Crazy 88

The **Crazy 88** are a supporting antagonistic faction in Quentin Tarantino's 4th film, *Kill Bill: Volume 1*. They are a group of assassins and a personal army of O-Ren Ishii under the leadership of Johnny Mo.

## Biography

### Background

The Crazy 88 have resided in Japan for an unknown amount of time as a major Yakuza gang. One year after the Massacre at Two Pines, O-Ren Ishii, with the help of Bill, was able to take control of many major companies in Japan and became what Beatrix referred to as the "Queen of Tokyo's underworld." With her financial power, she was able to gain leadership of the Crazy 88, and thus they were to follow her orders from then on.

### Showdown at the House of the Blue Leaves

Four years after the massacre at Two Pines, Beatrix Kiddo awoke from her long coma and sought revenge against the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Since O-Ren wanted power before The Bride's massacre, O-Ren was the easiest to locate and the first on The Bride's Death List Five.

The Bride found out that O-Ren, Sofie Fatale, Gogo Yubari, and several members of the Crazy 88 were going to the House of Blue Leaves. When she arrived, she challenged O-Ren and sliced off Sofie's arm. O-Ren ordered the Crazy 88 members to kill The Bride, but she quickly dispatched them. After that, Gogo and The Bride fought, but The Bride also killed Gogo as well. O-Ren then ordered the rest of the Crazy 88 to kill The Bride. All of them, led by Johnny, quickly arrived and surrounded her.

The battle began and all the Crazy 88 attacked. Despite their numbers, The Bride possessed greater skill than them. She was able to kill or injure every one of them, including Johnny Mo. After the battle ended, The Bride told the surviving injured Crazy 88s to go, but they should leave their limbs behind. Surviving members are hospitalized and probably arrested by police offscreen.

Although Johnny Mo is the last member whom the Bride faces, another one of the last of the gang she confronts before O-Ren is a very timid teenage boy whose katana she cuts into several pieces with her own, after which he surrenders immediately. Spanking him with the flat of her blade, the Bride orders him to quit criminal life and leave crime business with the words *"Go home to your mother"*. The boy is the only Crazy 88 member who is not injured, killed, or dismembered. His fate is left unknown but it is possible that he avoided the life of crime, deeply traumatized.

After the Showdown at the House of the Blue Leaves, it is unknown what happened to the Crazy 88 as an organization, and it may have dissolved, given so many of their number killed or incapacitated.

## Trivia

* The Crazy 88 does not actually comprise of exactly 88 members. In *Kill Bill: Volume 2*, Bill speculated that they picked this name because it "sounded cool". Only 40 actors are credited to Crazy 88.
* The mask worn by the Crazy 88 is similar to that worn by kung fu legend Bruce Lee in his role as Kato, the Green Hornet's partner on the classic 1960's TV series.
* Although most of the Crazy 88 members fight using katanas, 3 do not.
	+ Johnny Mo uses a modified shoto.
	+ 1 member throws 2 axes.
	+ 1 member wields a meteor hammer prior to the fight with the Bride.
* Quentin Tarantino uses instrumental metaphors in all of his films. One of these metaphors is that 8 (八 hachi, ya) is considered a lucky number in some Eastern cultures. It suggests growing prosperous, because the letter (八) broadens gradually. Eight (や ya) was also seen as holy in ancient times. Another metaphor is that there are 88 keys on a standard piano, which are black and white. The Crazy 88 wear black and white clothing.
* The number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture. This could be a reference to O-Ren Ishii's "mixed blood".
* Yōji Tanaka a.k.a. BoBa who is known for his character of Juon: "The Grudge", "Yuji Toyama", and "Death Note". Sasaki the bus driver is the Crazy 88 member number 3. He can be first seen in the entrance scene of O-Ren Ishii and her henchmen.
* Tarantino makes a cameo as a member whose throat is slit after Beatrix pulls out the eye of one of the gangsters.
* During the House of Blue Leaves Fight, several actors were re-used and can be seen being killed or maimed more than once.
* There are two different versions of the fight scene with the Crazy 88.
	+ The original version was released as a Japanese Unrated Limited Edition DVD in Japan and U.S. which has the fight in full color.
	+ The standard version is in black and white due to the extremely bloody nature of the scene. Tarantino was forced to tone down the violence of the whole fight scene by omitting a few scenes and adding a black and white effect to the finished product.
* The yakuza originated in Japanese gambling dens where players played with Hanafuda (flower cards). Special card combinations are called "yaku"--from which the word "yakuza" is derived. The most popular game with hanafuda is named "88".
* Reasons why the movie theater and regular dvd versions were in black and white:
	+ Tarantino was forced to censor the scene in some way to limit the visual of obscene gore. The MPAA did not specify how to do this so he decided to cut a few scenes and change it to black and white (Black & White was also intended for artistic purposes and to fit the flow of the movie (such as the beginning) that happened to fit well with censorship.)
	+ He also chose black and white as an underlying obscure/random reference to the 70s and 80s. There are 88 keys on a standard piano, the Crazy 88's wear black and white (the colors of a piano). [Why Piano? Tarantino likes to use instrumental metaphors in almost all of his works]
	+ During production they under estimated the amount of blood needed to shoot the scene. They ran out of blood and thus made the scene B/W to hide some of the clear splatters and spray effects.