In a film that mostly feels like a lot of offcuts taped together, the Pai Mei training sequence is one part that doesnt, and its helped by the whacky presence of Gordon Liu as white-haired old lunatic Pai Mei. Hes a beard-swishing cartoon of a Kung Fu master, punching through wood and plucking out eyeballs like they're going out of fashion. Liu embraces the pastiche aesthetic of Tarantinos revenge saga by turning Pai Mei into something at once laughable and dangerous. He makes the character ancient and wise, eccentric and powerful, someone who 1. knows how to make a mans heart explode and 2. is willing to use that knowledge. Plus, Lius martial arts expertise gives Pai Mei a sense of real physical danger, jumping onto and then balancing atop a raised sword in Kill Bill 2s coolest moment.