The short video that I decided to watch was The Weeping Demon. I had no idea what to expect, but the name really caught my attention. The first few minuntes into the video, my first thought was 'wow, this is kind of creepy'. But once I finally got to hear some dialogue I was able to understand what was going on. The man at the beginning is walking through a foggy desert with not many signs of vegetation in sight. When he encounters the demon, or Kami-which is a spirit, he finds out why the land looks the way that it does. It's because of mankind, which always seems to be the case. Nuclear bombs and missles cause fallout, and the fallout destroyed mother nature. Not only did mother nature become destroyed, but the the radiation caused the flowers to mutate and we see monterous dandelions. Two of the important themes in Shinto myth are purity and pollution. The land had obviously become polluted, and was no longer pure. The demon even states that mankind caused nature to vanish from the earth.. Nature is considered to be sacred, and mankind had managed to destroy it.
The demon goes on to tell the story about his life as a human, and how he didn't live it very purely. He would intentionally waste milk, and food to keep prices up. Wasting what nature gives is not living in harmony with nature. One of the Shinto Ethics is that emphasis is placed on actions that create harmonious relationships in home and society. In Shinto, everything is spiritual and because of that there is a continuity between humanity, nature, and spirits/gods. I believe that this short video depicted this continuity, and maybe if the demon had led a more pure life he wouldn't be a kami who happens to be a suffering demon.
