Dragon Ball Super: Broly (ドラゴンボール超ブロリー) in Pittsburgh, from January 16.

The new Japanese movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly (ドラゴンボール超ブロリー) will play at several Pittsburgh theaters from January 16. The distributor provides a summary:

A planet destroyed, a powerful race reduced to nothing. After the devastation of Planet Vegeta, three Saiyans were scattered among the stars, destined for different fates. While two found a home on Earth, the third was raised with a burning desire for vengeance and developed an unbelievable power. And the time for revenge has come. Destinies collide in a battle that will shake the universe to its very core!

Goku is back to training hard so he can face the most powerful foes the universes have to offer, and Vegeta is keeping up right beside him. But when they suddenly find themselves against an unknown Saiyan, they discover a terrible, destructive force.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly was the top movie in Japan the weekend it was released. It will play locally at Southside Works, the Hollywood Theater, AMC Loews Waterfront, AMC Loews South Hills Village, and the Cinemark Theaters in McCandless, Monroeville, Pittsburgh Mills, and Robinson. Tickets are available online.

Free Chinese, Japanese, Korean classes in Pittsburgh in 2019.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is an invaluable source of free and enriching programming for people of all ages. Most relevant to this site are the free Chinese, Japanese, and Korean courses at an increasing number of branches. The start of a new year is an excellent time to revisit this list of free courses available for children, complete novices, high-beginners, intermediate learners, and advanced speakers.

New Chinese movie Kill Mobile (来电狂响) in Pittsburgh through January 2.

The new Chinese movie Kill Mobile (来电狂响), which opened in the US on December 28, will continue in Pittsburgh at least through January 2. The distributor provides a summary:

Seven friends get together for dinner, and decided to play a game where they must share all messages and calls of their cell phones. Throughout the evening, wechat messages, phone calls and APP notifications are coming out continuously.

The movie plays at the AMC Loews Waterfront theater and tickets are available online. 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.

Progress on Two Sisters Vietnamese Kitchen, coming soon to East Liberty.

Two Sisters Vietnamese Kitchen looks just about done, with new signage up and considerable work done to the interior. It has been coming soon to 216 N. Highland Ave. since April, and initially had a Summer 2018 target open date.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a profile on the restaurant and its ownership in May.

A pair of Pittsburgh newcomers are in the process of opening Two Sisters Vietnamese Kitchen, on track to debut late summer at 216 N. Highland Ave. in East Liberty. It will be a casual, sit-down BYOB Vietnamese restaurant serving pho, rice bowls and Vietnamese-style vermicelli dishes.

Vietnamese native Trinh Phan and partner Trang Somphonphakdy moved from a city that’s a Vietnamese hub, Atlantic City, N.J., where Mr. Somphonphakdy was longtime restaurant employee.

The pair were convinced to relocate by Ben Wong and his wife, Kellie Truong: Ms. Truong is a partner of Banh Mi and Ti in Lawrenceville with her sister, Tuyen Truong, a restaurant that opened in in 2016 with a menu focused on variations of banh mi sandwiches, summer rolls and rice bowls.

New Korean movie Burning (버닝) in Pittsburgh from December 21.

The acclaimed 2018 Korean film Burning (버닝) will play in Pittsburgh from December 21. The official site provides a synopsis of the film based on a Haruki Marukami short story:

BURNING is the searing examination of an alienated young man, Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), a frustrated introvert whose already difficult life is complicated by the appearance of two people into his orbit: first, Haemi (newcomer Jong-seo Jun), a spirited woman who offers romantic possibility, and then, Ben (Steven Yeun, THE WALKING DEAD, SORRY TO BOTHER YOU), a wealthy and sophisticated young man she returns from a trip with. When Jongsu learns of Ben’s mysterious hobby and Haemi suddenly disappears, his confusion and obsessions begin to mount, culminating in a stunning finale.

Showtime information is now available online, though tickets must be purchased at the theater. The Harris Theater is located at 809 Liberty Ave. in downtown's Cultural District (map).

"Beyond Haiku: Japanese Poetry in Time and Art," January 17 at City of Asylum.

Bashō's Hermitage on Camellia Hill beside the Aqueduct at Sekiguchi (せき口上水端はせを庵椿やま), by Hiroshige.

The Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and City of Asylum will present Pitt's Dr. Elizabeth Oyler and her talk "Beyond Haiku: Japanese Poetry in Time and Art" on January 17.

Join us for a lively discussion with Elizabeth Oyler, presented in partnership with The Japan- America Society of Pennsylvania and as part of our Honor Roll Lecture Series.

Haiku, arguably Japan’s most recognized form of poetry, developed into the poetic form we know and love today through hundreds of years of evolution. Inseparably integrated with Japanese history, Haiku has a notable influence on Japanese poetry, art, and society.

Join the JASP for this free evening. Light hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be provided.

The event runs from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at City of Asylum's Alphabet City on the North Side (map). It's free, but RSVP is required and can be completed online.

New Taiwanese bento, noodle place TW Kitchen (台味廚坊) coming to North Oakland.

Signage went up in North Oakland for TW Kitchen (台味廚坊), offering "Taiwanese style bentos, noodles, soup, and more." It will be located at 192 N. Craig St. (map), in what was most recently Millennial Cupcake and Parfait Bar,.

BTS Concert film BTS World Tour Love Yourself In Seoul in Pittsburgh, January 26.

The BTS Concert movie BTS World Tour Love Yourself In Seoul will play around the country, and in Pittsburgh, on January 26.

Shot at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul during the BTS WORLD TOUR ‘LOVE YOURSELF’, an exclusive screening of the most sought-after concert of 2018 hits movie theaters nationwide for a one-day only event. This event will bring fans together to celebrate the seven members of the global boyband and their unprecedented international phenomenon.

Tickets for the 11:00 am and 2:00 pm shows are now available online.

Japanese movie Shoplifters (万引き家族), in Pittsburgh from December 21.

The 2018 Japanese movie and Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters (万引き家族) will play at the Regent Square Theater in Pittsburgh from December 21.

After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold.

At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces.

Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them...

When Shoplifters was relased in Japan in June it was the country's highest-grossing movie its first three weekends. It opens on December 21 in Regent Square, and showtime information is now available online (tickets must be purchased at the theater door). The Manor Theater in Squirrel Hill has cancelled its planned screenings.

Chinese documentary Three Sisters (三姊妹) at Carnegie Museum of Art, January 26.

As part of the Cinematheque series throughout the Carnegie International exhibition, the Carnegie Museum of Art will show the 2012 Chinese documentary Three Sisters (三姊妹) on January 26. From a 2013 New York Times review:

Not for the faint of heart or weak of bladder, Wang Bing’s two-and-a-half-hour “Three Sisters” documents extreme poverty in rural China with the compassionate eye and inexhaustible patience of a director whose curiosity about his country’s unfortunates never seems to wane.

Filming for six months in a remote hillside village in 2010, Mr. Wang follows the spirit-crushing lives of a short-tempered peasant and his three little daughters. Their mother ran off long ago, and now Yingying, 10; 6-year-old Zhenzhen; and Fenfen, 4 — all so malnourished that they look years younger — spend their days doing chores and herding sheep. But when their father leaves for a job in the city, taking the two youngest girls with him, Yingying is left alone. A grandfather and an aunt live close by, but the girl’s isolation and sadness suggest a poignant hopelessness, as though she has reached the age at which she has begun to notice a future. And it’s not pretty.

The movie plays from 4:00 to 6:30 pm. The museum is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map), accessible by buses 28X, 58, 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 67, 69, 71B, 71D, 75, and P3.