Representation of Radical Environmentalism in Pom Poko and First Reformed

Abstract

In the age of social media and streaming platforms, the visuality of an idea has become much more important than before, including in the space of environmental activism. The representation of an ecoactivism idea campaigning for climate change, including the more radical practice of those activisms, is now communicated mainly not with written words but through the audio-visual medium of film or vlog to the audience. In the realm of cinema, films are worth analyzing regarding their representation of radical environmental activism Pom Poko (1994) directed by Isao Takahata, and First Reformed (2017) by Paul Schrader, because of their originality and nuanced representation of radical environmental activism. Through these films, we can see not only the surface representation of radical environmentalism but also the philosophy and reason behind it that usually has been overlooked. The authors chose both films to highlight that radical environmentalists' ideology and actions have been depicted relevantly since 1994 and continue in 2017 and beyond. Using hermeneutics reading of the text and Bordwell’s four levels of meanings, we found that the cinema, specifically fictional films, can be an effective tool to represent the nuanced idea of environmentalism and radical environmentalism as much as its documentary counterpart.