Report 6 - T4 - MAN AND NATURE (POCAHONTAS AND PRINCESS MONONOKE) PDF

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How these movies portrays the relationship between the nature and the human kind. How it needs to be preserved and protected....

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REPORT 6 – MAN AND NATURE

SYNOPSIS – POCAHONTAS Pocahontas is a 1995 animated musical historical drama film focusing on the life of Pocahontas, a Native American woman. It depicts a fictionalized version of her historical experience with Englishman John Smith and the Virginia Company's Jamestown settlers. Walt Disney Feature Animation produced the film, which was released on June 16, 1995 by Walt Disney Pictures. The main characters of the movies are Pocahontas, John Smith, Chief Powhatan and Governor Ratcliff.

The Susan Constant, a ship transporting English settlers from the Virginia Company, sails from London to the New World in 1607. In the Powhatan tribe in Tsenacommacah, Virginia, Pocahontas, the beautiful daughter of Chief Powhatan, fears being potentially wed to Kocoum, a courageous warrior whom she sees as too serious for her own free-spirited nature. Governor Ratcliffe, the voyage's selfish leader, has Jamestown established in a wooded clearing and immediately has the crewmen mine for gold as part of his scheme to bring him riches and status. John sets out to search the forest, where he comes across Pocahontas. Despite Powhatan's instructions to stay away from the Englishmen after Kocoum and the other warriors involve them in a fight, they soon bond, intrigued by each other's worlds, and end up falling in love. When John tells Pocahontas that his men and he are here to find gold, she tells him that there is no gold.

Pocahontas's best friend, Nakoma, learns her friendship with John and alerts Kocoum. Ratcliffe also hears about John's encounters with Pocahontas and threatens John with death if he spares the natives he encounters. Later, John and Pocahontas meet with Grandmother Willow and agree to bring peace between the colonists and the tribe. Kocoum and Thomas witness John and Pocahontas share a kiss. Kocoum, enraged, threatens and tries to kill John, but Thomas intervenes with his musket, shooting and killing Kocoum. Before the tribesmen arrive to arrest John and retrieve Kocoum's body, John orders Thomas to leave. Powhatan declares war on the English, starting with John's execution at sunrise, enraged by Kocoum's death.

Thomas informs the English settlers of John's arrest. Ratcliffe then gathers his troops to fight, using this as an opportunity to annihilate the tribe and find their nonexistent gold. The same night, Powhatan also orders his men to prepare for battle. Pocahontas meets Grandmother Willow in a distressed state, and Meeko gives her John's compass. Pocahontas notices that the spinning arrow from John's compass is the same one she saw in her dream, leading to her fate. Powhatan and his tribe pull John to a cliff overlooking a clearing for execution in the morning.

Ratcliffe, on the other hand, leads the armed colonists to the cliff to battle Powhatan's warriors.

Pocahontas intervenes just as Powhatan is preparing to kill John, persuading him to end the war between the two parties and save John's life. Both sides stand down, and John is released, but when the unmoved Ratcliffe commands his men to strike, they resist. Enraged, Ratcliffe fires a musket at Powhatan, but John shields him and is hit instead. The settlers are furious, and they arrest Ratcliffe for injuring one of their own. The tribe nurses John back to health, but he must return to England to truly recover his wounds. Ratcliffe is now deported to England, where he will be prosecuted for his offences against the settlement. Pocahontas rejects John's invitation to join him as she chooses to return with her tribe to help preserve the peace. John departs without Pocahontas, but with the permission of Powhatan to return at any time. Pocahontas stands atop a cliff, watching the ship carrying John depart in the final scene of the film.

SYNOPSIS – PRINCESS MONONOKE Princess Mononoke is a 1997 Japanese epic fantasy film directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, and Dentsu. It was released by Toho. Princess Mononoke is a Japanese fantasy film set during the late Muromachi period. The main characters are Ashitaka, San also known as the Princess Mononoke, Lady Eboshi, Jiko-bo, Moro and the Forest Spirit.

A demon attacks an Emishi village in Muromachi Japan. Before it enters the village, the last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it, but the corruption curses his right arm. The curse gives him superhuman strength, but it will eventually kill him as it spreads throughout his body. The villagers learn that the demon was Nago, a boar god whose body had been poisoned by an iron ball trapped in it. Ashitaka is informed by the village's wise woman that he might find a remedy in the western lands Nago came from, but he would not be able to return to his homeland.

As he travels west, Ashitaka encounters Jiko-b, an opportunist posing as a monk who informs him that the Great Forest Spirit, a deer-like animal deity by day and a giant Daidarabotchi by night, may be of assistance. Nearby, men led by Lady Eboshi herd oxen to the town of Tataraba and repel an attack by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro. Riding one of the wolves is San, a human female. Ashitaka discovers in Tataraba that Eboshi founded the town by clearcutting forests in order to claim ironsand and manufacture iron, resulting in disputes with the forest gods and Asano, a local daimyo.

Tataraba is a shelter for social outcasts, including lepers working to make firearms, the one wounded Nago. San was raised by wolves and resents mankind, according to Eboshi. San infiltrates Tataraba with the intention of killing Eboshi, but Ashitaka intervenes, unveiling the curse to the townspeople and knocking Eboshi and San out. A villager shoots him, but the curse gives him enough power to take San out of the village. San awakens and prepares to destroy the fragile Ashitaka, but pauses as he tells her she is beautiful. After the Forest Spirit saves his life, she agrees to believe him.

To save the forest, a boar clan headed by the blind god Okkoto aims to invade Tataraba. Eboshi teams up with Jigo, a government agent, to assassinate the Forest Spirit, intending to send the god's head to the Emperor in exchange for Lord Asano's safety. The head of the Forest Spirit, according to legend, grants immortality. When Ashitaka regains consciousness, he discovers Tataraba besieged by Asano's samurai. The boar clan is wiped out in battle, and Okkoto's wounds corrupt him. Okkoto is duped by Jiko-bo's men into leading them to the Forest Spirit. San attempts to save Okkoto but becomes engulfed in his demonic deceit. The Forest Spirit euthanizes Okkoto and Moro, though Ashitaka saves her.

Eboshi decapitates it as it turns into the Daidarabotchi. It bleeds ooze that spreads over the ground, destroying everything it comes into contact with. The Spirit's head is stolen by Jiko-bo. Moro's head comes to life and bites Eboshi's right arm off, but she survives. Following Tataraba's evacuation, Ashitaka and San track down Jiko-bo and recover the head, which they return to the Forest Spirit. The Spirit dies but its form washes over the land and heals it, and Ashitaka's curse is lifted. San tells Ashitaka that he will see her in the forest if he returns to help restore Tataraba. Eboshi promises to make the town a happier place. A kodama emerges from the undergrowth as the forest begins to regrow.

ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENT (POCAHONTAS) Pocahontas shows how her position as a princess of colour contributes to the relationship between man and nature. The male characters' destruction and ownership of land that does not belong to them exemplifies the argument of man overpowering the nature in the film. The film demonstrates the strong links between male domination not just within human social order but also in relation to the natural structure of the environment. The destruction and colonization of Native land by British soldiers is the central conflict in the film Pocahontas.

Ratcliffe not only tells the men to go gold mining, but he also declares his ownership the land and mountains. The immediate impact of this invasion on the natural environment is directly proportional to the extent to which men's power can be destructive if not restrained. The film Pocahontas strongly demonstrates the point

that Englishmen's desire to destroy and seize what is not theirs can only be harmful to the environment. This destruction includes digging holes, disrupting the landscape, and chopping down trees, all of which show a disregard for the land and nature that resides in the area. The settlers led by the governor came here specifically to look for gold and other resources. They just took for granted that all of the resources they discovered would be used to satisfy human needs. Humans used land as a means to make money. The governor couldn't wait to claim the land and call it Jamestown, so he cleared the field of trees.

The Indians follow an environmental ethic that stresses the importance of treating nature with respect and living in harmony with it. Humans have no special status in nature and should not be elevated to the top of the chain. What humans should do is go out into nature and let nature be our guide, restoring us to a simpler and purer state of being in the past, and responding intuitively to nature's beauty. We should not be so greedy as to force or overthrow our thoughts on nature. Nature's rules must be followed and maintained in order for us to live in peace with it. Only by doing so, humans will return to a divine state of “man and nature as one”.

ANALYSIS OF CONTENT (PRINCESS MONONOKE) The film is set in a world where nature and man conflict violently. Environmental relationships are discussed in detail and, arguably, with some fairly strong symbolism. The gist is that natural resource exploitation causes a division between humans and nature. Princess Mononoke, is the human embodiment of nature. Lady Eboshi, the leader of Irontown, an urban village that has declared war on the forest that surrounds it. She wants to completely destroy the Forest Spirit, nature as in this context, in order to continue constructing for the good of her people.

The Forest Spirit's bond with those around it in the movie is close to man's relationship with nature. The humans' desire to destroy this spirit in order to advance their culture is an egocentric and relatable concept. Humans are willing to destroy this entity in order to ensure their own survival, despite the fact that they are completely unaware of the very real and ecologically destructive consequences of their actions.

Princess Mononoke perfectly encapsulates the detrimental consequences of destroying nature for financial gain. Several environmental concerns are depicted in Princess Mononoke during the industrial and agricultural eras. Excessive demand for wood, for example, contributes to deforestation, resulting in ecological imbalance and habitat destruction for woodland animals. Humans are not adequately caring about the ecosystem and are wasting natural resources in an unsustainable manner.

In the film, humans cutting down the forest for order unleash supernatural forces of destruction. As a result, the forest gods create threats, causing humans to turn offensive by increasing their exploitation and developing more weapons. As a result, the forest gods became more corrupted and destructive, intensifying the conflict. In other way, the more we destroy the nature the more the consequences we will be facing in the future.

As the film nears its conclusion, which takes the form of a brutal war between humans and nature, images of destruction are intersected with images of purity. The earth has returned to its natural state, echoing the concept of man's cyclical relationship with nature, after all the chaos, the environment has returned to its natural state in a disturbing manner, meaning that there is only one outcome to this war. The conclusion does not provide a universal solution to the dispute, but rather suggests that environmental preservation must be implemented so that humans will profit from nature. Besides, the film also depicts that industrialization isn't all bad, but the way humans defend their industries with violence constantly disrupts the balance between humans and nature.

ANALYSIS ON LEGAL CONTEXT

The Ministry of Environment and Water regulates the mining and production of mineral resources in Malaysia. The National Mineral Industry Transformation Plan 2020–2030 was recently released by the ministry, and it outlines the government's plans to re-establish the National Mineral Council to strengthen regulatory coordination between the federal and state governments and oversee the mineral industry's integrated production. The Mineral Development Act of 1994, as well as other state laws and regulations are the primary regulatory framework for mineral exploration and extraction. The Mineral Development Act of 1994 establishes the Federal Government's authority over mineral exploration and mining inspection and control. Prospecting mine permits and licenses, as well as mining leases and certificates, come under the jurisdiction of each state's mining-related laws. By proposing a Model State Mineral Enactment, the National Mineral Policy sought to harmonize the various state legislations. To date, ten of Malaysia's thirteen states have implemented the Model State Mineral Enactment without making any changes to their state legislation known as the State Mineral Enactment. 1

It is essential to have laws that govern the mining industry as unregulated mining activity can be detrimental to the environment. The damage caused by illegal bauxite mining in Pahang, Malaysia, is an example of this. Back in 2015, widespread 1 (Uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com, 2021) accessed 20 April 2021.

environmental disruption, including red dust coating roads and polluted waterways, posed health risks to mine workers and communities in the region. During heavy rains, rivers and sea water between Pantai Balok and Pantai Batu Hitam turned red due to largely unchecked bauxite mining activities. 2

On the issue of timber extraction Environmental Impact Assessment also known as EIAs are needed. Landscape-wide issues as well as the effects of on-site processing facilities that are necessary for the scale and complexity of forest management must be taken into consideration. Prior to the start of forest operations in the Peninsular Malaysia PRF and the forest management areas of Sabah and Sarawak, EIAs must be completed. EIAs are carried out in Peninsular Malaysia in compliance with the Environmental Quality Act 1974, taking into account the ecological diversity and its related principles, water supplies, soils, and rare and fragile ecosystems and landscapes, as well as the effects of on-site production facilities, if any are present. While in Sabah, the Forest Management Plan and EIA Guidelines for Logging and Forest Clearance Activities of 2002 are both reviewed.3

When it comes to illegal deforestation, the government should make every effort to enforce tighter regulations. These illegal logging groups don't seem to be facing any drastic consequences. By imposing harsh fines and prison sentences, they may be deterred from engaging in this activity. Aside from that, the government should provide more funds to local and committed environmental organizations so that they can use their resources to address the issue.

2 Aruna Pakirisamy, 'Concerns Raised About Environmental Impact Of Increased Mining Activities' (The Star Online, 2021) accessed 20 April 2021. 3 'Malaysia | Forest Legality' (Forestlegality.org, 2021) accessed 20 April 2021....