The Bride VS O-Ren Ishii. VISA 1500 Assignment #4

Olivia Roberts

November 23^rd, 2021

Terryl Atkins

VISA 1500 Fall 2021

VISA 1500 Assignment #4 Part A

The photo presented is a scene from the 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Volume 1. The scene features Beatrix Kiddo ( portrayed by Uma Thurman), and O-Ren Ishii (portrayed by Lucy Liu), preparing themselves for a battle to the death.

The scene is shot in a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1, which is the mainstream standard for cinema films. Thurman and Liu’s characters are taking their own fighting stances from either side of the screen, allowing the audience to view their stances in a single shot. The winter setting provides a cool colour palette, contrasting against Thurman’s yellow suit that’s been stained with blood, (though her warm colours are somewhat desaturated to fit the outside atmosphere of the scene).

In terms of the pacing, the action sequence is fairly steady. This allows the audience to comprehend the actors movements and the impacts of their weapons. Throughout the fight, there’s a use of invisible cuts whenever the weapons clash or make contact with the opponents body. The main weapon of choice for both women is the Japanese katana. Due to the choice of weaponry, the action requires the combatants to get close in each others space to land a hit, (as opposed to a long range gun fight or shoot out seen in most action films, excluding the superpower/superhero genre).

Compared to earlier confrontations in the film, (such as the infamous Crazy 88 fight scene), the Beatrix VS O-Ren Ishii battle isn’t particularly violent in a gory sense, with the exception at the end where Beatrix gets the final blow on O-Ren Ishii. The violence in this scene has a sense of elegance to it than the chaotic carnage of the previous fights.

Both Beatrix Kiddo and O-Ren Ishiii are former female assassins who we’re part of the same squad. O-Ren Ishii herself became the lone female leader of her yakuza group. However, because both women are skilled in Japanese swordsmanship, O-Ren Ishii herself feels some resentment towards Beatrix. O-Ren Ishii is described as “half Japanese, half Chinese-American”, while Beatrix is a white woman. As O-Ren Ishii says during the fight, “Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords. You might not be able to fight like a samurai, but you can at least die like a samurai”.

Kill Bill is a multi-genre film, with both Western and Eastern influences. The film can be seen as a tribute to martial arts films that came from Japan, China, (specifically Hong Kong cinema), and Korea. Tarantino stating, “If I’m going to do something that begs to be done in the vein of a Japanese Yakuza movie or Hong Kong Triad movie, I’m gonna do it like that”, end quote.

Kill Bill: Volume 1 had an estimated budget of $30 million. It has a total gross of $180 million, with about $70 million coming domestically in North America. So the film was successful and shows that there was a market for not just female lead action films, but martial art films as well.

That being said, Tarantino has come under fire for his streak of violence in his films. While I couldn’t find any evidence of Kill Bill Volume 1 influencing real-life violence, Tarantino does make it clear from past interviews that there’s a difference between fantasy, over-the-top violence in a film and real-life events of violence, with the mindset being “its just a movie”.

Cited Sources

A Matter of Film. “What Tarantino Teaches Us About Violence”. YouTube. Oct 1^st, 2018. 13:13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VamCxXFpvnk.

“Kill Bill: Vol. 1”. IMDB. Accessed November 20^th, 2021. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/.

MTV. “Quentin Tarantino is a ‘Cheerleader’ for Violence in Cinema| MTV News. YouTube. Dec 22^nd, 2015. 4:35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5luBQ3pCXU.

Nathan, Ian. ‘I don’t really consider myself an American filmmaker…’ “Kill Bill: Volumes 1 and 2”. Quentin Tarantino: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work Unofficial and Unauthorised. 98-113. London, United Kingdom: White Lion Publishing.

Nostalgia Fan. “Quentin Tarantino argues about movie violence”. YouTube. Apr 7^th, 2013. 4:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EEpTrPb0-c.