Miho (Sin City)

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Miho
Publisher Dark Horse Comics First appearance Created by Frank Miller
Statistics Full Name Unknown Affiliations: Dwight McCarthy, Old Town Status: alive Portrayer: Devon Aoki

Miho is a mute female assassin of Japanese descent in Frank Miller's Sin City series.

Contents 1 Background 2 Notes 3 Movie adaptation 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Background

Miho is the defender of Old Town, and the one woman the girls of Old Town call upon to get rid of troublesome people, like cops, criminals, and abusive johns. Miho doesn't like racial slurs (like being called a "Jap bitch/whore") and will use her twin katana to "play" with anyone who calls her such names. Such play usually has her dodging her opponent's blows while hitting him (usually with contemptuous ease) in return. Miho would appear to be a modern day master of traditional Ninjitsu. She is seen utilizing many 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. An assassin skilled with swords, shuriken, longbow and rollerblades, she resides in Old Town, though popular belief maintains she is not a prostitute.

Miho is tiny, standing maybe 4'10" maximum and weighing a mere 80-90 pounds. She has long black hair, a very slim figure, and dark eyes. Normally she dresses in a loose black kimono, into which is tucked 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 the "Family Values" yarn, Dwight also remembers one incident that had to do with Miho killing a cop ("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 good 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 has since repaid Dwight for the saving of her life by saving him from drowning in the Pits of Basin City.

[edit] 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.

• 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 bad.

[edit] Movie adaptation

In the film adaptation of Sin City, Miho is portrayed by Devon Aoki, which she will reportedly reprise in Sin City 2. Miho's appearance in Sin City 3: Hell and Back is not as likely as she never appeared in the graphic novel, though there are rumours of new stories being written for the film.

[edit] 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)

[edit] External links

• Artwork

Sin City
Yarns	The Hard Goodbye | A Dame to Kill For | The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories | Silent Night | The Big Fat Kill | That Yellow Bastard | Daddy's Little Girl | Lost, Lonely, & Lethal | Sex & Violence | Just Another Saturday Night | Family Values | Hell and Back (a Sin City Love Story) | Booze, Broads, & Bullets
Films	Sin City | Sin City 2 (in production)
Characters	Marv | Jack Rafferty | Nancy Callahan | John Hartigan | Dwight McCarthy | Wallace | Miho | Kevin | Cardinal Roark | Ava Lord | Junior/That Yellow Bastard | Senator Roark | The Girls of Old Town | List of characters from Sin City
People	Frank Miller | Robert Rodriguez