“It’s my arm now. I’ll do what I want with it.” — Pai Mei
Movies are like video games. They both can take years to create, but I’m not only talking about the the cool camera angles or the amazing graphics. I’m talking about the story and the characters that will entertain the crowd. Both movies and games have a protaganist. For example, in the game Mario, we have an italian character as our leader who will carry us on a journey through different worlds to find the stolen Princess Peach. He encounters many bosses to reach the evil Bowser. While Mario is our protaganist in the game, our protaganist in Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 is a young woman named Beatrix Kiddo. In the film, Beatrix will travel to different “worlds” from the deserts in the United States to the buddhist-ruled mountaintops in China. Like Mario, she must defeat several smaller bosses to reach her main enemy known as Bill.
Like many video games, Beatrix will face more than one boss during her journey. In the end, she will face the final boss known as Bill, the man who has destroyed her chance of ever having a normal life. Some of her opponents will be fast to slay, but others will be tricky and irritating, causing someone as a gamer to throw the controller across the room or even quit the game. Fortunately, Beatrix does continue on like Mario and is given the chance to face her own Bowser, but like most video games, your character must grow and become stronger. Without these events, Link, a hero from the video games Zelda, might not be able to succeed in his next challenge because he has not required the right skills. For Beatrix Kiddo, she develops as a character from her experience with one of her “opponents” that she must overcome. His name…Pai Mei.
“Your swordsmanship is amateur at best.” — Pai Mei
Pai Mei, like most challenging parts in video games, are first introduced to the gamer with a quick flashback or a scene where the boss’s character is introduced. Like the japanese-developed game Kingdom Hearts, the gamer is introduced to a boss at the beginning with a short clip of Sora, the protagonist, seeing his best friend be taken away by a large creature. In Kill Bill Vol. 2, the same appoach is created with the flashback of Bill telling Beatrix about his training with the Caucasian-hating kung fu master named Pai Mei.
In the scene, we learn about his powers, his personality, and his history. Quentin Tarantino wanted his audience to grasp the character of Pai Mei and all of his attributes from the story Bill tells to Beatrix. In the script of Kill Bill Vol. 2, Tarantino originally wrote that “footage from Old Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Flick that feature…the old, white-haired, white-eyebrowed Villian ‘Pas Mei’” should be shown while Bill tells the story. Even though the footage was not included in the finished film, the character of Pai Mei can still be grasped by his audience. From the story, we learn that Pai Mei has “infinite power” and that he is “inconsolable.” All of this information will help our young warrior overcome the challenges the kung fu master has for her. Once the scene comes to a close, it is the last time we will hear Pai Mei being mentioned until the time has come to meet him in person. It does not take long for this encounter to arrive.
“Your anger amuses me.” — Pai Mei
In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the boss named Darknut is the opponent that makes you start over 29 times, try one more time, and call it a day. In Kill Bill Vol. 2, Pai Mei is our Darknut. The first encounter Beatrix has with Pai Mei is quite a scene. Paid Mei, like most video games, is presented to us as a villian would be in a video game. A low shot by the camera is used to show Pai Mei’s dominance over Beatrix. The legendary master is illustrated on stones and higher up than his subordinate. Also, we have an over-the-shoulder shot to help create this picture.
After a hero meets his villain, the enemy usually says a meaningful line such as “ready for your death,” or “I can’t wait to take you down,” like the characters in the Japanese video game Dragon Ball Z. Instead of using one of these lines, Pai Mei bluntly says “Your Mandarin is lousy.” Ouch. After lambasting Beatrix with harsh criticisms, Pai Mei quickly transitions his role from a critic to a kung fu master. He asks her to demonstrate her powers like Master Shifu does to Po in Kung Fu Panda. Pai Mei even allows his new student to try and “strike a blow” on him, promising he will bow and call her master if she does. Beatrix Kiddo, like Po, has not acquired the skills and fails miserably. After being defeated by Pai Mei, the skill she must obtain from this level is introduced to the audience as the Three inch punch technique.
Pai Mei never allows Beatrix to back down from her training. During her time with Pai Mei, a connection can be made with the 70’s Kung Fu classic films of the master training his students. Quentin Tarantino uses the same techniques during Beatrix’s training with Pai Mei.
“If you want to eat and sleep like a human…pick up those chopsticks.” — Pai Mei
Pai Mei pushes Beatrix to her limit, for he does not want to let the hero journey to the final boss and get killed. He believes in his student to carry the water buckets up the stone path, punch through the wood with the Three inch punch, and to master numerous styles of kung fu; however, Pai Mei vows to teach his student the importance of manners. When Beatrix’s hand is swollen and barely able to hold chopsticks, she decides to put them onto the table and eat with her hands. At this moment, Pai Mei grabs her bowl of white rice and throws it on the ground, saying, “if you want to eat like dog, you can live and sleep outside like a dog.”
While this may seem rude, Pai Mei is teaching Beatrix an important lesson in life: Even when life seems impossible, it’s possible. Pai Mei quickly gives her the choice of eating his bowl of white rice with chopsticks or eating the dirty rice on the ground. Beatrix painfully picks up the chopsticks with both hands and eats the white rice, pleasing Pai Mei. It’s at this moment that Pai Mei sees this hero is ready to begin the next level of her journey to killing Bill.
Without Pai Mei, Beatrix Kiddo would have never been able to escape being buried alive and would have never been able to kill Bill with the Five-Point-Palm Heart Exploding Technique, which has never been taught to a student. It is only through the teachings of Pai Mei that allows Beatrix to reach the final level of her journey and face her own Bowser.
