O-Ren Ishii: Samurai of The Underworld
Hattori Hanzo
“Revenge is never a straight line.
It’s a forest. And like a forest
it’s easy to lose your way…to get
lost…to forget where you came in.”
As the first name on The Bride’s “Kill List,” O-Ren Ishii holds a significant yet complex role in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Her character dominates more than half of the movie. Tarantino’s enthusiasm for martial arts films meshes flawlessly with the elements of Japanese animation or “Japa-mation,” the Chinese cinema, and the Rockabilly American attitude which envelopes the various cultures of O-Ren Ishi. Such enthusiasm pays homage to the genres and sub-cultures that Tarantino himself so fondly cherishes. Tarantino brilliantly manipulates the various cinematography techniques of the three cultures to perfectly illustrate the Rise and Fall O-Ren Ishii.
O-Ren Ishii, the daughter of a Chinese-American Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps and a Japanese woman, is engineered to fit a story of revenge. At the age of 9, she witnesses the slaughtering of her parents at the hands of Japan’s cruelest Yakuza Boss, Matsumoto and his henchman. It should be noted that it’s Riki, Matsumoto’s right-hand man, who manages to impale the Sergeant and Matsumoto who kills O-Ren’s mother. Amidst the psychological damage of watching the demise of her parents, she manages to escape Matsumoto and his men. Although as she watches her livelihood burn into oblivion, she leaves behind something crucial at the door: her empathy.
Chapter 1: O-Ren’s Beginning
Because of her connection to Japanese culture and Quentin own personal fondness of Japanese cinematography, the use of animation to recount her traumatic childhood and her rise to power proves beyond fitting. Also known as “Japa-mation,” this genre of film has served millions of film-makers worldwide in replicating a vision to its fullest capacity without incurring the cost of utilizing real actors to fulfill the roles of the cartoon performers. It is worth mentioning that had O-Ren’s story, one inundated with violence and gore, been told in any other fashion, the movie would have attained a “NC-17” rating. Nonetheless, Tarantino recognizes the advantageous nature of Japanese animation and seeks out Production IG to produce his art. Because of this art, we are able to connect with O-Ren, feeling the pain that she feels. Through this, Quentin successfully highlights the intensity of actions and the depth of emotion that O-Ren must have endured as she watches her life and family perish in flames.
The animation also plays a notable role in illustrating her rise to power. As her mother’s blood seeps through the bed sheets and onto O-Ren’s face, she must suppress her emotions in order to stay hidden and alive. As O-Ren lay powerless under the bed from which her mother was killed by the unscrupulous Matsumoto, the drops of her mother’s blood washes her innocence away so that all that remained was a scathing desire to exact retribution. From that moment on, she is sworn to exact retribution for the crimes against her and her family, which determination is reflected boldly in her eyes.
At the age of 11, just two years after her parents’ death, O-Ren exacts her revenge. Knowing that Matsumoto is a child pedophile, she disguises herself as a schoolgirl. Atop the naked and unsuspecting Yakuza boss, O-Ren unyieldingly plunges her sword into his chest, intentionally delivering a slow and excruciating death. Using the now dead Matsumoto as a human shield, she brings his henchman to their knees in submission before blowing their brains out in what we can assume is her father’s old Desert Eagle Magnum. She satiates the moment and soon after sets her sight on a life of unwavering power and dominance. By aged 20, she becomes one of the world’s top assassins, making it clear that anyone who stands in her way will share the same fate as Matsumoto and his henchman.
Important to note is her placement throughout the animation. Initially, while underneath the bed unseen and unheard, she is utterly powerless as her parents are brutally executed by Matsumoto and his men. By the next scene, not only is she now on top of the bed, but she is in total command. She now has the upper hand over Matsumoto and his henchmen. From that moment forward, she aspires for power, which follows her well into adulthood.
Chapter 2: O-Ren’s FOIL
Even though Quintin Tarantino appreciates the various layers of cultural influence in his film, not everyone in Kill Bill or the world in general, necessarily concurs in the value of such racial and cultural blending. In fact, it’s O-Ren’s multicultural heritage that makes she and her parents a target of the Japanese mafia. Her father worked as an American general stationed in Japan. Although the time period is not all that clear, the notion that this took place around the period of World War II is not unreasonable. Further, it would logically flow that a woman of Japanese descent marrying an American-Chinese general would be controversial.
What would fuel the controversy even further is that during World War II, Japan was also at war with China. From the years 1937 to 1945, the Second Sino-Japanese War took place, proving to be the largest Asian war of the 20th century. The imperialist Japan invaded China in an effort to expand its military and political influence. As a result, they captured all of the then-Communist China’s ports and industrial centers killing somewhere between 10 to 20 million Chinese civilians in the process. It was not until America entered the war and aligned itself with our China that Japan’s incursions were brought to a halt. Tensions dating back to those troubling times remain today. The two countries still share a great deal of animosity toward one another. Therefore, it is no surprise that the idea of a Chinese-American marrying a Japanese person is not well received by either side.
O-Ren is fully aware that her heritage would prove her biggest hindrance to her rise in power. It is because of this that she swiftly beheads the boss Tanaka for his audacious outburst about his disdain for allowing a Chinese-American to lead Tokyo’s criminal underworld.
Her Response: She slices his friggin’ head off.
As she looks down at her underlings, she decries:
“As your leader, I encourage you — from time to time and always in a respectful manner, and with the complete knowledge that my decision is final — to question my logic. If you’re unconvinced a particular plan of action I’ve decided is the wisest, tell me so. But allow me to convince you. And I will promise you right here and now, no subject will be taboo…
except the subject that was just under discussion.”)
There is no denying O-Ren Ishii’s ability to become enraged on a moment’s notice. While 90 percent of the time, she plays it cool and reserved, she can snap like a twig without warning. She proudly bears Boss Tanaka’s severed head to the remaining Mob bosses, informing them that her superiority was indisputable.
Perhaps to rub salt into the wound or at least to further mesh culture and history into current day movie-making, Tarantino blends O-Ren’s Chinese heritage in the people O-Ren decides to hire. For example, the masks that the “Crazy 88” wear are a direct copy of the mask Bruce Lee wears as Kato in The Green Hornet. Bruce Lee, born of a Chinese-Caucasian mother and a Chinese father, undergoes his own cultural challenges to achieve notoriety. During his childhood, his hometown of Hong Kong was invaded by Japan. For three years and eight months, he was forced to live under Japanese occupation. O-Ren parallels Lee as someone of mixed cultural heritage that becomes flooded with Japanese interruption. Both rise to acclaim, despite the challenges placed before them.
Chapter 3: O-Ren’s Demise
The number “8” is also considered a lucky number in China. Because Eight, 巴Ba in Chinese, has the similar pronunciation with 发 (Fa, meaning wealth or fortune), this number is welcome amongst the Chinese people. O-Ren obviously wants wealth and fortune. That is the reason O-Ren surrounds herself with the “Crazy 88.”Although wealth and fortune are desirable, it has another affect of instilling arrogance and conceit. We see this in the scenes of her and Beatrix how those characteristics play out.
巴 “Ba” = The Number 8
沷 “Fa” = Wealth or Fortune
Although previous evidence suggests her dominion came by her own accord, it was actually Bill, the title character in Kill Bill, who seeks O-Ren out and places her on a pedestal. Just one year after the massacre of Beatrix’s wedding party, also known as the Massacre at Two Pines, Bill decides to fully support O-Ren “financially and philosophically” in her power struggle with the other Yakuza clans. Under his guidance, she becomes the “Queen of Tokyo’s Underworld,” allowing her desire for power to take precedent over her desire for justice. Bill instills in her sights of corruption that she regrettably chooses to follow. Placed on this pedestal, O-Ren fills herself with false ambition. She sees herself as Queen of Tokyo’s Underworld, ruler of them all, when it’s really Bill behind the curtain calling all of the shots.
When Bill hears that his favorite female assassin (code-named Black Mamba; real name Beatrix), decided to cast away her life of violence as one of his Viper Squad, he becomes enraged and calls on the remaining Vipers to kill her for retribution for his own heartbreak. Beatrix’s reason for leaving her life as an assassin spurns from the moment she finds out that she is pregnant. Wanting her daughter to grow up in a safe environment, Beatrix does what many mothers have done: she gives up her day job so that her child can grow up in a happy and stable environment. She decides to marry so that she can to devote her life to her new daughter and not to Bill. Unfortunately, O-Ren follows Bill’s command when she takes an active role in the massacre of the entire wedding party.
In addition to the Crazy 88, O-Ren hires Go-Go Yubari, a homicidal 17 year-old who dresses as a school girl. Her weapon of choice is a freaking meteor hammer. Meteor hammers were an archaic form of Chinese defensive weaponry which have commonly been used in martial arts films. Young and full of rage, the girl is bat-shit crazy. O-Ren chooses Go-Go as her personal bodyguard because she is a reminder of her ‘humble’ beginnings. Go-Go reminds O-Ren of herself at that age. It cannot be overlooked that an 11 year-old O-Ren dressed as a schoolgirl to lure Matsumoto to his death.
When Beatrix comes to O-Ren to seek her revenge, O-Ren sends Go-Go to fight her battle. Go-Go manages to wrap her chain around Beatrix’s neck nearly to the point of strangulation. Not a moment too soon, Go-Go gets just close enough that Beatrix manages to grab one of the nearby pieces of wood with some protruding dirty nails and impounds it into Go-Go’s temple, making Go-Go a Go-Gone. The significance of her death is that Go-Go represented the child inside of O-Ren. That is, the same child with fire burning in her eyes and a mind centered upon seeking justice for the crimes brought against her. Go-Go’s death represents a death to that little girl and her dream. No longer does O-Ren fight for what she knows is moral; she fights for what is so very wrong: Bill. It is in this time where the audience realizes that her path toward revenge strayed too far, perhaps beyond a point of return.
Beatrix does the unthinkable and defeats all of O-Ren’s protectors. It doesn’t make it any better that Beatrix is dressed in Bruce Lee’s same costume from Game of Death, his last film before his death. It is now Beatrix who deserves retribution for the crimes done against her, and O-Ren is the one standing in her way and deserving to die. Seconds before she is killed, O-Ren comes to terms with herself. She finally understands that her part in the Bride’s story is no different than the role of Matsumoto’s henchman. O-Ren put everyone related to her parents’ death at fault, and now she has placed herself in those same shoes.
For the fight scene between Beatrix and O-Ren, Tarantino implements the setting, the kimono, and the emotion from another one of his favorite Japanese Films, Lady SnowBlood. O-Ren walks out to the snowy garden for her battle with Beatrix. She erroneously assumes that Beatrix is too exhausted to fight her and that she will be an easy kill when she notes, “I bet you won’t last five minutes.” Within seconds of their battle, O-Ren manages to slice Beatrix in the back (perhaps stabbing her in the back for the second time). Assuming that she has extinguished Beatrix’s flame, O-Ren offers to her the noble gift of allowing her to die like a samurai. To her surprise, the bride miraculously gets up, finding strength to keep fighting. At this moment, something finally registers in O-Ren’s mind.
She sees something similar in Beatrix’s eyes. This something is a flame that can only be extinguished through vengeance. It is the same flame her own eyes experienced when she watched her house and family die at the hands of Matsumoto and his men. Tarantino’s extreme close-up shows the position that these characters are now in. O-Ren is compromised as her flame for justice conflicts with her desire to survive which requires that she kill Beatrix.
She has landed herself in the same position that Matsumoto’s henchmen land themselves in. Although they did not give the orders, they followed Matsumoto’s and take part in the killing of her parents and the burning of her home. She is just as at fault for the Bride’s death as everyone else. Everything was stripped away from Beatrix; her family, her daughter, her husband, and nearly her life. Just as Matsumoto strips everything away from O-Ren, Beatrix returns to exact her revenge and will stop at nothing to attain it.
She knows her time has come. Simultaneously shocked yet held in a state of admiration for Beatrix’s vigor, O-Ren does what no other opponent does before their death; she apologizes.
In the last moment’s before O-Ren’s death, we finally understand what Hattori Hanzo means in his allegory about revenge:
Revenge is never a straight line.
It’s a forest. And like a forest
it’s easy to lose your way…to get
lost…to forget where you came in.
This is a story about that someone who loses their way, gets lost, and forgets where they came in. However, O-Ren’s does not die in infamy. In the words of Bruce Lee’s, “Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” Hence by admitting her mistakes, we are able to forgive O-Ren. She gets to die with honor. She gets to die like a samurai.
