All swords have a hilt. It’s what you hold them by.
cbawlmer et al: The Bride is looking specifically at her lifeline when she deduces how long she’s been out.
I meant the guard, then.
I had never heard that Tarantino gave him those directions. That’s really funny. And, especially great considering Mr. Pink’s thoughts on tipping. I hope he keeps their sodas filled all the way up at all times.
Well. Toluca Lake is 15 or 20 miles from Pasadena, so that blows my theory out of the water. Of course, it might be the same house, it just isn’t Jimmie’s house.
Just to add another reference to the many thrown out. How about the sheriff referring to his deputy as Number One Son. A possible reference to Charlie Chan. I guess you could say that Charlie Chan was one of the original Hollywood Asian stereotypes, only to be eclipsed by Kung Fu fighter in the 60s and 70s.
Or, you could just say that it’s a funny thing to hear coming out of the mouth of a Texas sheriff.
pat
So I have just gone and seen the movie for a second time. I remembered to pay special attention to the swords in the airplane. I’m almost positive now that every seat has its own katana holder on the side. The Bride has hers in it, as do the people behind her and in the seats across the aisle. The seat directly next to Bride, however, is vacant, and there is no sword, but there is definately a holder for it!
Now, that’s GOT to be in reference to something. There is also a similarity between the way the yakuza biker gang keeps their katanas on the motorcycles - they stick out in exactly the same way as in the plane.
It’s good to know I’m not insane.
Well, as far as this movie goes, at least.
I think “O-Ren Ishii” is the name of a Japanese warrior of legend, along the lines of Wong Fei-Hong, the character played by Jet Li in every single Once Upon a Time in China movie and by Jackie Chan in Drunken Master. Can anyone verify this?
Google isn’t helping me find anything on O-Ren so far. However, Hattori Honzo was a famous ninja, according to this review.
look!ninjas I guess you would know, huh? Yeah, it’s quite possible that I got the names mixed up. Wouldn’t be the first time!
That’s no the only Battle Royale reference.
When Vernita and the Bride are hiding the knives from the child, they’re in the same pose as the one child at the begining of BR (the girl who picks up the knife after the teacher is stabbed) Similar camera angles too.
I swear I posted a follow-up on Hattori Hanzo last night. What happened, I couldn’t say. But if you want more info on him, I’d try this site.
Incidentally, I know next to nothing about ninja. It’s simply the power of Google.
Was the “airplane against the orange clouds” a Braniff commercial reference?
Ah ha. So was the Braniff commercial a reference to Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell? 
Re: Pulp Fiction. I don’t know if this would be a director’s trademark or a reference, but (PF spoiler contained herein, though I’m sure nearly everybody here has seen PF) [spoiler]there was a pretty big similarity between the Pussy Wagon and Zed’s motorcycle. Both the fact that it was stolen from a rapist that the person stealing it just killed, and the keychain (like the ‘Z’ in PF).
Also, the missed but easy shot that Vernita fires at The Bride reminded me a lot of the guy jumping out of the bathroom and trying but failing to shoot Vince and Jules in Pulp Fiction.[/spoiler]
I don’t know about the shot.
[spoiler] Firstly, it’s not an easy shot. Vernita is firing on the turn, and she can’t see exactly where the gun is pointed because of the cereal box. Both these things make for inaccuracy - and if I’m not mistaken the pistol she used has a very limited range to boot.
Second, the guy in Pulp Fiction doesn’t miss. It’s clearly visible in the scene that two of his shots hit the wall behind Jules - the bullets could not have struck there without passing right through Jules’ body. That’s why Jules has his revelation; he feels he was saved by a miracle. [/spoiler]
The close-ups of the eyes looked very similar to the close-ups in the Sergio Leone spagetti Westerns, especially the end of The God, the Bad and the Ugly. As others have already pointed out, hte music is very similar too.
I took O-Ren Ishii’s name to be a reference to the director Teruo Ishii, a cult-figure amongst chambara movie fans. Sonny Chiba starred in a few of his films back in the '70s.
Beyond that, I took opening with a caption involving an invented proverb to be a nod to Jean-Pierre Melville.
(Granted, it’s Le Cercle Rouge that has the made-up proverbs, rather than the more appropriate Le Samourai.)
Maybe this is a dumb question, but why is it that while everybody speaks pretty good Japanese, nobody seems to be able to pronounce “yakuza”? They rattle off well-prounounced paragraphs and then go “yaKUza”. Is that some reference I don’t get? I assume the audience for a movie that assumes you saw Battle Royale can safely assume you’ll know what they’re talking about.
An oblique reference, perhaps:
When Vernita’s cereal box gambit goes awry, the kitchen floor gets showered with multicolored bits of cereal.
Reminds me of the Lee Marvin movie Point Blank when after a violent outburst by Marvin, his ex’s bathroom floor is covered with multicolored bits of perfume bottles & swirls of perfume.
May be a connection, since Point Blank is a revenge movie as well.