Pittsburgh Sakura Project Fall Planting Day, November 7 at North Park.

Kazuko Macher's entry placed second in the Pittsburgh Sakura Project's 2013 photo contest.

The Pittsburgh Sakura Project will hold its 7th annual Fall Planting Day on Saturday, November 7, at North Park. The group plans to plant an additional 15 trees this fall near the Boathouse (map) from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Those interested in participating should RSVP via the event's Facebook page or by emailing PittsburghSakuraProject at gmail.com. Equipment will be provided, but work clothes and gloves are recommended.

Anthem of the Heart (心が叫びたがってるんだ。) at Hollywood Theater, November 4.

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont will show the 2015 Japanese animated movie Anthem of the Heart (心が叫びたがってるんだ。) on November 4. The synopsis, from the movie's official site:

Jun Naruse is a girl who carries the guilt of breaking up her family with the words she carelessly uttered when she was young…

Suddenly, a mysterious “Egg Fairy” appears in front of Jun and casts a curse on her so that she can never hurt anybody with her words. Jun’s ability to speak is sealed away: every time she tries, she feels a pain in her stomach. Traumatized by this experience, Jun hides her feelings deep inside of her heart, turning to e-mail messages on her mobile phone as her sole means of communication.

Jun is now a second year high school student. One day, her homeroom teacher appoints Jun and three other students as members of the Regional Friendship Exchange Executive Committee. As it turns out, the appointed group is a rather unexpected mix of students. Other than Jun, the members of the Committee are Takumi Sakagami, the burn-out who never speaks his true intentions; Daiki Tasaki, the former baseball team ace who failed his run at the Championships due to an injury; and Natsuki Nito, the cheerleader and honor student who has some concerns about her love life. They all suffer from emotional trauma just like Jun.

The movie was released in Japan on September 19. Tickets are available online for the 7:30 pm show. 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.

Nobody Knows (誰も知らない) at Maridon Museum, November 5.

The Maridon Museum will show 2004's Nobody Knows (誰も知らない) on November 5 as the fourth and final installment in this fall's Japanese film series. A brief introduction, from a 2005 Roger Ebert review:

As "Nobody Knows" opens, we watch a mother and two kids moving into a new apartment. They wrestle some heavy suitcases up the stairs. When the movers have left, they open the suitcases and release two younger children, who are a secret from the landlord. "Remember the new rules," the mother says. "No going outside. Not even on the veranda -- except for Kyoko, to do the laundry."

The movie starts at 6:00 pm, runs 141 minutes, and is presented by Dr. Yukako Ishimaru of Slippery Rock University. The movies in the series are free and open to the public, though reservations are required and can be made by calling 724-282-0123.

The Maridon, an Asian art museum, is located at 322 North McKean St. in downtown Butler (map), roughly 40 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Post-Gazette on "the state of sushi in Pittsburgh".

With Sushi Kim set to close, and with Fukuda gone for over a year now, Melissa McCart at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette looks at "the state of sushi in Pittsburgh". It has nice things to say about unheralded local favorites Chaya, Kiku, and Umi, among others, and says of perennial "best sushi" winner Nakama:

too much party, not enough care

With Sushi Kim leaving, it also expands the Korean BBQ void a bit. I wrote in early 2014, upon the closing 영빈관, that Korean barbecue is not long for Pittsburgh, and that three of the four BBQ joints mentioned in a 2004 Post-Gazette review were now closed:

Unfortunately, few joints offer Korean barbecue in Pittsburgh; Sushi Kim, Jimmy's Korean Grill at Jimmy Tsang's and Ginza are the noble few.

Pittsburgh Ginkgo Fest, November 7.

Tree Pittsburgh will hold its first Pittsburgh Ginkgo Fest on Saturday, November 7, in Highland Park. The event runs from 1:00 to 4:00 at Maple Grove Shelter, next to the wooden Super Playground (map).

Join Tree Pittsburgh for our first ever Pittsburgh Ginkgo Fest to celebrate the oldest species of tree in the world and the beautiful fall colors of Highland Park! The festival will feature a performance by Pittsburgh Taiko (Japanese group taiko drumming), crafts and origami activities, children's story time, face painting, tree ID walks and photos in front of Pittsburgh's largest ginkgo tree.

Ginkgo trees are renowned for their medicinal properties, their outstanding urban tolerance, and their edible nuts. The ginkgo tree species dates back to over 200 million years.

"Asia on Screen: Everyday Media Comportment: Living Between Infrastructures" at Pitt, October 30.

On October 30, the University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present the next installment in its Asia on Screen Series, "Everyday Media Comportment: Living Between Infrastructures" with Thomas Lamarre of McGill University.

This presentation proposes to explore the relations between three distinct yet overlapping infrastructures in contemporary Tokyo: broadcast television, mobile phones or keitai, and the commuter train network. The basic aim is to how consider the lived experience of polarized medial tendencies between and across these infrastructures. While a variety of everyday comportments have arisen between broadcast television and keitai, there are sites and moments where comportment seems to reach a limit, and life across polarized
tendencies feel impossible, unworkable.

The event will be held in Conference Room A of the University Club (map) from 4:00 pm, and is free and open to the public.

Chinese movie The Witness (我是证人) in Pittsburgh, from October 29.

The 2015 Chinese movie The Witness (我是证人) will open at the AMC Loew's Waterfront theater on October 29. A remake of the 2011 Korean movie Blind (블라인드), The Witness stars former member of K-pop group EXO Lu Han and Chinese singer Yang Mi,

[the movie is] about a blind girl and young boy who accidentally become the witnesses of a rainy night kidnapping, however, their testimonies are entirely contradictory.

Tickets and showtimes are available at the AMC Loews Waterfront website. The Witness continues the recent trend of new Chinese movies coming to Western Pennsylvania via the Waterfront: Saving Mr. Wu (解救吾先生) and Lost in Hong Kong (港囧) opened on October 2, and Goodbye Mr. Loser (夏洛特烦恼) on October 16.

Japanese punk band Peelander-Z at Brillobox, November 12; in Morgantown, November 11.

Japanese punk band Peelander-Z will play at Brillobox in Lawrenceville on November 12. Wikipedia provides an overview of their shows:

They perform on stage and appear in color-coordinated costumes, which they state are not costumes, but their skin. The costumes range from sentai style suits, to kimono, to rubber Playmobil style wigs. There is also a tiger costume and a giant squid/guitar costume to coincide with the song "Mad Tiger". Another aspect of their routine is their on-stage antics such as human bowling (diving head-first into bowling pins), pretending to hit each other with chairs in imitation of pro-wrestlers, and mid-performance piggyback rides. They often allow audience members on stage to join in on the fun, and often dive into the audience or hang from a balcony as part of their act.

They most recently played in Pittsburgh in 2013 and 2014. Doors open at 9:00, the music starts at 9:30, and tickets are $10 for the 21-and-over show. Brillobox is located at 4104 Penn Ave. (map), about a block from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

"Talking About Asia: The Late Prehistory of Northeast Asia" with Dr. Sungjoo Lee at Pitt, October 27.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and the Department of Anthropology present Dr. Sungjoo Lee, a professor of Archaeology and Anthropology at Kyungpook National University in South Korea and his talk "Talking About Asia: The Late Prehistory of Northeast Asia" on October 27.

How have nationalist interpretations of Northeast Asian archaeology impacted academic research in Asia? Professor Sungjoo Lee explores this critical question by analyzing the current conceptualization of the Bronze Age in Korea. Current research in population dynamics and relocation of Bronze Age settlements, the construction of monumental burials, and the development of cultural environments are rapidly changing these politically-charged interpretations. His own research will illustrate how center-periphery relations of Northeast Asia were impacted by the rapid and compressive cultural changes in the late prehistory of Korea across the region.

The talk will start at 4:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map), and is free and open to the public.

Cemetery of Splendor (รักที่ขอนแก่น), Mountains May Depart (山河故人) at 3 Rivers Film Fest in November.

The annual 3 Rivers Film Fest announced its complete 2015 lineup today, and it includes two Asian movies: Thailand's Cemetery of Splendour (รักที่ขอนแก่น) and China's Mountains May Depart (山河故人). A summary of 2015's Cemetery of Splendour, from the 3RFF site:

Soldiers with a mysterious sleeping sickness are transferred to a temporary clinic in a former school. The memory-filled space becomes a revelatory world for housewife and volunteer Jenjira, as she watches over Itt, a handsome soldier with no family visitors. Jen befriends young medium Keng who uses her psychic powers to help loved ones communicate with the comatose men. Doctors explore ways, including colored light therapy, to ease the men’s troubled dreams. Jen discovers Itt’s cryptic notebook of strange writings and blueprint sketches. There may be a connection between the soldiers’ enigmatic syndrome and the mythic ancient site that lies beneath the clinic. Magic, healing, romance, and dreams are all part of Jen’s tender path to a deeper awareness of herself and the world around her.

And of 2015's Mountains May Depart, from a review in The Guardian:

[The] movie is split into three parts, taking place in 1999, in 2014 and in 2025. We begin with a bunch of people dancing to the Pet Shop Boys’ Go West, and as the new century and millennium dawns, the movie shows China more or less obsessed with doing that: going West, embracing capitalism while at the same retaining the monolithic state structures of the past, and beginning to worship consumer goods as status symbols: stereos, cars, and perhaps most importantly mobile phones — a technology which the film shows retaining its fetishistic power for the next quarter-century.

Both films will have two screenings, starting on November 7. The festival runs from November 6 through November 15 at five theaters around Pittsburgh. Showtimes and ticket information are available at the 3RFF website.