2021 movie My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission (僕のヒーローアカデミア THE MOVIE ワールドヒーローズミッション) in Pittsburgh, from October 29.

The 2021 movie My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission (僕のヒーローアカデミア THE MOVIE ワールドヒーローズミッション) will play in Pittsburgh from October 29 through November 4. A synopsis, from the distributor.

When a sinister organization threatens to wipe out all superhuman powers, the fate of the world is on the line. With two hours until the collapse of civilization, Deku, Bakugo, and Todoroki manage to work as a team, but there’s still one problem. Deku’s on the run for murder.

It is scheduled so far to play at the Cinemark Theaters in Monroeville and Monaca, though more locations may be announced later. Tickets are available online; please note, some shows are dubbed in English while others are in Japanese with English subtitles.

Chinese film Back to the Wharf (风平浪静) at Pitt, October 7 and 9.

The Chinese film Back to the Wharf (风平浪静) will play at the University of Pittsburgh on October 7 and 9 as part of the SCREENSHOT:ASIA film festival. From a January Variety review:

The son of a midlevel official in a coastal fishing town, Song Hao (Zhou Zhengjie) is a bright student who’s robbed of the automatic college place he has rightfully earned. His position has been given to close friend Li Tang (Gao Yuhang), the son of powerful local mayor Li Weiguo (Jin Hui). In a feeble attempt to dress up his unethical decision as some kind of long-term benefit for the school, Song Hao’s headmaster (Zhou Jianya) tells the boy, “I prioritize the collective over the individual.”

Things go from bad to catastrophic in the first of many scenes taking place in pelting rain and howling wind that serve as visual metaphors for the protagonist’s sorrows and struggles. Intending to visit Li Tang’s upmarket home, Song Hao accidentally enters the wrong house and is mistaken for a burglar. In the confusion, Song Hao stabs owner Wan Yuliang (Zhao Longhao), who later dies. With his father Song Jianhui (Wang Yanhui) also implicated in this crime, which could ruin his career and destroy the family’s reputation, Song Hao flees to faraway Guangzhou, where he takes a lowly job in a masonry factory. Unbeknownst to father and son, Li Tang is aware of their transgressions and has chosen to remain silent.

It plays at 6:30 pm on the 7th and 12:00 pm on the 9th, at the Frick Fine Arts Buliding (map) both days. Tickets may be purchased online.

Korean film An Old Lady (69세) at Pitt, October 9.

The 2019 Korean film An Old Lady (69세) will play at the University of Pittsburgh on October 9 as part of the SCREENSHOT:ASIA film festival.

A 69-year-old woman has to find justice for herself when she faces doubt and disdain from authorities who can't imagine her as the victim of sexual assault.

The movie starts at 5:00 pm in 125 Frick Fine Arts (map). Registration is required.

Taiwanese film As We Like It (揭大歡喜), October 7 at Pitt.

The 2021 Taiwanese film As We Like It (揭大歡喜) will play at the University of Pittsburgh on October 7 as part of the SCREENSHOT:ASIA film festival. A synopsis, from Taiwan Cinema:

When Rosalind hears that her father had vanished into thin air after being kicked out of the family business, she came back to Taiwan with her cousin Celia to look for him. During the search, she met Orlando, a racing driver, and they fell in love with each other at first sight. Nevertheless, since Rosalind didn’t believe in true love, she disguised as a man and pretended to be her own cousin. After she transformed herself into a man, she started a role-playing game with Orlando, claiming it to be a test…. As We Like It is the sequel to CHEN Hung-i’s debut feature Candy Rain. Inspired by As You Like It by William Shakespeare, it’s set in Ximending in Taipei in 2021. The most unique feature of this production is its all-female cast. It tries to discuss gender politics, role-playing and human desire in the future.

The movie starts at 8:30 pm on the patio behind Posvar Hall (map). Registration is required and can be completed online.

The Parlor Dim Sum & Cantonese BBQ working on physical location in Pittsburgh.

Dim sum and Cantonese food gain a bigger presence in Pittsburgh, as The Parlor Dim Sum works on a brick-and-mortar location. The Parlor has been a pop-up project of chef Roger Li---Umami, Nanban, and formerly Ki Pollo and Ki Ramen---for the last few years. His websites and social media say to stay tuned for big updates and more information about a physical space.

"Asian American shorts," part of SCREENSHOT:ASIA film festival, October 10 in Aspinwall.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and SCREENSHOT:ASIA will present a collection of Asian American short films on the 10th as part of October's inaugural SCREENSHOT:ASIA film festival.

The first annual SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival will take place October 6-10, 2021. In its inaugural year, the Festival will screen features from all over Asia as well as highlight some lesser-known Asian filmmakers through a shorts program.

This screening is a variety of shorts from the Asian diaspora. In Koreatown Ghost Story, a young woman gets more than she bargained for at the acupuncturist. Hawaiian Soul tells a fictionalized account of 1970s native activist George Helm. In Tammy, a skater learns what it's like to be upstaged by another Asian American girl. These and more in our shorts program!

For more information about the film festival, click here.

The event starts at 2:00 pm at the Outdoor Pavillion at Aspinwall's RiverTrail Park (map), accessible by city buses 1, 75, and 91. Registration is required and can be completed online.

"Not Safe For Life" 1999 Takashi Miike film Audition (オーディション) at Row House Cinema, October 29.

The 1999 Takashi Miike film Audition (オーディション) will play at Row House Cinema on October 29.

In this Japanese thriller, a widower schemes to find love but finds his dream woman to be a hellish nightmare. Director Takashi Miike’s film starts off feeling like a heartwarming romantic comedy before descending into grisly and terrifying chaos.

Screening of Vincent Who? and Q & A with producer, September 27 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center and OCA Pittsburgh will present a screening of the documentary Vincent Who? on September 27. From the film's official site:

In 1982, at the height of anti-Japanese sentiments arising from massive layoffs in the auto industry, a Chinese-American named Vincent Chin was murdered in Detroit by two white autoworkers. Chin's killers, however, got off with a $3,000 fine and 3 years probation, but no jail time. Outraged by this injustice, Asian Americans around the country united for the first time across ethnic and socioeconomic lines to form a pan-Asian identity and civil rights movement.

Among its significant outcomes, the movement led to the historic broadening of federal civil rights protection to include all people in America regardless of immigrant status or ethnicity.

VINCENT WHO? explores this important legacy through interviews with the key players at the time as well as a whole new generation of activists whose lives were impacted by Vincent Chin. It also looks at the case in relation to the larger narrative of Asian American history, in such events as Chinese Exclusion, Japanese American Internment in WWII, the 1992 L.A. Riots, anti-Asian hate crimes, and post-9/11 racial profiling.

Ultimately, VINCENT WHO? asks how far Asian Americans have come since the case and how far they have yet to go.

It will be followed by a Q-and-A session with the film's producer. The event will be held from 7:00 pm in the William Pitt Union (map) Dining Room A, safety permitting, or online via Zoom; it's free and open to the public, though registration is required.

Asian grocery chain still in the mix for former Hill District Shop n' Save location.

Fresh International Market is still among the tenants being considered for occupants of the former Shop n' Save Hill District location reports Public Source. It was first reported in June that the chain, which was started in Michigan in 2012 by Bowen Kou, was considering a location here. The store, writes Public Source,

would be the seventh in the small Midwestern chain, and would feature an affordable mix of produce, fresh and live seafood and dry goods. It would also include a juice bar and a bakery — but would not have expensive offerings like $6 organic avocados, said Bowen Kou, president of the company.

Hill District residents have until the end of the month to vote on their preference of tenant. The others in contention are Pierre Development, Family Tree Food Market, and Salem's Market and Grill.

While the city could certainly use a large, destination Asian grocery, the Fresh International Market proposal is admittedly the weakest of the four, is competing with merchants with longer histories in the area, and was reportedly submitted after the deadline.

"Protest as a Human Right in Hong Kong: A view from history," September 30 at Pitt.

via Jonathan van Smit

The University of Pittsburgh's Global Studies Center will host Dr. Gina Anne Tam and "Protest as a Human Right in Hong Kong: A view from history" on September 30.

In the summer of 2019, Hong Kong-- former British colony, current special administrative region of the People's Republic of China-- was swept up by a large, sustained protest movement. The spark that lit this "revolution of our time" as protestors have deemed it was an extradition treaty with China, but quickly evolved into a broader movement for a more democratically representative government and autonomy from the People's Republic of China. In a stunning backlash against the movement, the PRC government announced they would unilaterally enact a sweeping national security law, quickly marking much of the previous year's protest movement illegal. In the past year, activists, lawyers, elected officials have been arrested and NGOs and media outlets shuttered at a dizzying pace, fundamentally altering the civic, legal, and cultural landscape of the city. Drawing upon Hong Kong's long history of grassroots activism-- and backlash against it-- from the early twentieth century through the present, this talk will offer a historical view of how protest became a cherished human right and a locus of popular power in Hong Kong, using this history to discuss the implications of the national security law on human rights in the city today.

The event runs from 4:30 to 5:45 pm, and will be held online.