No Game No Life Zero (ノーゲーム・ノーライフ ゼロ) in Pittsburgh, October 5 and 8.

The upcoming Japanese anime No Game No Life Zero (ノーゲーム・ノーライフ ゼロ) will play at Cinemark theaters in the Pittsburgh area on October 5th and 8th. A synopsis from the distributor:

Six thousand years before Sora and Shiro were even a blink in the history of Disboard, war consumed the land, tearing apart the heavens, destroying stars, and even threatening to wipe out the human race. Amid the chaos and destruction, a young man named Riku leads humanity toward the tomorrow his heart believed in. One day, in the ruins of an Elf city, he meets Shuvi, a female exiled "Ex-machina" android who asks him to teach her what it means to have a human heart. In select movie theatres nationwide, this two-day event also includes exclusive content featuring special footage of members of the cast and crew of No Game No Life Zero.

The October 5 show will be subtitled and the October 8 dubbed. The movie is set to play at the Cinemark theaters in Monaca, Monroeville, North Hills, Pittsburgh Mills, and Robinson.

Pittsburgh to Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai roundtrip for $500.

A Thrillist article on the 27th reports on the phenomenon of round-trip flights to and from China being cheaper than many domestic ones. Pittsburgh is among the places with surprisingly cheap flights to and from large Chinese cities at the moment.



According to Google Flights, a ticket from Pittsburgh to Chengdu on October 18th with an October 28 return will cost $498 round-trip. Same for Beijing. And same for a trip to Shanghai, but if you don't want a 34-hour trip, you'll have to pay an extra $135 to get there in half the time.

Book talks with Michael Meyer—author of Last Days of Old Beijing, In Manchuria, and the forthcoming The Road to Sleeping Dragon—in Pittsburgh, October 10.

Author and University of Pittsburgh professor Michael Meyer will give two local book talks on October 10 to mark the release of his forthcoming book, The Road to Sleeping Dragon, to be released the same day. From 1:00 to 2:30 pm, he will speak and sign copies of his book at the University of Pittsburgh, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room (map). From 7:00 to 8:00 pm he will appear at the Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley (map).

In 1995, at the age of twenty-three, Michael Meyer joined the Peace Corps and, after rejecting offers to go to seven other countries, was sent to a tiny town in Sichuan. Knowing nothing about China, or even how to use chopsticks, Meyer wrote Chinese words up and down his arms so he could hold conversations, and, per a Communist dean’s orders, jumped into teaching his students about the Enlightenment, the stock market, and Beatles lyrics. Soon he realized his Chinese counterparts were just as bewildered by the country’s changes as he was. With humor and insight, Meyer puts readers in his novice shoes, winding across the length and breadth of his adopted country -- from a terrifying bus attack on arrival, to remote Xinjiang and Tibet, and his future wife's Manchurian family, and into efforts to protect China's heritage at places like "Sleeping Dragon," the world's largest panda preserve.

In the last book of his China trilogy, Meyer tells a story both deeply personal and universal, as he gains greater – if never complete – assurance, capturing what it feels like to learn a language, culture and history from the ground up. Meyer will recount his 20-year journey via photographs, as well as talking about the challenges of reporting from China and how a freelance writer can fund and produce books that reach a wide audience.

AEON interviews in Pittsburgh for EFL teaching positions in Japan, October 21.

AEON (株式会社イーオン), a large chain of English schools in Japan, is holding in-person interviews for prospective teachers throughout the United States from September through December, and will be interviewing in Pittsburgh on October 21. Those interested should submit applications online by October 9.

Journey to the West Book Series Debut, October 4 in Squirrel Hill.

A pair of local authors are releasing a series of books aimed at learners of Chinese that retells the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, and an event celebrating its release will be held on October 4 in Squirrel Hill.

Anime Series at Row House Cinema, September 29 through October 5.

Four films will comprise the latest Anime Series at Row House Cinema from September 29 through October 5: 2015's Boy and the Beast (バケモノの子), 1987's Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (王立宇宙軍 オネアミスの翼), 2003's Tokyo Godfathers (東京ゴッドファーザーズ), and the Pittsburgh premiere of Napping Princess (ひるね姫 〜知らないワタシの物語〜 ).



A September 7 Los Angeles Times review summarizes the latter, from the writer-director of Ghost in the Shell:

High school junior Kokone Morikawa (voiced by Mitsuki Takahata), the heroine of the animated Japanese film “Napping Princess,” would rather spend the summer dozing and looking after her widowed mechanic father than watching the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which are only a few days off. But she finds herself caught up in two intertwined adventures: A fantasy based on the stories her father told her as a little girl, in which she must defend the Kingdom of Heartland, and an all-too-real case of industrial espionage tied to the Olympic ceremonies. Aided by her sensible friend Morio Sawatari (Shinnosuke Mitsushima), Kokone must find a way to overcome the interlocking threats.

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

2017 Takashi Miike film Blade of the Immortal (無限の住人) in Pittsburgh, from November 3.

The 2017 Takashi Miike film Blade of the Immortal (無限の住人) will play at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont from November 3, the theater announced today.

2017 Korean movie The Villainess (악녀) at Parkway Theater, from September 29.

The 2017 South Korean movie The Villainess (악녀), starring Kim Ok-bin, will play at the Parkway Theater in McKees Rocks from September 29. The distributor provides a summary:

Bloody revenge is at the heart of this stylish, kinetic action-thriller that gives a welcome shot of adrenaline to the classic femme fatale story. Honed from childhood into a merciless killing machine by a criminal organization, assassin Sook-hee is recruited as a sleeper agent with the promise of freedom after ten years of service - and she jumps at the chance for a normal life. But soon enough, secrets from her past destroy everything she’s worked for, and now nobody can stand in her way as she embarks on a roaring rampage of revenge.

Showtime and ticket information has not yet been announced. The newly-renovated theater is located at 644 Broadway Ave. in McKees Rocks (map).

From Madness to Medicine in Japanese Culture conference, September 28 and 29 at Pitt; documentary Does Your Soul Have a Cold?, September 27.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host the From Madness to Medicine in Japanese Culture conference on September 28 and 29, with a screening of the 2007 documentary Does Your Soul Have a Cold? on the 27th.

This symposium brings together a group of scholars from across the disciplines of anthropology, film, history, literature, the performing arts, and religious studies to interrogate the meanings of mental illness as they have been defined and transformed throughout Japanese history. Our intention is to bring intensive scrutiny to the particular cultural case of Japan. We begin with the premise that mental illnesses are in part cultural constructs, ones that have been the subject of interest and concern from earliest times. By engaging scholars across disciplines, we hope to identify places where disciplinary boundaries often limit our understanding of key concepts used to characterize behavioral anomalies, concepts like madness (kyōki 狂気), insanity (kichigai 気違い) mental illness (seishinbyō 精神病), and mental disability (seishin shōgai 精神障害). Further, we look not simply at the contemporary moment, but the historical layers that have contributed to Japanese descriptions of mental health, layers which inherently underpin and complicate modern terminologies, nosologies, and medical practices. We are interested in tracing how ideas about mental health emerged and were described, as well has how they influenced treatments throughout Japanese history. Some of the questions we explore are as follows: How have the Japanese defined and treated those whose mental states are not “healthy”? How have Japan’s interactions with other cultures and other cultural models affected definitions of mental health and illness? How can we see Japan’s historical experience with “mental health” as a touchstone in understanding the vital culturally specific dimensions to biological models of mental health and illness so universally prevalent today? How is globalizing biomedical ideas adapted and interpreted in distinctive ways in Japan?

The documentary will run from 7:30 to 9:30 pm in room G24 of the Cathedral of Learning. The conference's sessions will be held in the University Club's Gold Room (map). A full schedule of presenters is available online. All sessions are free and open to the public, though RSVP is required for lunch.

New Chinese films Chasing the Dragon (追龍), Youth (芳华) opening in Pittsburgh on September 29.

Two new Chinese movies will open in Pittsburgh before they open in China. Both the gangster biopic Chasing the Dragon (追龍), starring Donnie Yen and Andy Lau, and the coming-of-age drama Youth (芳华) will play in Pittsburgh from September 29.

The distributor provides a summary of Chasing the Dragon (追龍), now set to open in China on October 5:

Donnie Yen stars as infamous real-life drug kingpin Crippled Ho, who came to Hong Kong an illegal immigrant in 1963 and ruthlessly carved an empire from the chaotic underworld of drug dealers and corrupt police that ruled the city under notorious detective Lee Rock (Andy Lau.

A September 9 Variety review introduces Youth, opening in China on October 1:

The narrator Suizi (Zhong Chuxi), a stand-in for screenwriter Yan Geling (“The Flowers of War” and “Coming Home”), whose semi-biographical novel was the film’s literary source, belongs to a military dance troupe stationed in the Great Southwest. However, the central figure is actually Xiaoping (Miao Miao), whose father has been branded a Rightist and thrown in a re-education camp. She is recruited from Beijing by the good-looking and kind-hearted lead dancer Liu Feng (Huang Xuan).

The pristine surroundings of their training center and dreamy soft focus that accompanies the young dancers whenever they rehearse revolutionary ballets exude a rarefied atmosphere that reinforces how privileged the troupe is, shielded from hunger, violence and back-breaking labor at the height of the Cultural Revolution. And yet, a hierarchy based on political pedigree is firmly in place in the so-called classless society. Shuwen (Li Xiaofeng) the daughter of a general and hospital supervisor, is the queen bee. Dingding (Yang Caiyu) scores with her looks, while Mongolian Drolma (Sui Yuan) plays her ethnic minority card.

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.