Kill Bill saw the beginning of The Bride’s (Uma Thurman) revenge mission, and her fight against O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) was not only one of the best of both Kill Bill movies but a subtle detail in it makes it even better. Quentin Tarantino’s career as a filmmaker began in 1992 with the crime movie Reservoir Dogs, which introduced the audience to his peculiar narrative and visual style and prepared them for the amount of violence and blood that all his movies would feature, and since then, he has explored a variety of genres in his works. In 2003, Tarantino surprised viewers with a two-part martial arts movie titled Kill Bill.
The Kill Bill movies tell the story of Beatrix Kiddo a.k.a. The Bride, an assassin described as “the deadliest woman in the world” who after waking up from a coma four years after being shot, embarks on a revenge mission against her former boss and lover, Bill (David Carradine). However, before she gets to him, The Bride also gets her revenge against her former colleagues from the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad: O-Ren Ishii, Vernita Green (Viva A. Fox), Budd (Michael Madsen), and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah). Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released six months after the first movie and both ended up being a commercial and critical success, with The Bride becoming one of Tarantino’s most memorable characters.
In the end, The Bride fulfilled her mission and managed to kill Bill and reunite with her daughter, BB, and she also got rid of the rest of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, though not all of them were killed, as is the case of Elle Driver. One of the most memorable fight scenes was the one between The Bride and O-Ren in the first Kill Bill movie, and it’s made better by a warning from O-Ren about The Bride not lasting long in a fight against her.
Kill Bill: Why O-Ren Ishii Was A Dangerous Opponent
When O-Ren Ishii (codename: Cottonmouth) was a child, she witnessed the Yakuza murder her parents, so she took revenge by killing the Yakuza boss after being trained as an elite assassin and took his place as the leader of this criminal group. O-Ren Ishii also led the Crazy 88, her personal army, who The Bride had to fight before getting to O-Ren. Although the Crazy 88 were incredibly skilled, The Bride quickly dispatched them, and after killing Gogo Yubari, O-Ren’s young associate, she finally met with her former Deadly Viper colleague in the garden. O-Ren asked The Bride about her sword and told her she hoped she saved her energy, otherwise she “might not last five minutes”. This was a subtle and clever piece of foreshadowing in Kill Bill, though it went differently for O-Ren as her fight with The Bride lasted exactly four minutes and 59 seconds.
O-Ren’s preferred method of killing was decapitation, this after she killed two of the Yakuza’s former leader's henchmen this way, and in an ironic twist, The Bride nearly decapitated her, as she sliced off the top of O-Ren’s head. O-Ren was one of the most skilled members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, as she was a highly proficient swordswoman thanks to many years of practice, was a highly capable sharpshooter and combatant, had very quick reflexes and noteworthy speed, and on top of all that, she was a criminal genius. O-Ren was able to keep The Bride on her toes and heavily injured her, but ultimately, The Bride was faster and managed to kill her under five minutes, proving O-Ren right, though in The Bride’s favor. Quentin Tarantino pays a lot of attention to the smallest details in his movies, and this one from the fight between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill is one of the most clever ones, and it makes the scene even better.