Movies - Pai Mei

	Movies - Pai Mei

Pai Mei (Chinese: 白眉; Wade-Giles: Pai Mei; pinyin: Bái Méi; literally White Eyebrow) is a character from Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), a film by Quentin Tarantino. The character is based on Bak Mei, a historical martial artist from China. Pai Mei (Played by Gordon Liu) is presented here as the master who taught The Bride, Bill, and Elle Driver; ironically, Gordon Liu previously starred as the hero fighting Pai Mei in Hung wen tin san po pai lien chiao (1980). Kill Bill's version of Bak Mei is significantly less villainous than in the other movies, where the character is portrayed as ruthless and traitorous to his country.

Character history in Kill Bill

Bill's Retelling

Bill reveals to Beatrix that Pai Mei was a:

: ... White Lotus Priest who was famed to be one of the greatest martial artists. Once upon a time in China, some believe, around the year one double-ought three. Head priest of the White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei was walking down the road, contemplating whatever it is that a man of Pai Mei's infinite power contemplates - which is another way of saying "who knows" - when a Shaolin monk appeared, traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths, Pai Mei, in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod was not returned. Now, was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei, or did he just fail to see the generous social gesture? The motives of the monk remain unknown. What is known are the consequences. The next morning Pai Mei appeared at the Shaolin Temple and demanded of the Temple's head abbot that he offer Pai Mei his neck to repay the insult. The Abbot at first tried to console Pai Mei, only to find Pai Mei was inconsolable. So began the massacre of the Shaolin Temple and all 60 of the monks inside at the fists of the White Lotus.

This story instantly reveals Pai Mei's brutality and power. A similar story served as the backstory for the TV series Kung Fu which starred David Carradine
, who plays Bill.

Bill then informs Beatrix of Pai Mei's "Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique." When Beatrix asks what exactly the technique is, Bill explains that the Five-Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique is used to literally explode the heart of the opponent. Five pressure points are hit in the chest area surrounding the heart, and when the opponent takes five steps, his heart will explode and he will die. Bill reveals that Pai Mei is the only known user of the technique, and has not taught anyone the deadly attack--not even Bill himself. However, later in the movie, Beatrix reveals Pai Mei did eventually teach the technique to someone... herself. She utilizes the attack on Bill, much to his surprise, and kills him.

Pai Mei's "Cruel Tutelage"

During one of Beatrix's flashbacks, she recalls her training with her last master. Initially, Pai Mei did not want to train Beatrix, harboring a hatred for women (especially Caucasian and even more, Americans). However, Bill convinces him after an apparent fight. When she first meets Pai Mei, he starts off insulting her Mandarin and her Cantonese and then the "art of the Japanese samurai sword", which Beatrix explains she excels at. She quickly becomes angered by Pai Mei's remarks, but keeps her anger in, knowing full well Pai Mei would kill her for an outburst. However, he senses her anger anyway and then instructs her to take a sword from his sword rack and fight him with it, while he remains unarmed. It is here Beatrix tastes Pai Mei's incredible power and skill. With little effort, he defeats her and tells her she must obey his every word and command "like a dog".

The Death Of Pai Mei

Later in Kill Bill's second volume, it is learned that while Elle Driver was undertaking training from Pai Mei sometime after The Bride did, she insulted Pai Mei, calling him a "miserable old fool". This instantly resulted in Pai Mei plucking Elle's eye out for her disrespect (Explaining why she wears an eyepatch). And it is also learned that Elle Driver got her revenge on Pai Mei for his actions by poisoning his dinner of fish heads, apparently killing him. As he died, he began to issue a sort of threat, saying, "I give you my word..." but was interrupted by Elle, who told him that "the word of a miserable old fool is worth less than nothing," and performed a coup de grace. However, the entire sequence of events can hardly be considered a fact, as they are revealed through the narration of Elle Driver, who is in the words of Pai Mei a "treacherous dog", while she was squaring off against The Bride in Budd's trailer.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Pai Mei ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Pai Mei; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay