Why was Beatrix so shocked to hear Elle killed Pai Mei?
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MovieChat Forums > Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) Discussion > Why was Beatrix so shocked to hear Elle ...
Why wouldn't she be? She respected Pei Mei so she would not like to hear that one of her enemies killed him.
shareI think the OP assumes that, in the small world of kung fu assassins, word of Pai Mei's death would reach Beatrix and she would be able to figure out who killed Pai Mei pretty fast.
shareHmmm. I can see that. I figured since Pei Mei was a secluded old bastard, his death might go unnoticed. Alternatively, I wouldn't put it past Elle to come down from the mountain and tell Bill that Pei Mei is pissed off and will never see another student and if Bill tried to contact him or send anymore students to him, he'd kill him. Bill would have to believe her because he isn't dumb enough to chance it. Eventually, Bea would hear that side of the story and likewise respect hsi desire to be alone.
shareI went into detail on my own theories in a direct response to the OP (down below).
If Elle told Bill "Pai Mei is POd and doesn't want to see anybody," I think Bill would figure it out. There are very few lies, no matter how artful, that would make Bill not guess what really happened and make him not investigate. Of course, it might be so unthinkable to Bill that anybody could actually kill Pai Mei that maybe Bill would sooner believe, "He's mad," than, "He's dead."
If anything, though, I'd expect Elle to brag about it to Bill. "I killed him!" You know? Just let Bill know that she's the best.
Possibly. If that were the case, he might still have kept the news from Bea. Can’t have his people killing each other.
shareAny way you slice it, B. couldn't have known it was Elle. She could have known Pai Mei died (thinking it natural causes), and *might* have known it was murder, but the trail was too cold and she couldn't track down whoever did it.
shareShe probably didn't know the old b****** was dead, let alone murdered, let alone by Elle Driver.
The way I see it, it's unlikely that B. and Pai Mei kept in touch. She respected him. He liked her, as much as he could like anybody (that ol' misogynistic misanthrope!), but he didn't seem like the "text and email" type. He wasn't sending out Christmas cards. In fact, his xenophobic, jingoistic attitudes probably meant that he spat on Christmas cards and wiped up with tinsel.
But I digress.
So, why wouldn't Beatrix hear about this from somebody else? From Bill maybe or another assassin in this tight world of martial arts masters and keen-eyed snipers? It's an elite group, a small world; surely she would know he died.
Well...not necessarily.
When Elle killed Pai Mei, she would have needed to get out of that remote temple area. It's likely that she just trudged until she found a village and worked her way back from there. The only other option is that Bill came by at the end of her training and picked her up. Either way, the first assassin she sees would be Bill.
She's missing an eye, so he'd know she did something to piss off Pai Mei, and he would naturally inquire about that. Elle would let Bill know, and I'm thinking Bill would cover that up double-time. I think he'd hide Pai Mei's death from the world, or at least he'd make it look like old age did the old Master in. Why? Beatrix. If the Bride got wind of this, you know, I know, and Bill would know that B. would revenge her old master, no matter how much of a dink he could be. Bill didn't want infighting among the DVAS (ironically...) and he certainly wouldn't want his two favourite girls maiming and murdering each other.
So he'd cover it up.
Plus, as I said, The Bride would have no reason to look Pai Mei up. So she'd never suspect a thing.
Please learn to write actual context in your message instead of just leaving it empty after writing the topic, Mike.
Anyway, she was so shocked, because
1) It's really dumb that any 'grand master' of any 'arts that have esoteric components in them', especially one that is so advanced he can change his body weight at will, doesn't have ANY kind of intuition or 'feel' of people and their characters. How can a grand master be this blind to how crazy Elle is? Why would he accept THAT particular assassin as his pupil? Any rational grand master would smell her treachery, dishonorable nature and craziness 100 miles away and simply refuse to train her.
2) She could never understand how a grand master could be defeated so easily, simply and by an OBVIOUSLY crazy and evil woman that any grand master should've seen the true character of miles away. It's just too unbelievable that someone like elle can defeat someone like Pai Mei.
It's like one of the bumbling beagle boys from old donald duck comics beating up Bruce Lee by some simple trick. It's so ridiculous, the audience should have the same reaction as Beatrix.
It was more about being angry than just shocked. Beatrix had the utmost respect for Pai Mei, he was virtually a superhero in her eyes. Elle was taunting her, not just giving her shocking bad news.
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