Crazy 88
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Crazy 88 are a fictional gang from Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" Vol. 1, portrayed by Yuen Woo-Ping's stunt team. In the time period of the movie, they are led by former assassin O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.
Bill backed O-Ren 'financially and philosophically' in her bid for control of the Tokyo underworld and after a bloody struggle, she and the Crazy 88 emerged victorious. They had ruled the streets of Tokyo for several years until the Bride (Uma Thurman), an assassin and former colleague of O-Ren, killed or seriously maimed all of them in a bid for revenge against O-Ren. Various real-life copycat gangs have sprung up, notably in Hong Kong and Okinawa, as well as various parts of Asia and the U.S.[citation needed]
All of the gang members wore black suits and black Kato masks. Most of the members used katanas, some used throwing axes, but the leader of the Crazy 88, Johnny Mo (Gordon Liu), used a pair of short swords. He was a more proficient fighter than the rest of the gang, managing to hold his own against the Bride for several minutes before she cuts his leg off at the knee, causing him to fall into a pool. Once the battle has concluded, the Bride tells the surviving members to depart, but to leave the limbs they have lost behind, as they "belong to me now." Only one member was spared from serious injury; at the very end of the fight, the Bride spares the last fighter standing, a mere teenage boy. She spanks him with her sword and tells him to go home to his mother.
Oddly enough, though the gang is called the Crazy 88, it is uncertain whether it actually consists of 88 members. The reasons for the name are never stated, although Bill speculates that they thought "it sounded cool." It has also been noted by Quentin Tarantino in an interview that the Crazy 88 were not all Japanese. Careful tracking of the fight between Kiddo and the 88 reveals there may in fact be eighty-eight members in the gang, as approximately that number of opponents are defeated by Kiddo. The number 88 is pronounced hachi-ju-hachi (hah-chee-jew-hah-chee) in Japanese; or eight-ten-eight translated into English. Eight is pronounced 'ba' (buh) in chinese (although it may also be pronounced 'pa'). That would mean that '88' would sound like 'baba' or 'byebye' in English.
A version of Quentin Tarantino dressed up in Crazy 88 attire was released as a limited edition.