2021 film Baby Assassins (ベイビーわるきゅーれ) in Pittsburgh October 2, part of SCREENSHOT: Asia Film Fest.

The 2021 Japanese film Baby Assassins (ベイビーわるきゅーれ) will play in Pittsburgh on October 2 as part of this year's SCREENSHOT: Asia Film Fest.

Chisato and Mahilo are two high school girls who are about to graduate. They also happen to both be highly skilled assassins. When the organization they work for orders them to share a room, the relationship between the pair quickly turns sour. However, when they find themselves targeted by the yakuza, the girls quickly realise that they will have to find a way to work together.

It plays at 3:00 pm in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium in Oakland (map), and tickets are available onilne. Pitt affiliates with valid university ID cards may receive free tickets.

2002 movie Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (ゴジラ×メカゴジラ) in Pittsburgh, November 3.

The 2002 movie Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (ゴジラ×メカゴジラ) will play in Pittsburgh on November 3.

A new Godzilla causes the JSDF to construct a cyborg countermeasure from the original monster's remains. The beast's restless soul is discovered to inhabit the machine as the pilot must learn to find value in her own life. For the first time ever in US cinema's Toho Co Ltd and Fathom Events bring 2002's Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla to the silver screen in celebration of Godzilla Day! This limited time screening will feature never before seen on the big screen content direct from Japan along with an exclusive special message for the fans from Toho's Chief Godzilla Officer in Tokyo! Please note: The feature will be subtitled.

It is scheduled to play locally at the Cinemark theater in Robinson, and tickets are available online.

Kura Revolving Sushi Bar coming to South Side in 2023.

via @kurasushiusa 

Kura Revolving Sushi Bar will be a new tenant in the SouthSide Works Box Office development. According to WPXI.com:

Kura Revolving Sushi Bar originated in Japan and recently expanded to North America. Sushi makes its way around the restaurant on a conveyor belt in a new dining concept. This is the first Kura Revolving Sushi Bar in the Pittsburgh market.

According to the Kura website:

Kura Sushi USA, Inc., is an innovative and tech interactive Japanese restaurant concept established in 2008 as a subsidiary of Kura Sushi, Inc. As pioneers of the revolving sushi concept, the Kura family of companies have improved upon the developed innovative systems that combine advanced technology, premium ingredients, and affordable prices to enhance the unique dining experience. Since the first restaurant opening in 1977, Kura Sushi, Inc. has grown substantially with more than 500 locations across Japan, Taiwan and the United States.

We pay particular attention to ingredients, taste, and preparation for all of our dishes. Our philosophy of “muten” or “nothing added” is an ongoing promise that our food is prepared using fresh, high quality ingredients free of artificial sweeteners, seasonings, preservatives and colorings.

We can’t wait for you to enjoy the healthy, fun, and delicious dining experience that is Kura Revolving Sushi Bar!

According to NextPittsburgh, Kura Revolving Sushi Bar is eyeing a 2023 open.

Nakama voted best Japanese restaurant in Pittsburgh by Pittsburghers who don't know Japanese restaurants, beating out Umami, Teppanyaki Kyoto, GetGo.

via @familymart.japan 

The Pittsburgh City-Paper announced the winners of this year's Best of Pittsburgh readers' poll today, with Nakama again being named Best Japanese food in the city. The restaurant, with locations in the South Side and Wexford, is the perennial winner of this and other local readers' polls, at the expense of more authentic Japanese restaurants, and thus the joke about Nakama and GetGo is an annual one. Umami placed second and Ichiban Hibachi Steakhouse third. Readers also selected winners for Best Asian Fusion, Best Bubble Tea, Best Chinese, and Best Korean, Best Sushi, Best Thai, and Best Vietnamese.

2022 Korean film The Girl on a Bulldozer (불도저에 탄 소녀) in Pittsburgh, October 1.

The 2022 Korean film The Girl on a Bulldozer (불도저에 탄 소녀) will play in Pittsburgh on October 1 as part of this year's SCREENSHOT: Asia Film Festival.

With a dragon tattoo blazoned across her left arm, Kim Hye-Yoon plays the headstrong heroine who, after her dad falls into a coma following a suspicious accident, doggedly seeks answers despite mounting resistance from a variety of corrupt forces. Faced with the additional pressures of tending to her father’s restaurant, taking care of her younger brother, and completing mandatory work training following a short prison stay, our heroine is forced to grow up fast. Simultaneously a vehicle for social critique, a coming-of-age story, and a gripping thriller, The Girl on a Bulldozer is driven by Kim’s visceral, charismatic performance, which won her the 2022 Screen International Rising Star Award at the New York Asian Film Festival.

It plays at 2:00 pm in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium in Oakland (map), and tickets are available onilne.

2020 Taiwanese film Dear Tenant (親愛的房客) in Pittsburgh on September 30, part of SCREENSHOT: Asia Film Festival.

The 2020 Taiwanese film Dear Tenant (親愛的房客) will play in Pittsburgh on September 30, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: Asia Film Festival.

Winner of three Golden Horse awards including Best Leading Actor for Mo Tzu-Yi, the film tells the story of Mr. Lin, an apartment tenant who tends to the daily needs of the elderly apartment owner and helps look after her orphaned nine-year-old grandson, whom he has legally adopted. When the boy’s uncle returns from overseas and charges him with using the adoption as pretext to secure the deeds to the apartment, a troubled past is brought to light. Suffused with melancholy, tenderness, and a sense of the daily rhythms of metropolitan Taiwan, Dear Tenant dramatizes the continued challenges faced by queer couples despite the legalization of same-sex marriage in 2019 and serves as a showcase for Mo’s subtle, heartbreaking performance.

It will play at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map) from 8:30 pm. Tickets are available online, though Pitt affiliates with valid university cards can enter for free.

1977 Japanese film House (ハウス) at Row House CInema, October 21 through 31.

The 1977 Japanese psychedelic thriller House (ハウス) will play at the Row House Cinema from October 21 through 31 as part of its Row House of Horrors series. "The film," says Wikipedia,

is about a schoolgirl traveling with her six classmates to her ailing aunt's country home, where they come face to face with supernatural events as the girls are, one by one, devoured by the home.

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

Pitt's Asian Studies Center continues language partner program.

The University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center is continuing its language partner program for people interested in learning an Asian language or helping Asian students at Pitt meet native English speakers. From the latest newsletter:

Are you looking to practice an Asian language? Or are you a native speaker of an Asian language hoping to practice English? The Asian Studies Center can help match you with a language exchange partner! The form to sign-up can be found here. The program is open to university students and community members living in Pittsburgh. Languages represented are English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, and Vietnamese. Please email asia@pitt.edu with any questions.

PF BBQ (匹夫小馆) opens in Oakland, in former Sichuan Gourmet spot.

PF BBQ (匹夫小馆)) has recently opened in Oakland. It is located at 238 Atwood St. (map), in the location of the former Oakland branch of Sichuan Gourmet. The original Squirrel Hill Sichuan Gourmet location remains open, but the Oakland branch that opened in 2015 closed at the start of COVID. Not much information exists about PF BBQ yet, but here is a quick photo of the menu:

It does appear in the Chinese-language version of the Ricepo app, but not the English-language one. Menu items include several varieties of grilled fish, several hot pot selections, pickle pepper frog, konjac hot pot duck, stir-fried clams, and more.

Rashomon (羅生門) downtown at Harris Theater, October 2 through 6.

The 1950 Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon (羅生門) will play at the Harris Theater from October 2 through 6. A synopsis of the film, from a 2002 Roger Ebert review:

The film opens in torrential rain, and five shots move from long shot to closeup to reveal two men sitting in the shelter of Kyoto's Rashomon Gate. The rain will be a useful device, unmistakably setting apart the present from the past. The two men are a priest and a woodcutter, and when a commoner runs in out of the rain and engages them in conversation, he learns that a samurai has been murdered and his wife raped and a local bandit is suspected. In the course of telling the commoner what they know, the woodcutter and the priest will introduce flashbacks in which the bandit, the wife and the woodcutter say what they saw, or think they saw--and then a medium turns up to channel the ghost of the dead samurai. Although the stories are in radical disagreement, it is unlike any of the original participants are lying for their own advantage, since each claims to be the murderer.

Tickets are now available online. The Harris Theater is located in downtown's Cultural District (map).