Why did her father slap her?

so slapping your child on the face is not "improper behaviour"?
Anyway, I saw that she had socks on - I thought he was mad for getting her socks dirty, but thanks for clearing that up. It's an interesting custom that I would like to delve into further. Was foot-binding a custom there?


some need to go up 1 or down 1:
http://us.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=10088562

I work for a Japanese company, with many Japanese-American colleagues.
They have informed me that it WOULD be considered somewhat "improper"
to go outside barefoot, especially given the time frame (1966) and the
fact the father was very rigidly traditional.

Well then if what you say is true then the father would have a saw wrist if he ever met Barefoot Gen


My momma loved me but she died
Hud Bannon

you guys are precious, it's improper in most cultures in the world, specially middle classes.

ah ok, that explains some of the things I been wondering about the whole shoe issue.

Since Japan has different ways of doing things I wouldn't of known some of those things.

I know someone else would probably ask the same thing about this shoe thing as well.

But thanks for clearling up my question.

Well said.

That scene shocked me. This movie really did get to me at times.

Taeko was such a tragic character.

CINEMA CRAZED:
http://www.cinema-crazed.com/

What's noticable to me about this scene is how Taeko's stubbornness and fussiness, at first being made to out to dinner, then not being allowed to carry her sister's handbag (which she just earlier relinquished any claim to), draw out frustration in her mother and older sister, but not the father. He doesn't lose his patience with her, but waits patiently at the door. "Is Tae-bo not coming along?"

The scene is building and something is going to break. The fact that it is the father who strikes out, so suddenly and so violently (the child isn't merely slapped, she's hit and hit hard), makes this all the more shocking, and sad.

For anyone pondering the question of why Taeko's father slapped her, the reply given by Daniel Thomas is still the most accurate and well-rounded response to the question.

Like most Ghibli films, I have watched this numerous times and though I was born, brought up, and live in England, it was obvious on the first viewing that it was, as Daniel points out, a purely reflexive action and something her father deeply regretted (in the film Taeko mentions it was the only time her father ever hit her)

Discovering later that in the original Manga on which the film is based, this scene is extended as it shows the father unable to sleep as he reflects on his actions.

As a child of the seventies, growing up in the UK, physical punishment of children was very much within the spectrum of culturally accepted actions, both in the home and at school - of course, today, things are very different, but judging the father's actions in simple knee-jerk moralistic terms, without a cultural and historical framework does in my opinion do a disservice to the original writer and the film itself.

Her father was a product of his environment and most of us could not imagine having to grow up in Japan during WWII and the deep psychological and physical scars this would have left. This coupled with a Japanese society in the sixties that was very rigid and disciplinarian, is essential to understanding the actions of Taeko's father.

As the much quoted opening sentence of the 1953 novel The Go-Between novel by L. P. Hartley reminds us:

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."

This scene only really shocked US audiences, in Europe and Japan nobody really batted an eyebrow over it (or the bit about periods, either). I suppose American just has more strong liberals and strong conservatives and people in other countries are more centrist more often.

English Language Anime: Dub it, don't pervert it.

Replying to Venus30

But the truth is the character was asking for it, being sulky and disrespectful.

When you say ASKING FOR IT, do you mean, she knew based on her father's previous behavior towards her that she was stepping over the line, and that, by being disrespectful, she was probably going to get wallopped, and decided her rebellion was worth any punishment he could dish out -- even if it meant getting hit?

Or do you mean, she WANTED to get hit?


What happens in the meadow at dusk?
Nothing!Everything!

Lazy? How exactly were they affording that home and food? You're a simple person aren't you?

No human would stack books like that.- Dr Peter Venkman

i slapped him back, it took me five years but i did it.

Not necessarily. Maybe if she'd had many more prior negative experiences with her dad she might be, but one slap does not immediately make all the good memories disappear.

Seize the moment, 'cause tomorrow you might be dead.