2019 Takashi Miike film First Love (初恋) to continue in Pittsburgh through November 3.

It was announced today the 2019 Takashi Miike film First Love (初恋), which opened in Pittsburgh on October 18, will continue here through October 31. The distributor provides a brief summary:

The film is the prolific auteur, Takashi Miike, at his most fun and anarchic, a noir-tinged yakuza film blending genres in the story of a young boxer and a call girl, who fall passionately in love while getting innocently caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme over the course of one night in Tokyo.

It will play at the Regent Square Theater at 1035 S. Braddock Ave. (map) and tickets are now available online.

Calligraphy with Shuho Kondo, November 10 at Phipps.

via @kondo.shuho

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will present Calligraphy with Shuho Kondo on November 10, part of its Fall Flower Show: Japanese Inspirations exhibition.

Shuho Kondo, acclaimed calligrapher, will present her work at Phipps on the final day of Fall Flower Show: Japanese Inspirations. Experience the beautiful brush strokes of Kondo's calligraphy accompanied by live music in a special one-time-only performance in Phipps' Special Events Hall.

Timeline of Events:

• Performance by AT Studio Senior Flute Ensemble | 3 p.m.
• Welcome | 3:10 p.m.
• Performance by musicians from Carnegie Mellon University | 3:15 p.m.
• Introduction to Shuho Kondo | 3:20 p.m.
• Shuho Kondo calligraphy presentation | 3:35 p.m.
• Meet and greet with Shuho Kondo | 3:45 p.m.

The event is free with Phipps admission, though RSVP is required and can be completed online. Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is located at 1 Schenley Drive in Oakland (map).

"The Cloud of Doubt: Making Sense of the Sensible in Postwar Chinese Cinema," November 7 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Film Studies program will present Dr. Weihong Bao and her talk "The Cloud of Doubt: Making Sense of the Sensible in Postwar Chinese Cinema" on November 7. It starts at 5:30 pm in 602 Cathedral of Learning (map) and is free and open to the public.

Know Your Rights Informational Session 了解你的權利 - 說明會, November 4 in Squirrel Hill.

The Pittsburgh chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance will present "Know Your Rights Informational Session 了解你的權利 - 說明會" on November 4 in Squirrel Hill.

It is important for everyone to know what rights we have when encountering ICE or other law enforcement in the streets, at home, and in the workplace. This information session is geared toward immigrant communities and allies. Learn what your rights are and what you can do to protect yourself or your co-workers, neighbors and local immigrants.

This is a free public event. The session will be provided in English and Mandarin Chinese.

Together we can build a safer community!

Set the Scene: Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人), November 6 at Row House Cinema.

The Row House Cinema in Lawrenceville will host the University of Pittsburgh's Kirsten Strayer for Set the Scene, a closer look at the 1960 film Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人), on November 6. The movie plays as part of the theater's Samurai Films Series, which runs from November 1 through 7.

George Lucas’ inspiration for Star Wars, this action-packed film tells the story of two Japanese peasants who scheme to help a general and his princess smuggle gold across enemy lines. Undercover, the royals and peasants sneak across hostile territory, unsure if they can trust one another. From director Akira Kurosawa staring Toshiro Mifune.

The event starts at 8:45 pm and tickets are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

2019 Makoto Shinkai film Weathering With You (天気の子) in Pittsburgh, January 15.

The Southside Works Cinema has announced it will show the 2019 Japanese film Weathering With You (天気の子) next January. From the distributor:

GKIDS proudly presents the highly-anticipated new film from director Makoto Shinkai and producer Genki Kawamura, the creative team behind the critically-acclaimed, global smash hit Your Name. The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky…

Tickets and other theater information will not be available until November 15.

Free Chinese, Japanese, Korean classes in Pittsburgh in November.

by sama093 (Creative Commons)


The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will continue to offer free Chinese, Japanese, and Korean classes at some of its branches this November. Check out the class information below in addition to its language resources on the shelves and online.

As the library notes: these classes are free; registration is not required; no materials are needed and nothing needs to be bought; new participants are welcome at any time; classes are for adults (unless otherwise noted) but well-behaved young people are welcome to join as well.

Magician David Feng at Pitt, November 2.

The University of Pittsburgh's Chinese American Student Association will host magician David Feng on November 2.

David Feng is a magician and mentalist based in New York City. He has performed for numerous artists and celebrities, including kpop star Jay Park, Actress Annie Leblanc, Singers Jacob Sartorius, Masego, Comedians Laura Clery, Fatboy SSE, Rapper Goldlink, DJ Krewella, Cash Cash, Alison Wonderland, and the list goes on. Because of David’s work and achievement in magic, he has been invited to speak at several TED talks. In early 2019, David performed at the international television show Asia’s Got Talents and over 3 million people on Youtube and Facebook have watched his video. David has started actively using Instagram early 2018 under his username mr.d.feng, and has garnered over 100k followers since then.

Come on out for an evening filled with magic, followed by a lecture about David's pursuit of a non-traditional career path, and meet and greet!

It runs from 7:00 to 9:00 pm in the Lower Lounge of the William Pitt Union (map).

"Dialect and the Making of Modern China," November 7 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of History and the Asian Studies Center will present Dr. Gina Tam and her talk "Dialect and the Making of Modern China" on November 7.

Taking aim at the conventional narrative that standard, national languages transform 'peasants' into citizens, Gina Anne Tam centers the history of the Chinese nation and national identity on fangyan - languages like Shanghainese, Cantonese, and dozens of others that are categorically different from the Chinese national language, Mandarin. She traces how linguists, policy-makers, bureaucrats and workaday educators framed fangyan as non-standard 'variants' of the Chinese language, while simultaneously highlighting, on the other hand, the 1920s folksong collectors, communist-period playwrights, contemporary hip-hop artists and popular protestors who argued that fangyan were more authentic and representative of China's national culture and its history. These intertwined visions of the Chinese nation - one spoken in one voice, one spoken in many - interacted and shaped one another, and in the process, shaped the basis for national identity itself.

It runs from 4:00 to 5:30 pm in 3703 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Leonard Suryajaya's Novi, Dear at Silver Eye Center for Photography, October 31 - January 11; opening reception on 31st features artist talk.

Leonard Suryajaya's exhibition Novi, Dear will be on display at the Silver Eye Center for Photography from October 31 through January 11.

Leonard Suryajaya uses photography to test the boundaries of intimacy, community, and family. In elaborately staged photographs bursting with patterns and colors, Suryajaya creates absurd and affectionate tableaux featuring his family, strangers, and friends. The results are photographs that are tender and critical, bound up as they are with the struggles of familial authority and self identity. Suryajaya’s work is rooted in this upbringing as an Indonesian citizen of Chinese descent, as a Buddhist educated in Christian schools in a Muslim-majority country, and as someone who departed from his family and his culture’s definitions of love and family. His dazzling photography explore the tensions of everyday interaction, culturally-coded objects, and in the disruptions stirred by queer relations.

The opening is at 7:00 pm on the 31st and features a talk with the artist; the reception is free and open to the public, though registration is required. Silver Eye Center for Photography is located at 4808 Penn Ave. in Bloomfield (map).