The Assassination (암살), The Pirates (해적: 바다로 간 산적) at Spring Korean Film Festival at Pitt in March.

March brings the annual Spring Korean Film Festival to Pitt's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures, and this year's selections are 2015's The Assassination (암살) and 2014's The Pirates (해적: 바다로 간 산적).

The Assassination's official site summarizes the movie starring Jun Ji-Hyun, Lee Jung-jae, and Ha Jung-woo:

Snipers. Marksmen. Hired Guns. Double Agents. A group of exiled rebels are planning a hit on an Army Commander in Japanese-occupied Korea, but the only killer for the job is in prison. Now, the Resistance must devise a jailbreak, escape a hitman...and discover which of them is a traitor.

And the distributor summarizes the latter:

At the onset of Joseon’s founding, envoys bringing the Emperor’s Seal of State to Joseon lose it to a big whale at sea. A bandit JANG Sa-jung goes out to sea to catch the whale with a big reward on its head. But he soon clashes with Yeo-wol, a female captain of the pirates, and unexpected adventure unfolds.

The Assassination plays on March 16, and The Pirates on March 24. Both movies show in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) from 4:00 to 7:00 pm and are free and open to the public.

Chinese film Mountains May Depart (山河故人) in Pittsburgh, March 18 - 24.

The 2015 Chinese film Mountains May Depart (山河故人) will play at the Harris Theater from March 18 through March 24. A February 11 New York Times review provides a summary:

Three times in “Mountains May Depart,” the latest from the transformative Chinese director Jia Zhangke, people stand near a river that weaves through the landscape like a snake. In the first instance, three friends light fireworks that send out modest sparks. In the second, only two return to the river, where they ignite a bundle of dynamite. By the third trip, only one of the original three remains, everyone’s life having changed as profoundly as China, a cataclysm that’s expressed by a series of rapid explosions in the river, suggesting a drowning world.

Few filmmakers working today look as deeply at the changing world as Mr. Jia does, or make the human stakes as vivid. The three sending out those sparks are Tao (Zhao Tao), and her two close male friends, Zhang Jinsheng (Zhang Yi) and Liangzi (Liang Jin Dong). An affable, easygoing drifter with an expansive smile, Tao works in a small store in the city of Fenyang (Mr. Jia’s birthplace). Mr. Jia likes a slow reveal and it isn’t initially obvious that Tao is the movie’s emotional organizing principle whose feelings run, surge and erupt. The story tracks Tao and her relations with both Liangzi, who works at a coal mine, and Jinsheng, a budding entrepreneur.

The movie premiered in Pittsburgh last fall as one of two Asian movies in the 2015 3 Rivers Film Fest. Showtimes for this month's run have not yet been announced. The Harris Theater is located at 809 Liberty Ave. in the downtown Pittsburgh Cultural District (map).

2015 Japanese animated movie The Boy and the Beast (バケモノの子) in Pittsburgh from March 4.

The 2015 Japanese animated movie The Boy and the Beast (バケモノの子) will have a limited release in the US from March 4, and will open in Pittsburgh at the Southside Works Cinema. The Toronto International Film Festival page has a summary of the second-highest grossing domestic film in Japan of 2015:

A young boy in modern-day Tokyo stumbles into an alternate dimension and becomes the apprentice to a bearlike warrior, in this stunning animated fantasy from writer-director Mamoru Hosoda.

. . .

Stunningly animated and brimming with sensational martial arts and sword-fighting scenes, writer-director Mamoru Hosoda's newest fantasy takes us on a memorable and life-affirming journey, in which the tender and funny moments remind us about the importance of family, loyalty, love, and sacrifice.

Tickets are available online for the four showings on March 4: the 1:05 pm showing is dubbed in English, while the 4:05, 7:05, and 10:05 pm shows are subtitled. Southside Works Cinema is located at 425 Cinema Drive in the Southside, one block from the Hot Metal Bridge (map).

Psycho-Pass: The Movie (劇場版 PSYCHO-PASS サイコパス) at Hollywood Theater, March 15 and 16.

The 2015 Japanese animated movie Psycho-Pass: The Movie (劇場版 PSYCHO-PASS サイコパス) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont on March 15 and 16. The theater provides a summary:

One of the most popular sci-fi anime series in the past five years is making its way to the big screen. Possessing an animation and production budget only possible with a feature film, Psycho-Pass: The Movie will blow away movie-goers with its explosive action sequences and thought-provoking storytelling. This film is a must-see for fans of the TV series and fans of sci-fi action films like Akira, Blade Runner, and Minority Report.

In this culmination of the two-season Psycho-Pass TV series, Inspector Tsunemori is sent to a neighboring war-torn nation, where the Sibyl System is being introduced as an experiment, to find Shinya Kogami, her former enforcer who went rogue three years ago.

The movie will play at the Hollywood Theater both nights at 7:30 pm, and tickets are available online. Southside Works Cinema will also be one of the 100+ theaters showing the film during its North American premiere on the 15th and 16th, though ticket information has not yet been announced.

“Who is Not Afraid of Contaminated Pleasure?: Anna May Wong’s Thrilling Tear” at Pitt, March 1.

The University of Pittsburgh Film Studies Department is hosting a talk by Dr. Yiman Wang of the University of California Santa Cruz titled "Who is Not Afraid of Contaminated Pleasure? Anna May Wong’s Thrilling Tear". Not much information exists about the talk, other than it starts at 6:00 pm in 407 Cathedral of Learning (map). Wang has written a good deal about Anna Mae Wong, a pioneering Chinese-American actress who rose to prominence in the 1920s.

Japanese psychedelic-rock group Acid Mothers Temple in Pittsburgh, March 31.

The Japanese psychedelic-rock group Acid Mothers Temple will play at Club Cafe on March 31.

Cheongju delegation visits Pittsburgh to learn winter weather response.

We had a great meeting with delegates from Cheongju, S. Korea comparing notes on snow removal. @CityPGH @billpeduto pic.twitter.com/3ZzfpHjCoy

— PGH Public Works (@PGHDPW) February 26, 2016

Following a visit to Paterson, NJ on the 24th, The Record writes that Pittsburgh was an upcoming destination for a group of visiting Cheongju public servants. Cheongju is a South Korean city of about 843,000, located at roughly the same longitude as Virginia Beach.

"As the winter weather response and safety issue has become direr to the needs of our residents," Po Young Yi, the natural-disaster director for [Cheongju], wrote the county in a Jan. 29 letter requesting a visit [to Patterson], "we have formed a delegation to send to the USA to learn the best practices of winter weather response."

. . .

For the rest of their trip, they planned to visit public works departments in Montgomery County, Md., and Pittsburgh.

The delegation met with the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works on Friday the 26th.

The Propaganda Game, Coffin in the Mountain (心迷宫) at CMU International Film Festival in March.

The CMU International Film Festival recently announced the schedule for its 2016 iteration, with two movies of special interest to this site: 2014's The Propaganda Game and the 2015 Chinese film Coffin in the Mountain (心迷宫).

"The Voice of a New China: Democratic Behavior in Chinese Reality Shows Super Girl and Happy Girls" at Pitt, February 26.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will host MA in East Asian Studies candidate Wan Chun Huang and her colloquium "The Voice of a New China: Democratic Behavior in Chinese Reality Shows Super Girl and Happy Girls" on Friday, February 26.

1978 movie Shaolin Challenges Ninja (中華丈夫) at Hollywood Theater, February 27.

The movie Shaolin Challenges Ninja (中華丈夫) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont on February 27.