Taste of Asia Asian Food Festival in Pittsburgh, May 25.

The Taste of Asia Asian Food Festival will take place in at the Pittsburgh Playhouse downtown on May 25.

Join us for a celebration of Asian American Heritage month at Taste of Asia, the first Asian-focused food festival in Pittsburgh! We’re bringing together some of the best Asian restaurants in the city to showcase their mouth-watering dishes. Come and sample bites from Shanghai Tokyo, Chengdu Gourmet 2, Zen Asian Diner, and Essence.

The event will be held on Thursday, May 25, from 3:00 – 8:30 PM at the Pittsburgh Playhouse downtown. It’s the perfect opportunity to gather with friends and family and experience a wide variety of Asian cuisine all in one place.

Tickets are available online.

2023 movie Shin Kamen Rider (シン・仮面ライダー) coming to Pittsburgh, May 31.

The latest Kamen Rider movie, Shin Kamen Rider (シン・仮面ライダー), will play in Pittsburgh on May 31.

Hongo Takeshi awakens to discover he has been transformed into a grasshopper-hybrid cyborg. Becoming the Masked Rider, he must fight the mysterious evil organization SHOCKER to protect all of mankind. "SHIN KAMEN RIDER" is Anno Hideaki’s ode to the legendary Tokusatsu franchise, Japan’s biggest hero, and his dearest childhood icon. Go! Go! Let’s go!

It is scheduled to play locally so far at the AMC Loews Waterfront, the AMC Classic South Hills Village, and the Cinemark Theaters in Monaca, North Hills, and Robinson. Tickets are available online.

2022 Japanese animated film Suzume (すずめの戸締まり) stays in Pittsburgh through April 27.

The 2022 Japanese animated film Suzume (すずめの戸締まり), which opened in Pittsburgh on April 13, will remain here through at least April 27.

On the other side of the door, was time in its entirety— “Suzume” is a coming-of-age story for the 17-year-old protagonist, Suzume, set in various disaster-stricken locations across Japan, where she must close the doors causing devastation. Suzume’s journey begins in a quiet town in Kyushu (located in southwestern Japan) when she encounters a young man who tells her, “I’m looking for a door.” What Suzume finds is a single weathered door standing upright in the midst of ruins as though it was shielded from whatever catastrophe struck. Seemingly drawn by its power, Suzume reaches for the knob… Doors begin to open one after another all across Japan, unleashing destruction upon any who are near. Suzume must close these portals to prevent further disaster.

Suzume was the third-highest grossing film in Japan for 2022 and to this point is the third highest-grossing film there in 2023. It plays at a variety of local theaters through Friday the 21st, and will play at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Waterworks Cinema from the 22nd. Tickets are available online.

2022 film Return to Seoul stays in Pittsburgh through April 20.

The 2022 film Return to Seoul, which premiered in Pittsburghon March 23 as part of this year's Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival and stayed in local theaters afterward, will remain in Pittsburgh through April 20.

On an impulse to reconnect with her origins, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. The headstrong young woman starts looking for her biological parents in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.

It plays at the Squirrel Hill Manor and tickets are available online.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage in Pittsburgh-area movie theaters, April 23, 25, 27, and May 2.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage will play in Pittsburgh-area theaters on April 23, 25, 27, and May 2. From the distributor:

Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award®-winning animated feature film comes to life in this first-ever stage adaptation, full of dazzling sets, captivating musical numbers, and wondrous puppets of beloved characters. Adapted and directed by Tony Award®-winner John Caird (Les Misérables), two unique casts and performances were filmed during the show’s acclaimed 2022 run at Tokyo’s historic Imperial Theatre, featuring Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi as Chihiro.

It will play locally at: the AMC Loews Waterfront; the Cinemark theaters in Monaca, Monroeville, and the North Hills; and the Moviescoop theaters in Waterworks and Cranberry. Tickets are available online.

1985 Japanese film Tampopo (タンポポ) at Row House Cinema, April 21 - 27.

The 1985 Japanese film Tampopo (タンポポ) will play at Row House Cinema from April 21 - 27, part of its Yes Chef film series.

This humorous and endearing ‘Japanese Noodle Western’ is and ode to the joys of food. When a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles, the widowed owner begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the “art of noodle-soup making.”

Tickets are now available. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).

2022 film Return to Seoul stays in Pittsburgh through April 12.

The 2022 film Return to Seoul, which premiered in Pittsburghon March 23 as part of this year's Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival and stayed here for another six days, will remain in Pittsburgh through April 12.

On an impulse to reconnect with her origins, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. The headstrong young woman starts looking for her biological parents in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.

It plays at the Harris Theater 5:00 pm each day through the 12th.

Taiwanese bubble tea chain 朝茶 TSAō·CHA / TSAOCAA to open Oakland location.

Taiwanese bubble tea chain 朝茶 TSAō·CHA is coming soon to Oakland. It will be located at 124 Oakland Ave. (map), in what was most recently and briefly Oakland Craft House. The chain also brands itself as Tsaocaa, and opened its extremely popular Squirrel Hill location in 2020.

2021 Taiwanese film A Letter to A'ma (給阿媽的一封信), and Q&A with the director, April 16 at CMU.

The 2021 Taiwanese film A Letter to A'ma (給阿媽的一封信), and Q&A with the director, will play at Carnegie Mellon University on April 16. The event is hosted by the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association and co-hosted by Café Philo Pittsburgh and the Taiwanese Scholar Society in Pittsburgh.

In A Letter to A’ma, Taiwanese art teacher/filmmaker Hui-Ling returns to her childhood home to mourn the passing of her grandmother. As she pieces together the fragmented memories of her youth, she finds herself coming face-to-face with the problematic issue of her country’s fractured history. Through a student art project guided by this teacher that has lasted for over a decade, a representational portrait of the island’s collective memory begins to emerge, initiating a process in which Taiwan, an island-nation forgotten by the world and in the midst of forgetting itself after centuries of colonization and decades of dictatorship, can now remember its past and re-envision its postcolonial identity through art.

Director Hui-Ling Chen will attend for a post-screening Q&A!

2000 Taiwanese film Yi Yi (一一) in Pittsburgh, April 15 - 20.

The 2000 Taiwanese film Yi Yi (一一) will play in Pittsburgh April 15 through 20. From the distributor:

The extraordinary, internationally embraced Yi Yi (A One and a Two . . .), directed by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang, follows a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral. Whether chronicling middle-age father NJ’s tentative flirtations with an old flame or precocious young son Yang-Yang’s attempts at capturing reality with his beloved camera, the filmmaker deftly imbues every gorgeous frame with a compassionate clarity. Warm, sprawling, and dazzling, this intimate epic is one of the undisputed masterworks of the new century.

It plays at the Row House Cinema and tickets are available online. The single-screen theater is located at 4115 Butler Street in Lawrenceville (map).