"North Korea in Transition" opening lecture, February 22 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Scott Snyder and his talk "North Korea in Transition" on February 22.

"Japan 2019: Outlook and Challenges" with Deputy Counsel General of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Koji Abe, February 20 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will host Deputy Counsel General of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Koji Abe and his talk "Japan 2019: Outlook and Challenges" on February 20.

Deputy Counsel General of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Koji Abe will be discussing the current situation in Japan and challenges to come. He will consider Japan's relations with East Asia and South Asia, as well as the US-Japan alliance. He will examine the USJTA and TPP, grassroots activities in Japan, and other political, social, and economic aspects of Japan.

It will be held from 3:00 to 4:30 pm at 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Japanese film Shoplifters (万引き家族) at Parkway Theater, February 22 - 28.

The acclaimed 2018 Japanese film Shoplifters (万引き家族) will play at the Parkway Theater in McKees Rocks from February 22 through 28. A summary of the 2018 Japanese movie and Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters (万引き家族):

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 released in Japan in June it was the country's highest-grossing movie its first three weekends, and finished the year as Japan's fourth highest-grossing domestic film of the year.

Showtime information is available on Facebook, though tickets are not yet available online. The theater is located at 644 Broadway Ave. in McKees Rocks (map).

Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル) added to Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival.

The 2000 cult classic film Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル) has been added to the nine other films that currently comprise the upcoming Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival.

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary “Battle Royale” act.

Battle Royale became a cultural phenomenon, and has been highly influential in global popular culture. Since the film’s release, the term “battle royale” has been used to refer to a fictional narrative genre and/or mode of entertainment inspired by the film, where a select group of people are instructed to kill each off until there is a triumphant survivor. It has inspired numerous media, including films, manga, anime, comics, visual novels, and video games; the battle royale game genre (including Fortnight), for example, is named after the film.

"Historical Irony in Wang Xiaobo’s Intertextual Narrator," February 22 at Pitt.

The Asian Studies Center and the Department of East Asian & Languages Literatures will host MA candidate Xiaoqi Shen and her talk "Historical Irony in Wang Xiaobo’s Intertextual Narrator" on February 22.

Japanese film The Third Murder (三度目の殺人) at Carnegie Library in Oakland, April 7.

The 2017 Japanese film The Third Murder (三度目の殺人) will be the April installment of International Cinema Sunday at the Carnegie Library in Oakland on April 7.

Leading attorney Shigemori takes on the defense of murder-robbery suspect Misumi, who served jail time for another murder 30 years ago. Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, 124 minutes, rated R

The movie runs from 2:30 to 4:30 pm in Classroom A and is free and open to the public. The library is located at 4400 Forbes Ave. in Oakland (map) and is accessible by buses 28X, 54, 61C, 61D, 67, 69, 71A, 71B, 71C, 71D, and 93.

A final good-bye for the old Kim's Coffee Shop?

Almost four years ago I posted some photos of a facade on Penn Ave. in Garfield made up with a pretty distinctively Korean look The eaves on 5447 Penn Ave. (map) are made to resemble a traditional Korean house, though it was actually a Vietnamese place opened in 1983 and run by Mai Hong Khuu until her cancer diagnosis and death in 2006. (Reviews from the last century commented on the windowless atmosphere, and even a 2004 City-Paper review feels especially dated, with Pittsburgh's increased familiarity with Vietnamese and Chinese over the last few years.)



A notice of condemnation was posted on February 12 where the door once was, warning of an "unsafe structure" and "imminent danger," with the solutions required by the notice either repair or demolition. The former restaurant, as well as the building above it, were purchased in 2012 by the nearby Pittsburgh Glass Center, with the intention of turning it into student and artist housing. However, by all indications the two spots have been empty since the restaurant closed nearly 13 years ago. It was sold in 2018 to an LLC run by Ghassan Bejjani, a neurosurgeon who purchased four other vacant homes on the same block in 2015 (under a different LLC) and a building across the street last year.


As seen in 2015.

"Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan," February 18 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Sociology will host Kiyoteru Tsutsui and his talk "Rights Make Might: Global Human Rights and Minority Social Movements in Japan" on February 18.

Since the late 1970s, the three most salient minority groups in Japan - the politically dormant Ainu, the active but unsuccessful Koreans, and the former outcaste group of Burakumin - have all expanded their activism despite the unfavorable domestic political environment. In Rights Make Might, Kiyoteru Tsutsui examines why, and finds an answer in the galvanizing effects of global human rights on local social movements. Tsutsui chronicles the transformative impact of global human rights ideas and institutions on minority activists, which changed their understandings about their standing in Japanese society and propelled them to new international venues for political claim making. The global forces also changed the public perception and political calculus in Japan over time, catalyzing substantial gains for their movements. Having benefited from global human rights, all three groups repaid their debt by contributing to the consolidation and expansion of human rights principles and instruments outside of Japan. Drawing on interviews and archival data, Rights Make Might offers a rich historical comparative analysis of the relationship between international human rights and local politics that contributes to our understanding of international norms and institutions, social movements, human rights, ethnoracial politics, and Japanese society.

The talk runs from 4:00 to 5:30 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.

Nine Japanese animated films in Pittsburgh for Studio Ghibli Fest 2019, from April 7.

GKIDS announced the line-up for its Studio Ghibli Fest 2019, which will bring nine films to American theaters from April through December:

• Howl's Moving Castle (ハウルの動く城): April 7, April 8, April 10
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ): May 20 and May 21
• Whisper of the Heart (耳をすませば): July 1 and July 2
• Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便): July 28, July 29, and July 30
• My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ): August 25, August 26, and August 28
• The Secret World of Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ)): September 29, and September 30
• Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し): October 27, October 28, and October 30
• Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫): November 17, November 18, and November 20
• The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (かぐや姫の物語): December 16 and December 18

There will be screenings in Japanese with English subtitles as well as English-dubbed versions. Tickets for all shows will go on sale March 7; films are likely to play at local Cinemark theaters, as in years past.

WESA FM asks "What Happened To Pittsburgh's Chinatown?"

Taken in 2012.

Pittsburgh's NPR station, WESA FM, has a lengthy piece on what happened to Pittsburgh's Chinatown.