MovieChat Forums > Saiyûki (1978) Discussion > Remember the suffocating of a child... ?...

Remember the suffocating of a child... ?!

posted 16 years ago by UnlovedSeason
9 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone else remember this? I must have been eight or nine...

Anyway, the demons/bandits are terrorising a small town before Monkey and co. turn up to sort them out (as every episode!) and a young mother hides in a cupboard and stifles her baby/toddler for fear that they will be discovered due to its cries. After they are gone, to her abject horror she finds the child is dead – she has inadvertently smothered it.

Can this really have been in Monkey, a kids' programme on early evening? I remember being seriously upset! The woman's deranged distress will live with me forever. I might have been watching a movie instead, I suppose...

Anyone?

[–] raiden62 16 years ago

Yes it was a Monkey episode, possibly series 2-episode 21 "Mothers".

http://www.greatsage.net/monkey/series_two.html

I recall watching that episode when I was a youngster and still have that particular scene burned in my memory.

[–] UnlovedSeason 16 years ago

Not just me then! Thanks raiden62

[–] Mandyjam 16 years ago

Yes, I remember it well. Many of the themes of tragedy, loss, fear, greed, envy, jealousy, petty spite, reprisal etc are dealt with very realistically.

The tragic story of a parent accidentally suffocating its own child under circumstances of extreme fear, particularly when the safety of others is at stake has been told many times in different circumstance.

"great minds think differently"

[–] childish_noises 15 years ago

Wow this is one of most memorable episodes of his show that I ever saw. So surprising to find this topic on the board as it was something I was going to post :). Wasn't it the episode where a lady was a wasp?

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[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] muzilon 14 years ago

A disturbing childhood memory for me is Episode 1.4 where a servant boy is sucked inside the evil witch's magic gourd, followed by a shot of the poor kid screaming to be let out. The boy is never seen or mentioned again, but from the dialogue later on in the episode we infer that the trapped victims are melted in some sort of acid-like effect. Creepy.

[–] Ponies_in_Jumpers 9 years ago

I still remember that scene and I haven't seen it for many years. It was very emotional.

[–] doctorwatson 9 years ago

Something similar happened in the last episode of M*A*S*H with Hawkeye freaking out and a child being smothered. He has a breakdown and thinks the woman is shutting a chicken up I think?!

[–] NotFattyFatFatMcNumbnuts 9 years ago

Pretty much this, he was telling the woman to shut the chicken up, then when it's finally silent he realized she was actually holding her baby and had smothered it.
Still a tough scene to watch after all these years.