Trivia for
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) More at IMDbPro »

• The character of Nobody is played by Gary Farmer. Farmer also played a character named Nobody in Dead Man (1995). He says the same tagline : "Stupid fuckin white man".
  
  
• When Ghost Dog introduces himself to the gangsters at the secluded hideaway, he says his name is "Bob Solo", a combination of two Harrison Ford characters, Bob Falfa (from American Graffiti) and Han Solo (from Star Wars).
  
  
• Most of the license plates visible on cars in the film read "Industrial State." (A New York inspection sticker is visible in the windshield of a car that Ghost Dog drives, however.) When Ghost Dog swaps his plates with those of another car at a rest stop, the new, differently colored plates read "Highway State."
  
  
• The scene in which Ghost Dog shoots the mobster through the sink drain was taken from Seijun Suzuki's Koroshi no rakuin (1967).
  
  
• The name of the pet store Ghost Dog visits is Birdland. Birdland was the club named after Charlie Parker, whom Forest Whitaker played in Bird (1988).
  
  
• The club that Ghost Dog drives by before he steals his new clothes is called "Liquid Sword". "Liquid Swords" is the name of 'Genius/GZA''s second album, which was produced by The 'RZA', who also provided the original score for the film.
  
  
• Ghost Dog and Louie have differing recollections of their first meeting. This is a reference to the story in Rashômon (1950) where people give varying accounts of the same event.
  
  
• When Ghost Dog is in the park, just before the Haitian ice cream man is introduced, the Crips in the park are rhyming to the beat of Raekwon's 1995 song "Ice Cream", which was produced by The 'RZA', who also composed the film's score
  
  
• The man in camouflage Ghost Dog meets on his way to the park towards the end of the movie is RZA, who composed the original score for the movie.
  
  
• The inter-chapter quotes come from the book "Hagakure: The Way of the Samurai" by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, published by Kodansha International.
  
  
• Every time Ghost Dog is in a car and puts the music on, he turns the volume up to level 21.
  
  
• Ghost Dog shoots Handsome Frank first in the stomach, then in the chest, then in the head. These shots follow the same pattern as seppuku, Japanese ritual suicide, in which the first cut with a sword or knife is made across the belly, the second cut up towards the sternum, and finally the suicide dips his head and is decapitated by his assistant.
  
  
• Two of the rappers in the park (when the Ice Cream beat can be heard) are Timbo King and Dreddy Kruger. They are both rappers; members of the Wu-Tang Killa Beez. RZA, who scored the movie, is the 'leader' of both Wu-Tang Clan and Wu-Tang Killa Beez.
  
  
• The character Sonny Valerio is a big fan of Public Enemy. Jim Jarmusch was inspired to write this after reading that incarcerated Mafiosos loved listening to hardcore hip-hop.
  
  
• Jim Jarmusch stated in an interview that he wrote the role of Ghost Dog specifically for Forest Whitaker, and if Whitaker hadn't taken the role, the film probably would not have been made.
  
  
• RZA's acting debut.
  
  
• Each cartoon in the movie corresponds to an event that happens soon afterward. For example, in a scene, a gangster is watching "The Woody Woodpecker"; some moments later, a real woodpecker stands on Ghost Dog's rifle.
  
  

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