It’s been six years since audiences have been blessed with a Quentin Tarantino screenplay and with Kill Bill this marks the end of that tumultuous journey.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 is the essence of filmmaking, screenwriting, and acting. There is a dose of everything necessary to make an epic film that will be remembered through the ages. Kill Bill is an astonishing journey with several audio and visual aspects that blend together like a Starbucks double shot espresso.
QT has brought back his favorite Pulp Fiction actress, Uma Thurman, to play his lead lady known only as The Bride as her name is bleeped out every time it is said (but there is promise that the Jane Doe will be revealed in Kill Bill: Volume 2).
The Bride once worked for the title character Bill (Carradine) as part of the Deadly Viper Assassins, where she was, codename, Black Mamba. She then made the decision that would change her life forever and as she decided to leave.
Pregnant and in the middle of her voyage to holy matrimony the entire wedding party is massacred by the remaining Vipers, which is where we begin our story.
The twist is when the presumed dead Bride actually lives through the ordeal (which included a gun shot to the head) and awakens four years later, hell bent on revenge.
The Bride takes a journey across the world to battle the ones responsible for her death and the death of her murdered, unborn baby.
QT has described this film as a movie far from reality. He says that movies of his such as Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown were made in the “Quentin Universe,” a universe not too far from reality but he says that Kill Bill was made in “the Movie World. When characters in the Quentin Universe go to the movies, the stuff they see takes place in the Movie World. They act as a window into that world.” Kill Bill is an example of what would happen if this universe was a reality and I must say I can only wish to see more movies in the “Quentin Universe.”
Kill Bill offers up a visual extravaganza, which culminates with the battle at “The Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves,” in a snowy garden between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii (Liu), where the yellow suit of The Bride’s and the blue moonlight background pop against the white snow and the gorgeous Liu.
On a side-note an interesting tidbit about the whole scene is that it took a full eight weeks to shoot (only two weeks less than the entire production schedule of Pulp Fiction.)
Kill Bill is Tarantino’s homage to past film genres such as spaghetti westerns, Chinese martial arts films, Japanese samurai movies as well as anime. Yup, that’s right there is some of the best anime ever seen smack dab in the middle of Kill Bill: Volume 1 documenting the childhood of O-Ren Ishii as she witnesses the bloody rub out of her gangster father.
The action, artwork and drama of the anime scene are so precise and in tune with the rest of the movie that it is hardly a shock when the format switches.
As another bit of visual candy the movie switches from the orange filter of a spaghetti western, to black and white and then into traditional color adding several views that dazzle the eye.
The final showdown switches from color to black and white and reminding me of a line from Red Dragon where Lecter asks Will Graham, “Have you ever seen blood in the moonlight, Will? It appears quite black?” The extremeness of this quote is realized as The Bride wields her sword leaving her foes without a leg to stand on, literally.
Aside from the visual effects Tarantino imagines his films at the same time as he is imagining the soundtrack. Kill Bill would not be what it is unless the music to the movie wasn’t so precisely selected.
A prime example of this occurs as the horrific images of The Bride fade to black at the beginning of the movie and we are greeted with the sounds of Nancy Sinatra singing “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down).” A beautiful song as haunting as it is delicate considering the situation.
The power of the music is realized as O-Ren Ishii makes her entrance into the House of Blue Leaves to the pounding bass of Tomoyasu Hotei, who has created a theme similar to something Rob Dougan created for The Matrix Reloaded making you realize that this is one chick you don’t want to fuck with, unless you are The Bride, of course. (wink, wink)
Along with the superior acting put forth by Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu, Kill Bill: Volume 1 also features small snippets of David Carradine and Daryl Hannah, which will be extended in Kill Bill: Volume 2, a deadly knife duel between The Bride and Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, martial arts legend Sonny Chiba and even a small cameo by Samuel L. Jackson.
But I can’t go on without mentioning the performance of Chiaki Kuriyama as Go Go Yubari, the guillotine mace wielding bodyguard to O-Ren. Dressed in the innocent attire of a school girl this one packs a punch and a vicious nature that commands respect.
Kill Bill is filled with comedy, blood, blood, action, drama, and more blood Kill Bill that attacks the senses and the story leaves you wanting more. While, many complaints have surrounded the fact that Kill Bill is a marketing scam as it is being released in two parts it is true that I don’t think anyone would have minded an extra 90 minutes in the theater to see how it all ends, but with all the action involved it is also nice to take a deep breath once all is said and done.
Make sure to see this one and you will be one of the first in line to see Kill Bill: Volume 2.
