Pitt's Asian Studies Center to Show Japanese Film Oct. 29

PITTSBURGH—Veteran Japanese filmmaker Kiju (Yoshishige) Yoshida, like so many of his countrymen, has carried scars of World War II for more than half a century. Yoshida was a boy of 12 years when atomic bombs devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki Aug. 6, 1945. To honor the memory of all who lost their lives that day, Yoshida wrote and directed Women in the Mirror.

On Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m., Pitt's Asian Studies Center (ASC) will present Women in the Mirror (2002) in Carnegie Mellon University's McConomy Auditorium, on the first floor of University Center, 5032 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

Women in the Mirror is the first screening in the 2003-2004 Japanese Film Series, which has been organized by ASC and the University Center for International Studies in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon's Department of Modern Languages and Modern Language Student Advisory Council.

The Japan Society—a private, nonprofit, nonpolitical institution that promotes greater understanding and cooperation between Japan and the United States—described the film on its Web site (www.japansociety.org) as "a beautifully and superbly refined classic." The film tells the story of three generations of Japanese women—Kawase Aï, an elderly grandmother, played by Yoshida's wife Mariko Okada; Natsuki, the granddaughter Aï raised; and Miwa, Aï's long lost daughter who abandoned Natsuki at birth and, because she has amnesia, is nearly void of memories. Only one word still echoes in Miwa's memory—Hiroshima. In search of healing, the three women travel to Hiroshima.

Admission is free. The film, which has English subtitles, runs two hours and nine minutes. For more information, call the Carnegie Mellon Information Desk at 412-268-2107.

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10/27/03/mgc