Rosie Knight: When I went to see Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2? What was your initial reaction to film and to Lucy Liu’s assassin turned crime boss, O-Ren Ishii? Today, we’re going to talk about how this scene, perhaps the height of O-Ren’s power works, what influenced its contraction, and what influence it had on us and other viewers. No other member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad has a life and motivations so completely unrelated to the Bride no other character has so much screen time and even moments of triumph. This scene and her speech within it are unique in the film. After one of them protests, she cuts off his head. When O-Ren assumes control of the Tokyo Yakuza, she hosts a party for all the bosses who have become her captains.
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Unlike the Bride, however, she has a colder and much more complete mastery of scene and character, controlling not just her private army, the Crazy 88, but even leading the Bride in their final fight. Like the Bride, O-Ren is framed as a mythic figure–her backstory is the shared during the film’s only animated segment– and she is frequently shot from below, gazing down on her domain. There is perhaps only one character who comes close to matching the Bride’s loving treatment by Tarantino, and that’s Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii.
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Tarantino also calls it a love letter to the colour blonde–to the Bride, Uma Thurman’s hair and the figure she casts in that Bruce Lee inspired yellow and black tracksuit. The film, both volumes, is a love letter to samurai and western films and the relationship the two genres share. Kill Bill volume one was release in 2003.