Fight Club: The Top Action Heroines

Liu threw some pretty good punches in the Charlie's Angels movies, but it's her role as assassin O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill: Vol 1 that gets high kicks. Sure, she wasn't exactly the protagonist, but Liu tells the New York Times that O-Ren Ishii is simply misguided: "I felt like I really understood her emotionally. In my mind she was a survivor, and it was either kill or be killed." To prepare for her onscreen fights, Liu did martial arts and Japanese sword training. "Samurai swords are very heavy, and you have to hold your body in a very specific position where you don't bend over," she told Spike TV. "You have to have your back straight the entire time, and you have to be squatting; it's an intensive workout on your thighs and forearms because of the sword."

By Emily Hebert May 10, 2012
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