Forgotten Characters 4.3

Another week, another forgotten character to wax on about. Sometimes I think it’s not so much a character that’s forgotten as it is an actor who’s completely forgotten, so that any interesting character becomes something of collateral damage. It doesn’t help when you’re not a technically “big name” in a film where some big names are rubbing shoulders and I think that, perhaps, that’s what happens with

Lucy Liu in Kill Bill Vol. 1

as O-Ren Ishii

For the record, Kill Bill is my favourite Tarantino film – it’s an outrageous blend of disgusting gore and irreverent humour and it works, Uma Thurman is fabulous. But, my allegiances have never really been with the Bride, at least not for the first volume because I’ve always had a soft spot for Lucy Liu (who, I’ll maintain, was excellent in Charlie’s Angels). She plays O-Ren Ishii in Tarantino’s film, the first on the list. The introduction to O-Ren Ishii is my favourite of the lot. Liu is one of those actors who works well with expressions, the volume of her work here depends on emotion transferred not by words by her eyes and you don’t doubt the bio that the Bride gives her.

“At a time when I knew the least about my enemies the first name on my death list O-Ren Ishii was easiest to find but, of course, when one manages the difficult task of becoming queen of the Tokyo underworld one doesn’t keep it a secret – does it?”

The film is all about those quick moments that take you from the trite to the insaneand Liu has a sort of animalistic physicality so that imagining her as Queen of the underworld is believable even as you find it a bit comical as she moves from

 in a matter of minutes.

 It’s the run-up to her death that’s my favourite chapter. The Bride decapitates O-Ren’s army and, sure, it’s full of virtuoso and whatnot but it’s not the battle that gets me in that scene. It’s the part where The Bride realises that she might have underestimated her enemies. I love the banter between Uma and Lucy.

O-Ren: “You didn’t think it was going to be that easy, did you?”

The Bride: “You know, for a second there, yeah I did.”

O-Ren: “Silly rabbit...”

  

 

O-Ren/The Bride: “...Tricks are for kids.”

It’s such a perfect moment, not only does it underscore the zaniness of Tarantino Lucy gets to be awesome – just a few moments before her death.  I remember back when everyone was ruminating on a potential candidate for Catwoman I said Lucy Liu was the best choice, and I stand by that claim. She's agile, she an do pity and she fights like an animal.And, she's photogenic...which can never hurt.

Yeah, sure, O-Ren is a psycho murderess and what not, but I still feel a bit bad when she gets killed by that Hattori Hanzo sword. And, she gets a killer final line.

“That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword...”

      
So, sure, The Bride is an iconic character and whatnot - O-Ren Ishii is worth remembering...right?

March Bloodstones: Shoshanna and Bridget von Hammersmark in Inglourious Basterds

Even if Tarantino does not make my heart sing, I feel it’d be a bit ridiculous for me to dedicate a month to brave women and not include at least one of his characters. For all his almost farcical gratuitousness I will always praise him for his sharp characters. For most, Landa emerges as the strongest attribute of Inglourious Basterds, and considering his many quotable lines – or Waltz’s performance – I wouldn’t say no. But he’s not who I remember first when I think of Tarantino’s World War II that wasn’t....

...neither is Mélanie Laurent’s Shoshanna, incidentally. For me, Inglourious Basterds begins and ends with the oft-forgotten Diane Kruger. Kruger appears, most noticeably, in the chapter 3 of the film I consider near-perfect (the film, not so much). I must confess that prior to BasterdsI had only the vaguest of notions as to who Kruger was and I’m most impressed at how effortlessly she exudes that sort of charm that takes years for the great ones, like Dietrich (who the role seems to be an obvious throwback to) to accrue. It’s that composedness in the face of constant unease that makes Bridget such an obvious candidate for courageous, and it’s – incidentally – what makes Shoshanna so interesting, too.

Laurent is occasionally exasperating for me with her expressions which occasionally seem to overly precise, or sometimes oddly vacant but I love Shoshanna in that strudel scene. There’s that uncanny feeling that Tarantino is too satisfied with his creations here – specifically Landa – but even then grandiose nature of it all doesn’t bog Laurent down there. It’s odd, that I find her Shoshanna most interesting when she does not demand our attention, almost menacingly as the scene draws to its close.

2009 was a fairly good year for supporting women for me. I think of my top three: Cotillard, Morton and Pike as one bloc, yet despite the fact that Moore and Cotillard (again) make up my top 5, others supporters like Mo’Nique, Mimi Kennedy, Penelope Cruz – but most of all Kruger, herself, always make me rethink my actual list of nominees. Tarantino is notorious for being ridiculous, but even when Inglourious Basterds seems to demand that absurdity Kruger maintains a composure that – unlike Shoshanna – doesn’t seem like more absurdity in the face of the already absurd. A fine example is the juxtaposition of the aloof Bridget with that wild shoot-out. When Shoshanna prepares for her end, her composure itself seems like some otherworldly incarnation of hysteria.

Yet, my occasional dissatisfaction with Laurent cannot mask the brilliance of the characters here. Both Shoshanna and Bridget meet their ends in moments that seem unworthy of their brilliance, although that – of course – is the way of Tarantino. The fact that that Shoshanna’s final act is more seismic than Bridget doesn’t undermine her courageousness. Conversely, Kruger’s superior performance doesn’t prevent Shoshanna from being a more interesting character to delve into. The film, perhaps, should feel more male-driven but there are two women at opposing ends. Both of them are, for the most part, well characterised, a sort of perfect encapsulation of female cinematic courageousness: Tarantino Style.

      

previously: Francine Evans in New York/New York; Deanie Loomis in Splendor in the Grass; Helen and Margaret Schlegel in Howards End
           

Shoshanna or Bridget? Diane or Mélanie? How courageous do you find Tarantino’s women in Inglourious Basterds?