speaking world during the 1970s and '80s. Her most popular works concern life with her Spanish husband in Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) and the Canary Islands. These tales portray San Mao as an independent, resourceful wanderer making a home for herself wherever she goes, and interacting with overlooked members of society. San Mao's self-depiction as a representative of Chinese culture spreading goodwill throughout the world found a receptive audience in 1970s Taiwan, with her fame spreading to mainland China in the 1980s. These waves of enthusiasm for San Mao's work were dubbed "San Mao Fever" or the "San Mao Phenomenon."

"San Mao: Oasis or Mirage? The Phenomenon of the 'Chinese Woman of the Desert'" explores San Mao's popularity using Raymond Williams' term "structures of feeling." Williams used "structures of feeling" to describe the state of experiences as they emerge and develop; they help identify a generation or a spirit of an era. I argue that San Mao and her readers shared an affinity with a particular structure of feeling emphasizing freedom, equality, and self-expression, at a time when readers in Taiwan and mainland China faced government oppression and isolation from the wider world. Meanwhile, critics disdained San Mao in part because they inherently lacked access to this structure of feeling.

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

"K-pop: The Rise of the Machine" lecture and noraebang, March 31 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Daehwa: Korean Conversation Club will host Dr. Yun-oh Whang and the lecture "K-pop: The Rise of the Machine" on March 31. The event will include a noraebang ("singing room") experience. It runs from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm in room 548 of the William Pitt Union (map).

Chinese-Canadian movie Old Stone (老石) at CMU International Film Festival, March 30.

The 2016 Chinese-Canadian film Old Stone老石) will play in Pittsburgh on March 30, part of the annual Carnegie Mellon University International Film Festival.

Old Stone follows the repercussions of a car accident in a society where life is cheap and compassion is ruinously expensive. Chinese taxi driver Lao Shi finds himself in a living nightmare after he reluctantly picks up a drunken passenger and must face the consequences of a car accident that permanently cripples a pedestrian. According to Chinese law, Lao Shi is required to assume financial responsibility for the injured pedestrian until the end of that individual's life. As he fights to save the life he once had and strives to do the right thing, Lao Shi is forced to act in ways contrary to his own identity and morals.

A panel discussion with Jinying Li, Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and Tae Wan Kim, Assistant Professor of Business Ethics at CMU will accompany the screening. The event starts at 7:00 pm in McConomy Auditorium in the Jared L Cohon University Center (map), and tickets are currently available online.

Chinese movie The Devotion of Suspect X (嫌疑人X的献身) in Pittsburgh, from March 31.

The 2017 Chinese movie The Devotion of Suspect X (嫌疑人X的献身) will play at AMC Loews Waterfront from March 31. AMC provides a summary of the film, an adaptation of the 2005 Japanese novel:

Based on Keigo Higashinoas award-winning novel, THE DEVOTION OF SUSPECT X follows a professor (Wang Kai) assisting in a murder investigation, only to find that a longtime rival and friend (Zhang Luyi) from his early university days may be involved.

Tickets are available from the AMC website. 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.

Wayback Wednesday: When a K-pop group performed in Pittsburgh in 2009.

On July 25, 2009, the K-pop quintet Wonder Girls toured the US with the Jonas Brothers, and provided the first and only K-pop performance in Pittsburgh. They were one of the biggest girl groups in Korea in 2007 and 2008, and had focused on an international tour in 2009. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly for the time and the presentation, they made little impression in Pennsylvania.

Wild N Young: K-Pop Appreciation! at James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy, May 17.

Advance notice for Wild N Young: K-Pop Appreciation! at James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy on May 17.

We're bringing K-POP to Pittsburgh, it's way past due.

Korean Pop music has spread over the world and now we are celebrating it here in Pittsburgh at James Street Gastropub & Speakeasy

Join us mid-week, mid-May for the best of the best in K-pop dance, sound and video.

You might even become part of a choreographed routine , which will be performed at the end of the night

Free entry... Buy drinks n dance your buns offff
Starts at 8 goes all night...

It's located at 422 Foreland St. in the Deutschtown neighborhood (map).

Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Workshop at Pitt, March 24.

The University of Pittsburgh's School of Education will host the next Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Workshop on Friday, March 24, with Dr. Shuhan C. Wang (王周淑涵) of ELE Consulting International. The event starts at 2:00 pm in 5604 Posvar Hall (map), and is conducted in Chinese.