Kill Bill (2003/2004) July 28, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Action, Thriller, Non-Asian , trackbackDirector: Quentin Tarantino Cast: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A Fox Guest Starring: Sonny Chiba, Lau Ka-Fai (Gordon Liu) Territory: USA
The Bride (Uma Thurman) wakes from a coma after being shot in the head by Bill (David Carradine) on her wedding day for attempting to leave his crime organisation and the “Deadly Viper Assassination Squad”. Her unborn child gone, the only thing she can think about is revenge on Bill and the rest of the assassination squad who killed those she loved.
Assuming no prior knowledge, Kill Bill was released in two separate parts upon Tarantino’s discovery that he had shot “too much good footage” for one movie. However, I have decided to treat it more or less as one film for this review, with just an occasional reference to the two Volumes.
Kill Bill’s intentions are clear right from the beginning – we start with the Shaw Brothers’ fanfare and “Shawscape” logo and with a genuine 70’s “Now for our Feature Presentation” type of promo film. Quentin Tarantino’s revenge movie picks bits and pieces from just about every genre of cult cinema but focuses on Japanese and Chinese action movies as well as general “revenge” movies from the 70’s. Tarantino doesn’t so much nod to these types of movies as headbutt them, such is his heavy-handedness at times. We are regularly treated to B-movie dialogue and (presumably) deliberately wooden acting in keeping with the source material. Which is all well and good and does have a certain entertainment value of its own, but when lines like: “That’s right – I killed your Master. And now I’m going to kill you – with your own sword…” are uttered, I have to cringe a little. I was sure it was going to be followed up with “So. You think you can beat me? Well then. You must be tired of living!” but thankfully it wasn’t.
I’m not going to give away The Bride’s real name, which seems to be a secret through most of the film for some strange reason, even warranting beeping out when uttered by the characters. It’s just one example of the strange stylistic choices Tarantino makes in the film. Some are quite good though, and point to the possibility that the film is set in an alternate reality (for some reason, I found The Bride’s ability to take her Katana onboard an aircraft quite inventive).
The House of Blue Leaves section that closes Volume One is for many a highlight, but for me was the least enjoyable part of the whole experience (with the exception of the Anime sequence, which I didn’t care for at all). Tarantino mixes Japanese and Chinese movie styles without adding anything interesting of his own. The Crazy 88 gang are despatched by the Bride with deliberatly overblown violence and gore in a scene too reminiscent of Vengeance!, The Boxer from Shantung, and…well, a dozen Chang Cheh films from the early 70’s. Oh, and let’s not forget the nod to The Streetfighter when we switch to monochrome, and the fact that Uma Thurman wears Bruce Lee’s tracksuit from Game of Death. The whole section troubled me for a long time before I finally put my finger on it – it all looks too much like how a westerner with limited knowledge of Hong Kong/Japanese action movies would expect their action sequences to look like. Obviously this is not true (and let’s not forget Yuen Wo-Ping is the primary action director), but I couldn’t help think it whenever someone moves their head from side to side quickly and the air “swishes” in a ridiculous manner. Is he taking the piss or what?
Which leads me neatly on to the obligatory training section. Uma Thurman trains under Baak Mei (here under his Mandarin name of Pai Mei) in yet another homage to Hong Kong Kung Fu flicks from the 70’s. Tarantino uses (and reuses) the patented Shaw Brothers shaky zoom all the way through this sequence in what struck me as the most tiring public display of fanboy masturbation possible.
When he’s not cherry-picking Asian cult cinema the film is actually quite watchable, and does have some flash and flare. David Carradine is excellent (which surprised me) and he gives the best performance by a country mile, with his believable portrayal of an everyday man with sickeningly nasty qualities who manages to be thought provoking without lapsing into cartoon villainy. His discourse on Superman is also well delivered, in a scene evocative of Jules’ final speech in Pulp Fiction.
Sonny Chiba must also get a mention as the Swordsmith Hattori Hanzo. He’s clearly having a great time in his scene with Thurman, and although he doesn’t take part in the action himself, his cameo remains one of the highlights of the movie. He’s also remarkably well preserved for a man of his advancing years.
Lau Ka-Fai (or Gordon Liu, if you prefer) is the other genuine Hero of the East to take screen time here, and has a dual role of sorts. Firstly, he’s Johnny Mo of the Crazy 88’s and then he’s legendary Shaolin-burner Baak Mei (who appears quite sprightly despite being several hundred yeas old). In the first role, he sports a Kato mask (is there nothing Tarantino hasn’t referenced in this movie?!) and provides little more than Uma-fodder. As Baak Mei, he looks pretty much identical to every other depiction of the man himself or any other cruel but brilliant Master training his unruly pupil. He handles the action scenes about as well as you’d expect, and doesn’t seem to have aged a jot since his 70’s heyday.
The rest of the cast include our favourite ear-slicing psycho Michael Madsen, who turns in a nice performance of a former swordsman turned drunkard and faded star Daryl Hannah, who partakes in the only truly great action scene when she takes on The Bride in an inadequately small caravan. This scene more than makes up for the deficiencies of everything that goes before it with its cartoon violence and dark humour. Lucy Liu plays half Japanese/half Chinese American O-Ren Ishii, a head of some kind of Yakuza clan. Yeah, whatever.
The soundtrack’s excellent (thankfully, one constant in Tarantino’s oeuvre) and I would actually defend the film’s length as being essential to the conclusion. And despite some of my grave misgivings, I’d have to say I actually like the film (didn’t see that coming, did you?). But it seems to me that Kill Bill is a cinematic equivalent of a cover versions album. And while some cover version albums are certainly entertaining, they do tend to make one wish that the band or artiste had spent the time writing new material and that’s pretty much how I feel when I view this film.
Oh, and Uma Thurman has the most horrible toes I’ve ever seen on a woman.
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“Oh, and Uma Thurman has the most horrible toes I’ve ever seen on a woman.”
You obviously didn’t see my ex-missus - it comes to something when your ex-missus has more attractive feet when wearing muddy wellington boots. Thankfully my tastes have improved since then (currently enjoying revisiting my zoophilia video collection).
You’ve not really sold the Kill Bill flicks to me, though I never seemed enthusiastic enough to bring myself to watch them - don’t the DVD extras give some insight into Tarantino’s thinking patterns behind the films?
P.S. I was joking about the zoophilia video collection.
Glad to hear it…
Despite its myriad flaws and general lack of originality, I’d still recommend seeing it at least once. I only watched the two volumes together as I was laid low with back trouble and basically immobile and unable to do anything productive, but it works OK spread over a couple of nights.
The only thing the R2 DVDs comes with in the way of interesting extras is one “making of” featurette, although I hear it’s going to be given a 4 disc set soon in an attempt to fleece more cash from the punters. The featurette DOES shed a little light on his thought patterns, although I think primarily his thought patterns revolve around Uma Thurman’s feet and hot Asian chicks. Mainly, though, it was an arse-kissing excercise for several people to gush forth about Tarantino’s brilliance. One even, with no noticable trace of irony, states “he creates his own style…”
Geex, that’s what I hate about a lot of featurettes and interviews on disc extras - too much back-slapping and banging on about how amazing something or other to do with the film is. It tells you nothing and consequently I feel less and less inclined to watch them.
As a follow-up, I read this interesting article on his new (half) movie, Grindhouse: http://www.theage.com.au/news/film/flopproof-no-more/2007/05/24/1179601574761.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2
This short paragraph pretty much sums up what I was trying to say in this review of Kill Bill: “But how many films can Tarantino make about other films, especially very bad ones? It wasn’t that the festival audiences didn’t get it: they recognise those references to schlock film culture and are hardly going to be fazed by a few severed limbs and torrents of tomato sauce. The problem was that the film rang so very hollow.”
If nothing else, there IS a Japanese version of the first film in which the House of Blue Leaves sequence remains in colour, as it was originally intended before we in the west were given the watered-down black & white version (and a slightly edited one at that!). Worth seeking out just for that sequence alone, although I can’t imagine it will change your attitude toward the films as a whole. I think YouTube has the color fight sequence, for those looking to save the money on expensive Japanese imports.
Yes, I became aware of the colour issue only after writing this review. I assumed (wrongly) it was his own decision. I certainly wouldn’t bother forking out on the Japanese print just for this (and the other arm severing bit), but I’m sure I read that there’s going to be a 4-disc super-set at some point in the near future that will also include this footage. Now, I probably WILL get that when it comes down in price :p.
Yesterday a friend of mine burned me a copy of the Japanese Version..a nd it’s… HUGE vs the USA/Europe Version. A lot of new details, full color, new ‘gore’ details, and new scenes in the comic related to O-Ren-Ishii story, the masacre at the house of Crazy 88’s, extra minutes…
After this, I only can say: a must-have in your dvd collection, Kill Bill Japanese Version.
Note: This Jap Version is on DTS audio.
Find it and put your brain, eyes and ears to the top
(Sorry about my english, spanish teachers crap)