Six films part of Studio Ghibli Film Series at Row House Cinema, December 1 - 14.

The Row House Cinema's next Studio Ghibli Film Series will run from December 1 through 14 and highlight the acclaimed Japanese animation studio. The six films to comprise the series are: 1991's Only Yesterday (おもひでぽろぽろ), 1992's Porco Rosso (紅の豚), 1997's Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫), 2001's Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し), and 2013's The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語) and The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ).

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

Japanese speakers (and students of Japanese) wanted for recordings for local documentary on Daigo Fukuryū Maru, November 28.

The boat on display in Tokyo, via Daigo Fukuryuu Maru Exibition Hall.

A local filmmaker is looking for Japanese speakers (native and non-native alike) to record a few lines for an upcoming documentary on Daigo Fukuryū Maru, a Japanese tuna fishing boat that was contaminated as a result of an American nuclear weapons test in 1954.

Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城) in Pittsburgh area, November 26 and 27.

The 2004 Hayao Miyazaki film Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城) will play at Pittsburgh area Cinemark theaters on November 26 and 27 as the final installment of the GKIDS Ghibli Fest 2017. The distributor provides a summary:

From director Hayao Miyazaki, "Howl’s Moving Castle", is an Academy Award®-nominated acclaimed fantasy based on the novel of the same name. Sophie, an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl. But after this chance meeting, the young girl is turned into a 90-year old woman by the vain, conniving Witch of the Waste. Embarking on an incredible adventure to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl’s magical moving castle.

As the true power of Howl’s wizardry is revealed, and his relationship with Sophie deepens, our young grey heroine finds herself fighting to protect them both from a dangerous war of sorcery that threatens their world.

The movie will play at Monaca, Monroeville, North Hills, and Pittsburgh Mills Cinemark theaters on two days: the English-dubbed version will play on November 26 and the English-subtitled version on November 27.

"Death and Literature: Time, Sickness, and Writing," November 27 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Dr. Robert Tierney and his talk "Death and Literature: Time, Sickness, and Writing" on Monday, November 27.

Storytime: Chinese & English, November 25 in Squirrel Hill.

This month's installment of Storytime: Chinese & English will be held on Saturday, November 25 at the Carnegie Library in Squirrel Hill.

Celebrate our city’s diverse culture as we explore new words through songs, action rhymes and stories in both English and Chinese. For children birth – 5 years and their caregivers.

It runs from 11:00 to 11:30 am and is free and open to the public. The library is located at 5801 Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill (map) and is accessible via buses 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 64, and 74.

Chinese movie Explosion (引爆者) opens in Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving.

The 2017 Chinese movie Explosion (引爆者) will open in Pittsburgh on November 23. The Hollywood Reporter provides a summary of the film that closed the 2017 Shanghai International Film Festival in June:

More thriller than actioner, and influenced by stylish art cinema more than Hollywood, it starts off with quite a bang. In the claustrophobic bowels of a mine, a blast goes wrong and sends a flaming fireball racing through the shaft in a brief but effective disaster scene that leaves four workmen dead and the audience hungry for more.

Duan Yi-hong . . . is gritty and glammed down as experienced blast technician Zhou Yu-dong. He's stunned and injured by the explosion, but instead of rushing him to the nearest hospital, his gangster-boss Li Yi knocks him down for screwing up, then throws hush money at him. The four victims, who are seen only from their burnt feet, are quickly buried.

Zhou is too expert not to smell a rat. Exiled from the mine, he moodily hangs around a local eatery run by his eye-catching girlfriend . . . until he makes up his mind to investigate what really happened.

The movie plays in Mandarin with English subtitles. Tickets and showtime information are available online 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.

New restoration of 1953 Japanese movie Ugetsu (雨月物語) at Row House Cinema, from November 24.

A new 4K digital restoration of the 1953 Japanese movie Ugetsu (雨月物語) will play at the Row House Cinema from November 24 through 30 as part of the theater's Poetry of Images series. The distributor provides a summary:

By the time he made Ugetsu, Kenji Mizoguchi was already an elder statesman of Japanese cinema, fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other directors of a younger generation. And with this exquisite ghost story, a fatalistic wartime tragedy derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, he created a touchstone of his art, his long takes and sweeping camera guiding the viewer through a delirious narrative about two villagers whose pursuit of fame and fortune leads them far astray from their loyal wives. Moving between the terrestrial and the otherworldly, Ugetsu reveals essential truths about the ravages of war, the plight of women, and the pride of men.

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

Japanese electronic music artist Cornelius (コーネリアス) to play in Pittsburgh in March.

Japanese musician Keigo Oyamada, also known as Cornelius (コーネリアス) and whose newest music can be roughly categorized as downbeat, will play at Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland on March 10, 2018, as part of next year's tour of US and Mexico. The Andy Warhol Museum summarizes:

Beginning with his 1997 release Fantasma on Matador Records, Cornelius (the name is an homage to the Planet of the Apes) gained much critical praise as the “modern day Brian Wilson” for his lush orchestral/pop arrangements and quickly became an in-demand producer working with artists such as Beck, Bloc Party, and MGMT. Oyamada’s forays into scoring films include Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and the anime mega-film Ghost in the Shell Arise, as well as being a key performer in Yoko Ono’s reformed Plastic Ono Band.

Tickets for this Sound Series event are currently available online for $25 for adults or $20 for students and museum members.

Mochi Workshop at Pitt, November 18.

The University of Pittsburgh's Chinese American Students Association will hold a mochi-making workshop on November 18. It runs from 3:00 to 5:00 pm in room 630 of the William Pitt Union (map). Registration and $5 payment for supplies is due on Friday, November 17.

"No war against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea!" November 18 in Oakland.

The Pittsburgh Anti-Imperialist League will host Derek Ford of Depauw University for "No war against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea!" on November 18.

Join a discussion on the origins of the current crisis and the movement against a new war by the US empire against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK.

Our speaker Derek Ford, assistant professor at DePauw University, has recently returned from DPRK in August 2017 as an organizer of the latest "Korea Peace Tour", the last civilian tour to DPRK before the travel ban by the Trump regime went into effect. In 2016, Mr. Ford also travelled to South Korea representing the ANSWER Coalition as he participated in the International Forum on Peace and Reunification, visited political prisoners and held meetings with progressive organizations, and joined in several protests and actions.

The Trump regime has consistenly engaged in dangerous escalations in Korea, risking re-opening the Korean War. Such a war would risk millions of lives across Asia while sending many poor and working people in the US to do the killing and dying for the US capitalist class.

The event runs from 3:30 to 5:30 pm in the Barco Law Building (room 111) at the University of Pittsburgh (map), and is free and open to the public.