So foggy days lately, hence low visibility.
I went for a run for the first time in three months, finally. The weather allowed it (or more like fulfilled my personal requirements). Felt good as always, even if it felt a bit heavy after such a long break. Need to do this more, supposedly brings health benefits.
Androids against robots for mankind
I decided to start a new video game, this time a much praised one named Nier: Automata. I knew nothing about the game (or anything related to the Drakengard game series it belongs to), but after some eight hours of playing, I must say that it does have some original – or should I say, retro – ideas mixed into the game play, which is really refreshing. The story seems really interesting as well.
Battling some boss in Nier: Automata.
The graphics are rather glitchy even for a PS4 game and I even managed to crash the game two times, though I suspect the culprit being online network features that can be turned off. And sure, the main protagonist (an android cleverly named 2B) is dressed up like some gothic lolita doll ready to attend a masquerade ball, but I guess looks don’t matter on the battlefield against robots?
Oh, and one thing that stood out right away is the music, which reminds me a bit of Ghost in the Shell’s soundtrack and probably some other influences I can’t think of now.
More old movie screenings
I’ve also saw a total of three movies at Kino Regina. First was an old Japanese one The Life of Oharu (1952), which followed a noble woman’s string of constant unfortunate twists of life during the Edo period. Good movie, probably also the first movie I’ve now seen by Kenji Mizoguchi.
Old Finnish poster of The Life of Oharu.
Another movie was They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), which received nine Oscar nominations. Based on a book of the same name, it told a story of a dance marathon during the Great Depression, where broke and unemployed contestants dance around the clock for spectators for exchange of free meals and a chance to win a money prize. Never quite seen a movie like this before, glad I did.
Old Finnish movie poster of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
The third movie was Top Secret! As usual with most KAVI‘s screenings, the reels were original theatrical copies shown during its original release back in the 80s. The movie was a problematic one to the Finnish authority film censorship back then for making fun of Soviet states, but it didn’t get fully banned. The most interesting moment in the film copy was when the already in place Finnish subtitles for a parody national anthem song of East Germany was censored by adding a bunch of X-characters over them.
Well, might as well throw in this post all the movie posters of the movies I saw this week!
What else? I edited a Wikipedia article for the first time (it was about a venue that was missing the fact it doesn’t exists anymore). Contribution!