Miho (Sin City)

Template:SinCityCharacter Miho (ミホ) is a mute female assassin of Japanese descent in Frank Miller's Sin City series.

Background

File:Miho.jpg

Miho from "The Big Fat Kill".

Miho is the defender of Old Town, and (along with Gail) is someone the girls of Old Town will call upon to get rid of troublesome criminals and abusive johns. In a fight Miho will use her twin katana to "play" with her opponent, often dodging her opponent's blows while hitting him/her (with seeming ease) in return. Miho would appear to be a modern day master of traditional Ninjitsu. She is utilizes a wide array of weapons, such as katana, wakizashi and kusarigama. She tends to rely on stealth, evasion, and counter attack more than directly engaging an opponent. This puts to good use her acrobatic/gymnastic ability and knowledge of pressure points, veins and arteries. An assassin skilled with swords, shuriken, longbow and rollerblades, she resides in Old Town, though it is not clear if she is herself a prostitute.

Miho is tiny, standing maybe 4'10" maximum and weighing a mere 80-90 pounds. She has long dark hair, a very slim figure, and dark eyes. Normally she dresses in a short black kimono, worn over a more western outfit, and a belt into which she tucks all sorts of weapons. A wakizashi (sometimes two) hangs from her belt.

Nothing much is known about Miho's past, except that three years before the events of "A Dame To Kill For" she was saved by Dwight McCarthy in an attack by Tong gangsters. As Dwight himself explains to Goldie and Wendy, "three of the Tong who attacked Miho were dead by her hand. But the last two had her dead to rights. Point blank range."^{[ 1 ]}

In "Family Values" Dwight remarks on Mikho having killed a policeman. ("Remember what went down the last time you killed a cop."^{[ 2 ]}). This refers to Miho killing Jack Rafferty in "The Big Fat Kill".

Miho uses Japanese swords, of various sizes, and shuriken in the shape of the Manji, as seen in "The Big Fat Kill" and "Family Values".

Miho and Dwight have also completed a number of successful missions together and the two are allies, if not exactly friends. Miho is evidently very comfortable with Dwight, as she sleeps against him on the way to the mafia family house in Family Values. Miho's has since repaid Dwight for the saving of her life by saving him from drowning in the Pits of Basin City.

Miho speaks very seldom.

Notes

• Miho is fond of using rollerskates to get around. The same trick is used by Carrie Kelly as Catgirl in Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, and the Rollergirl character in the movie Boogie Nights.

• Miho is not shown to speak in any of her appearances. It has not been revealed if she cannot do so or simply chooses to let her work speak for her.

• On the DVD commentary track for the film, Quentin Tarantino states that after he suggested that Miho's swords were made by Hattori Hanzō, writer/director Frank Miller enthusiastically agreed.

• The prop swords that Miho used in the Sin City movie were the same ones that the Crazy 88 used in Kill Bill. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino have both confirmed this in a making-of segment on the 2-Disk DVD Recut Extended Edition of the film.

• Frank Miller has stated in the Recut DVD that Kevin and Miho are the supernatural beings in Sin City. Miller characterizes them as "demons"; Miho is the good "demon" and Kevin is the evil.

Movie adaptation

In the film adaptation of Sin City, Miho is portrayed by Devon Aoki, which she will reportedly reprise in Sin City 2.

References

1. ^  Miller, F. (2005). Frank Miller's Sin City, Volume 2: A Dame to Kill For. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books. p.155. (Original work published 1993)
2. ^  Miller, F. (2005). Frank Miller's Sin City, Volume 5: Family Values. Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books. p.12. (Original work published 1997)

See also

• List of women warriors in folklore, literature, and popular culture

External links

• Artwork