Time for some fleeting thoughts, I’m testing myself do I really have anything to say on a more frequent basis. Here it goes.
The weather in Helsinki is dark, cold and snowy as one would expect at this time of year, although walking on ice is not something I haven’t been able to do yet (well, I could, but I’m not risking it). This winter, I’ve kept the temperature indoors at a conservative 18 to 19 degrees celcius. I’m not directly saving money this way (central heating), but it is one symbolic way of being mindful of the energy situation in general.
Justice and dating in Tokyo (aka Persona 5)
From there I can smoothly turn my attention to video gaming (which is not energy efficient). Though the primary reason for playing video games is to take a break from the real world, relax and have fun, they can also prove to be major time sinks and often leave the feeling “I could have used my time more wisely”. Especially for players like me who tend to finish a started game even to the bitter end once a certain amount of invested hours have already passed.
In this case I’ve just completed Persona 5 (PS3), a popular JRPG where teenagers in Tokyo fight injustice in a parallel universe (essentially in people’s cognition, I’m not going to try explain that). According to the game’s save file, it took me 189 hours. Not as much as I’ve spend playing Civilization 5 and 6 for instance, but that is still a reasonable chunk of time.
Did I learn anything from it I can use in real life? Maybe something about Japanese society and life (though I’m rather familiar with it already), vaguely learned some new mythical characters from different civilizations (they were monsters in the game) and most importantly that one’s free time should be used wisely to meet long term goals (something I ultimately didn’t do by playing the game this long).
Plus of course now having insights of the game that might be handly in very geeky circles, but most likely not.
Finland was mentioned in Persona 5. Celebrate good times, come on!
Still, the graphics were great for a PS3 game, the game mechanics were slick, dialog sometimes even funny between the characters, the jazzy music tolerable considering the length of the game and the story was decent enough to care about.
The game also had subplots of dating (something typical for a Persona game). At the time I started playing this game, I was reading Rob Halford‘s autobiography and decided to name my character after him and made him prefer hanging out with boys over girls, but unfortunately the game didn’t consider the possibility of dating the same sex.
For instance, there was a school festival scene where I could march on stage and dare to reveal my true love and chose to name a male character, but ultimately the game didn’t allow it and made a joke of it (as with the many other attempts). Honestly speaking I’m wasn’t surprised by this, but it was interesting to see how the game was scripted to handle these situations.
Despite or because of the time spent on the game, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who isn’t into JRPGs. I wasn’t exactly the game’s target group (I’m way past my teenage years), but I played it more out of curiosity (and boredom), something that applies to many other video games I’ve played these days, but more about that some other time.
Movies with distinct style
Taking a longer break from video gaming, I’ve been watching a variety of movies on Mubi and the big screen. It is always refreshing to see so many different styles of film making. Two movies worth mentioning here are both set in Tokyo.
The late Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s last film Like Someone in Love (2012) masterfully tells a simple story that happens within 24 hours involving a young prostitute, her jealous boyfriend and an elder client. Most of the story happens sitting a car, which apparently is the director’s trademark of sorts (I’ve seen Taste of Cherry earlier which followed a guy driving around the city asking for someone to bury him after he has committed suicide).
Respected Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu’s first color film Equinox Flower (1958) made a huge impression on me how well his very stiff, static way of filming spaces and dialog somehow works against expectations. Acting is at the point of actors being almost like robots, but then again exaggerates how constrained formal conversations can be in Japan, even within a family.
Here is a clip from Ozu’s movie that pretty much shows his style.
Spotting public art in Helsinki
As a random closing note, while taking a walk outside one day and took a not so usual route, I noticed on the way a tile relief by accident and started thinking maybe I should start photographing public art in Helsinki as an excuse for walking more in neighborhoods I usually don’t go to. There are hundreds of them, so it could keep me busy for awhile.
Helsinki was lots of public art I hardly pay attention to, this is a tile relief “Nursing” by Gunnar Finne (1939) at a now closed nursery academy building.
Well then, didn’t expect this post to be this much all over the place. Took me awhile to figure out a title for it!