# Lucy Liu in Kill Bill (No spoilers from OP) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2003, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102 "2003-10-23T13:10:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sealemon88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/21 "2003-10-24T01:13:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Have any of you ever felt this way about some other character in a movie, play or TV show? Where your admiration for that persona is completely asexual, simply aesthetic? Gillian Anderson in X Files. Helena Bonham Carter in A Room With A View. Jane Seymore in just about anything. Lucy Lu is more sexy/cute to me than beautiful, but I did like the way she looked in Kill Bill. Such a demure little killer. ---
**Author:** ![Aankh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@Aankh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aankh)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/22 "2003-10-24T01:43:10Z")
Judging by everyone’s responses, apparently I’m the only one raving about her in an aesthetic way. Oh well… Gillian Anderson in the X-Files does look rather nice, **Sealemon88**. **Khadaji** , celebrities can be so thoughtless that way, no? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/23 "2003-10-24T02:33:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aasna \* > \*\ ***Khadaji** , celebrities can be so thoughtless that way, no? 😉 \*\* Tell me about it! I can’t even begin to tell you how many of them have blown me off now that they’re stars… ---
**Author:** ![MrSarcasticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@MrSarcasticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSarcasticus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/24 "2003-10-24T03:27:03Z")
I have a huge Asian chick fetish, but Lucy does nothing for me. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/25 "2003-10-24T04:02:47Z")
btw, is her character supposed to be Japanese, Chinese, or what? ---
**Author:** ![Protesilaus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Protesilaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Protesilaus)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/26 "2003-10-24T05:11:12Z")
O-Ren’s half-Japanese and half-Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/27 "2003-10-24T05:20:00Z")
Minor Spoilers to come. Oren Ishii is the daughter of a Japanese-American man and a Chinese woman, so racially she is Japanese-Chinese, and ethnically she’s an American Army brat. I assume that Tarantino wanted Liu for the part, and wrote the elaborate backstory to explain how a Chinese-American woman with an American accent could be a Yakuza boss. I think Liu is actually quite lovely in just about anything she does, but my attraction for her is as much sexual as it is aesthetic. But for a purely aesthetically beautiful woman, that’s exactly how I saw Tamlyn Tomito in _The Karate Kid Part 2_, but pretty much nothing else she’s ever been in. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/28 "2003-10-24T06:18:37Z")
O-ren Ishii is so talented that even though she was orphaned in Japan at the age of 9 she still manages to speak English with a perfect American accent ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/29 "2003-10-24T07:08:24Z")
E-Thorp: Her father was an American. She probably already had the accent when she was orphaned. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/30 "2003-10-24T12:08:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Space Vampire \* > \*\*Lucy Liu is probably the worst-looking Chinese star ever. \*\* Okay SpaceVampire, I have to call you on this statement. Who would you consider to be a good-looking Chinese star? Lucy Liu!! Me so horny! ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/31 "2003-10-24T13:03:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Big Bad Voodoo Lou \* > \*\*I thought Julie Dreyfus (Sofie Fatale) was more attractive by far. \*\* What I found sexiest about her was her left arm. So vertical, so aesthetically pleasing. And then DOH. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/32 "2003-10-26T03:21:56Z")
I’m a straight man and I actually find the attraction to be more aesthetic than anything else. I mean I can’t really get away from some of the lust aspect, but I find her aesthetically pleasing. She’s just slightly odd in the way she looks which makes her very interesting aesthetically to me. It’s like her odd features keep me engaged but she’s also pretty enough to please the eye. I don’t think I’m surprised that other people don’t find her attractive, but I do. (I’m also not surprised others find her attractive.) ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/33 "2003-10-26T04:09:37Z")
Sigh!! Super swoonerific sigh! ---
**Author:** ![dakravel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@dakravel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dakravel)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/34 "2003-10-26T05:23:21Z")
I must say, I find myself very much attracted to Lucy Liu. I must also admit it’s probably not a purely aesthetic appreciation. However, I find her quite good looking, beautiful if you will. I’ve never noticed her lazy-eyed-ness, and even as I look at pictures of her now, I still can’t see it. Her freckles fit her very well I think, and it’s also refreshing to see an Asian girl who doesn’t try to cover her freckles. I can very much understand why others might not think she’s absolutely gorgeous, but all the same, I have this fascination with her. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/35 "2003-10-26T06:56:24Z")
It’s the freckles that do it for her. Tarentino emphasized those for a reason. It’s the same reason her character makes her big Yakuza speech not in Japanese, but in perfect Southern Californian English O-Ren Isii’s mixture of Asian exoticism and American frankness (and the way the work together as a seemless whole, which is accepted nearly without question in the movie’s universe) is a defining character trait. Her character retains the mystery and romance of the West’s facination with the East, while also challenging popular American stereotypes about Asian women. It celebrates, nostalgizes, overturns, and questions our ideas of how Asian women are presented on screen all at once. That sort of thing is a major theme of the movie. Geez I need to get less serious about this stuff. As a moderatly straight woman, I say she was pretty aesthetically facinating as well. ---
**Author:** ![non-native](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@non-native](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/non-native)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/36 "2003-10-26T11:28:37Z")
I haven’t seen the movie but from the trailers she just looked the same way she always looks. Unattractive. I thought the all the angels in “Charlie’s Angels” were rather um… inappropriate for their roles, except for Cameron Diaz. On a similar note as a OP, even as a straight male I thought Hugh Jackman in “X-Men” looked very handsome. There. I said it. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/37 "2003-10-26T14:34:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Menocchio \* > \*\*She was rather striking, but her freckles kept breaking the regal image I think they were going for. \*\* Without the freckles she’d be merely beautiful. Add the freckles and she’s one of the hottest women on Earth. Haj ---
**Author:** ![dakravel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@dakravel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dakravel)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/38 "2003-10-26T20:50:14Z")
True that. ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/39 "2003-10-26T23:13:33Z")
> [@](#): > > I have a huge Asian chick fetish, but Lucy does nothing for me. Maybe because she’s not huge? ---
**Author:** ![dangergene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@dangergene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangergene)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102/40 "2003-10-27T03:46:46Z")
Hey Aasna, another s’pore doper! and here I thought I was all alone! And now I ramble… personally, I don’t find Lucy Liu at all appealing, there’s something quite gauche about her, but she does such a wonderful job of being ‘beautiful’, in exactly the sense you described, in Kill Bill that I am somewhat in awe of her talent, and the talents involved in bringing her to the screen. The freckles, and american accent are all part of the trans-national, trans-cultural aspect (see the cultural backgrounds of her Crazy 88 Killer). Despite the perfection she exudes, she is not perfect (I’m assuming this, extrapolating from the backstory we are given) and the hole left in her life is represented by the not-so-perfect aspects of her beauty. The freckles are somewhat representative of her rag-tag Army-brat origins, and from a Japanese asthetic, these could be considered a ‘beauty point’ (could a J-doper back me up on this?) where a woman’s minor flaws become much more appealing- similar to the crooked teeth on famous idols in Japan. But from a western asthetic, given preconceptions of ‘asian beauty’ (hell even from asian advertising’s representation of asian beauty -skin whitening cream anyone? ‘It covers dark spots and unsightly blemishes’ Blah!) Ms Liu’s naturally occuring freckles enhance that transcultural ideal- just like Even Sven said so eloquently. Yes, she’s beautiful, not sexy or lust-worthy, or anything else. Just plain, revenge-story princess beautiful! Oh, and Aasna, Ms Liu was MUCH more beautiful than anything we see on TV here _grin_. (apologies to all outside of this li’l island). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lucy-liu-in-kill-bill-no-spoilers-from-op/209102.md?page=3)