Enjoy a variety of foods from our food booths, and performances by student groups and members of the Pittsburgh community, while immersed in traditional Japanese decorations and festival games! Matsuri is the biggest event hosted by JSA. Last year, more than 600 people showed up to the celebration.The event runs from 3:30 to 8:00 pm in Wiegand Gym of the Cohon University Center (map), and is free and open to the public.
A magical mystery marathon, King Hu’s “Legend of the Mountain” takes place (maybe, as the narrator waggishly says) in the 11th century during the Song dynasty. It tells of a cheerful, underemployed scholar, Ho Yunqing (Shih Chun), who makes a meager living as a copyist. Soon after the movie opens, he is entrusted to copy a Buddhist sutra (a dialogue or sermon) that can liberate souls stuck in limbo. Ho isn’t a believer, but he needs the money and so enthusiastically heads out on a seemingly simple mission, one that eventually leads to an isolated outpost where curious and curiouser things occur.All shows start at 6:00 pm at the Regent Square Theater (map), and tickets are only available for purchase at the door.
Filled with lovely natural landscapes that have been meticulously framed and photographed, “Legend of the Mountain” is often a visual ravishment. (It was shot in the South Korean countryside.) There’s a mesmerizing appeal to many of its panoramas, with their variegated colors, dense vegetation and drifting, swirling white mist. And while King Hu certainly likes to move the camera — it sweeps, swoops and sometime breaks into a near-run — he also likes to linger on images as if encouraging you to admire their compositional harmony. You can get lost in these pictorial reveries as you trace the rays of light piercing the trees, brightening the dark waters and the reality-softening haze.
a former punk-turned-Buddhist-priest in Japan, has made a career out of helping suicidal people find reasons to live. But this work has come increasingly at the cost of his own family and health, as he refuses to draw lines between his patients and himself. The Departure captures Nemoto at a crossroads, when his growing self-destructive tendencies lead him to confront the same question his patients ask him: what makes life worth living?Tickets for the March 30 screening of The Departure are now available online. It will play at McConomy Auditorium (map) from 7:00 pm, and the evening also includes a discussion panel.
The debut feature from Taiwanese documentarian Huang Hsin-yao is an acerbic satire of small-town corruption that has earned awards attention, including 10 nominations (one for best picture) at this month’s Golden Horse Awards. The Great Buddha+ follows a pair of frustrated labourers who find themselves surrounded by businessmen and local officials throwing around more money than they could accumulate in a lifetime.Showtimes are available online, though tickets are only available for purchase at the door. The Regent Square Theater is located at 1035 S. Braddock Ave. (map) in the neighborhood of the same name.
Pickle (Cres Chuang I-tseng) is a middle-aged security guard at a factory that makes bronze Buddha statues. Living with his ailing mother, his only pleasure comes from best friend Belly Button (Bamboo Chen Chu-sheng), a recycler who brings him leftover food each night and, if he’s lucky, an old porno magazine to help wile away the small hours.
One night, they decide to watch footage from the dash-cam in the Mercedes of Pickle’s wealthy boss, Kevin (Leon Dai Li-ren). In among numerous steamy encounters and grovelling phone calls, they uncover a dark secret that could change all of their lives.
