Like a distillation of all wise, ancient and deadly martial arts masters in countless earlier movies, Pai Mei waits patiently for eons on his hilltop until he is needed for a movie. Pai Mei, whose hair and beard are long and white and flowing, like a character from the pages of a comic book, is another example of Tarantino's method, which is to create lovingly structured episodes that play on their own while contributing to the legend. Pai Mei is a harsh and uncompromising teacher, and the Bride (whose real name, by the way, is Beatrix Kiddo) sheds blood during their unrelenting sessions. Pai Mei, who lives on the top of a high, lonely hill reached by climbing many stairs, was Bill's master, and in a flashback, Bill delivers his protege for training. In "Volume 2," she meets another Asian legend, the warrior master Pai Mei, played by Gordon Liu. If in your journey you should encounter God, God will be cut." He presented it without modesty: "This my finest sword. Much of her success came because she was able to persuade the legendary swordmaker Hattori Hanzo ( Sonny Chiba) to come out of retirement and make her a weapon. Fox) and O-Ren Ishii ( Lucy Liu), not to mention O-Ren's teenage bodyguard Go-Go Yubari ( Chiaki Kuriyama) and the martial arts killer team known as the Crazy 88. That involved extended action sequences as she battled Vernita Green ( Vivica A. The Bride of course improbably survived the massacre, awakened after a long coma, and in the first film set to avenge herself against the Deadly Vipers and Bill. (Bill is deeply offended that she plans to marry a used record store owner and lead a normal life.) He's played by David Carradine in a performance that somehow, improbably, suggests that Bill and the Bride had a real relationship despite the preposterous details surrounding it. Bill was responsible - Bill, who she confronts on the porch of the chapel for a conversation that suggests the depth and weirdness of their association. That's one of the ways he gives his movies a mythical quality the characters don't talk in mundane everyday dialogue, but in a kind of elevated geekspeak that lovingly burnishes the details of their legends, methods, beliefs and arcane lore.įlashbacks remind us that the pregnant Bride and her entire wedding party were targeted by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad in a massacre at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel. There is a lot of explaining in the film Tarantino writes dialogue with quirky details that suggest the obsessions of his people. The movie opens with a long closeup of The Bride ( Uma Thurman) behind the wheel of a car, explaining her mission, which is to kill Bill. He isn't copying, but transcending there's a kind of urgency in the film, as if he's turning up the heat under his memories. Web sites have already enumerated his inspirations - how a sunset came from this, and a sword from that. The movie is a distillation of the countless grind house kung-fu movies Tarantino has absorbed, and which he loves beyond all reason.
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