"Reservoir Dogs" and the concept of jingi

I was watching Reservoir Dogs the other day and I was listening to the commentary track. Towards the end of the film, Quentin Tarantino talks about the very last scene.

Apparently, many people over the years have asked Tarantino about the final scene, in which Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) makes his confession to Mr. White (Harvey Keitel). They wanted to know why Orange confessed when all he had to do was wait just another minute or two for the cops to show up. Tarantino's thoughts on that were, if you really need to ask that question, then you just didn't get it.

He goes on to say that in Asian countries - Japan or Hong Kong, for example - people do understand completely. He talks about the concept of jingi, for which there is no real English-language equivalent but which can be roughly defined as "honor," although that doesn't truly do it justice. Jingi can also be described as the one thing that you must do, even though it may be the one thing you do not want to do.

Listening to this, it occurred to me that in the United States and in other Western nations, we seem to be pretty good at finding excuses for not doing what must be done. Jingi, or any other concept of honor, is probably a rather airy and abstract notion to, say, the Mr. Pinks of the world. If you'll remember Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), he is the character who's the most selfish and pragmatic character of the bunch. He's the only one who decides not to tip the waitress in the opening diner scene, and after White reveals that he told Orange his first name, Pink rejects the idea of taking Orange to a hospital. "Some guys are lucky, and some guys ain't!"

But the thing is, Pink is pretty much proved right throughout the entire movie. He's the one who's absolutely certain that there's a rat in their midst, and that's how the police were tipped off to the robbery.

Being right, however, does not automatically make anyone noble or honorable. It's true, Pink does seem to be the only one of the group to survive and get away with the Israeli diamonds at the end of the movie (although he might have been taken down by the cops offscreen), but what does that say about our society? What does it say about Western society when the "Oranges" who do the right and honorable thing get a bullet in the head and the "Pinks" get away with the loot?

 

not 'might'... he definitely was taken down by the cops. All you have to do is turn the volume way up and you can hear everything going on outside. You can even hear him yell, "Don't shoot!" when he surrenders.

 

"Apparently, many people over the years have asked Tarantino about the final scene, in which Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) makes his confession to Mr. White (Harvey Keitel). They wanted to know why Orange confessed when all he had to do was wait just another minute or two for the cops to show up. Tarantino's thoughts on that were, if you really need to ask that question, then you just didn't get it. "

Jingi-pingi, orange makes his confession as he had bonded with white. In his eyes White had stood out as the only honorable man in the bunch, pink says normal people disregarding cops as Orange would've said normal people -disregarding criminals- , but white as he stood up for orange no longer belonged in the latter group. Orange in his naivité though he had turned White over to his side.

 

I'm pretty sure he should have died from blood loss anyway, so I just assume that the lack of blood going to his brain made him a bit stupid.