You'll have to excuse me if I rave uncontrollably while I write this. I've just been watching KILL BILL VOLUME 1 again you see (which would make it about the 100th time since my first cinema viewing) and I'm still quite excited. After the hype has died down, going back to the film is almost like seeing it with fresh eyes, no longer are there expectations, just perceptions and in a strange way they still bring with them surprise. If I loved the film the first time, then I did so even more the second, by the time my third viewing had ended I was almost sure of it, and now I'm absolutely positive, he may be a foul mouthed movie geek, but Quinten Tarantino is also one of the few, true, movie making genius's ever to sit behind a camera and KILL BILL is an absolute reflection of that.
Through Tarantino's ever original use of plot arrangement KILL BILL VOL 1 flips back and forth in time, uses a large variety of stylistic filmmaking techniques and a whole lot of outrageous bloodletting. It then fuses them together with a sharp, witty and camp-ish script to tell the first of a two part story that depicts one Bride's plan for revenge on the hit squad that shot her, her husband and wedding guests down on her big day, sending her into a coma for four years, just because she wanted to leave the criminal underworld. Inspired by Japanese grind house and Hong Kong Kung Fu cinema of the 60's and 70's, the film manages to walk the line between derivate and creative with the help of the directors vivacious willingness to let it go anywhere it wants to go.
It is funny to think that KILL BILL VOL 1 has been sold on the fact that it is "The 4th film by Quinten Tarantino" because, ironically enough, it is nothing like what you expect from him. As he puts it himself, KILL
BILL is a movie set in a movie-world, it is the film that the characters in the other films he was written, such as PULP FICTION and TRUE ROMANCE, would go to see at their own local multiplex's. Yes this quote didn't make a bit of sense to me either, until I actually saw it and realised what he meant. KILL BILL is the definition of filmic, it is stagy, it is unreal, and it completely embodies everything we, as fans, love about the art form with it. The violence for example, no matter how gory, could never be taken seriously. Every time The Bride slices off a victims arm or leg, it is an event fuelled by such audacity, as a fountain of blood erupts from the wound, it is glorious, but it does not glorify the act. It is so other worldly that every kill becomes an experience to cheer over and not wince at.
Meanwhile the performances from its actors, knowingly affected yet undeniably cool, seem to have as much fun as us viewers with the eccentric material. Uma Thurman's Bride is the ultimate action chick, looking good with a samurai sword and playing the ninja assassin with a kind of show stopping glee that Hollywood rarely allows us to see from her sex. It also helps that in the scenes that she actually has to act more realistically, the pain she feels from her betrayal is believable. Fine support is offered too from Sunny Chiba in an hilarious role as a Japanese sword maker and Vivica A. Fox and Lucy Liu both doing the bad bitch thing and doing it well, particularly Liu, who's character's eventual fate leads to one of the pieces most memorable moments and one that will surely be thought of by cinema buffs whenever they try to list "the greatest movie deaths, ever" for years to come. Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen also appear as the other two members of the "Deadly Assassination viper squad" and David Carradine pops up as the Bill of the title, each only has a small role though and they feature much more predominantly in VOLUME 2 than they do here.
It is Tarantino's direction that steals the show though. With the well framed, stylised look of his earlier work being built on with the use of some extravagant set design that he shoots with undeniable class. The visual highlight of the film (from a technical viewpoint at least) is without a doubt the minute long, high crane shot around the House of Blue Leaves (the setting for the final showdown) that starts following one person around the room, before moving on to another and follows them back round to where we started and then on into another area of the building. He has certainly come a long way since PULP FICTION, which, for all its great script and originality, featured mostly two shots and nothing remotely artistic directorial wise. Even more surprisingly is how he fares in the chair as an "action" director, indeed bringing in the flavour of those old Asian movies to compliment his own way of doing things. The action sequences in KILL BILL VOL 1. are nothing short of astounding. Knowing all too well that most Americans know nothing at all about making this kind of thing and using his knowledge of how to actually do things right to the full, KILL BILL represents what is probably the best martial arts picture America may ever produce. Yuen Woo-Ping's fight choreography is probably the best he has been involved with since IRON MONKEY, and most certainly tops anything that any MATRIX movie could ever accomplish with a true sense of flow and infinitely better pace. The 30 minute finale, in which The Bride takes on wave after wave of opponents (with one fight involving 88 of them at once) will doubtlessly go down in history for it is more exciting than any CGI overloaded monstrosity could ever hope to be.
Fans of all the films KILL BILL so obviously "borrows" from will no doubt always bash the film as a rip off and not as a homage, yet it is hard to understand why. The people who do this are usually the same ones who will compliment their own favourite works for this exact same reason, telling you things like "the best artists use other artists templates" and "the best art is stolen from other art" etc, so why complain when an American movie does it? Besides the fact that America probably deserves all the shit it gets, there really isn't any other reason and the fact of the matter is that this particular "rip off" still manages to feel much fresher than many of the so called original pictures of any decade. The structure of the narrative, for instance, is all Tarantino and I can't think of anything that can compare off the top of the admittedly limited space in my head. Set out into chapters, much like a book and each one being it's own short film in a way, Tarantino divulges in a vast manner of styles to get each the way he wants it. It is here he strikes the perfect balance, experimenting with lighting, sound and colours to give each a separate tone, yet managing to keep the writing good enough to link them all together so they don't feel incoherent. Flashbacks, Hitchcockian camera angles, a fittingly schizoid soundtrack that progresses from grind house atmospherics through 70s rock to all out techno beat and transitions to black and white and back are just a few note worthy methods he uses to convey a sense of extremity that actually works better than you would expect. The most notable use of the unexpected however is Chapter 3 "The Origin of O Ren", the tale of how Lucy Liu's character started working for Bill. Because of its apparent legend like quality it is told with use of animation, anime to be precise, and was produced by the company that worked on GHOST IN THE SHELL and BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE. The quality of animation is very high and because it is animated and does not use actors, it can be even more over the top than the rest of the film, containing the kind of violence you would never see real people suffer onscreen.
KILL BILL VOLUME 1 is special in a lot of ways, as someone who appreciates every kind of cinema there is so much to enjoy in every single scene. Many critics who liked it upon its release still wrote it off as a "check your brain at the door flick" but it is so much more than that. There are too few movies that have such a vigorous blend of elements that work together in such harmony and there is really no other Samurai film that delivers thrills with this much flair. I feel that in a few years VOLUME 1 will be widely regarded as one of the most fun experiences you can have with a film. Completely free of pretensions and consistently entertaining, this is what Cinema should be all about.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
This has been regularly showing on SKY+ but I have never got around to watching it, it still doesn’t really appeal to me. Jane x
clownfoot 14.03.2006 15:12
I must be one of the few that finds Kill Bill mind-numbingly dull and shallow. Sure the action hots up at the end and is extremely good fun, but my brain is usually disengaged by then. Not a patch on Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. Alboy
Proudly billed as "the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino",Kill Bill, Volume 1is actually ... more
half of it (if you include his chunk ofFour Roomsit's really the fourth and a quarterth). IfJackie Brownachieved a certain maturity beyond callous cool, then this i...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Proudly billed as "the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino",Kill Bill, Volume 1is actually ... more
half of it (if you include his chunk ofFour Roomsit's really the fourth and a quarterth). IfJackie Brownachieved a certain maturity beyond callous cool, then this i...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned! In part 1 of Quentin Tarantino's delirious ... more
revenge movie Uma Thurman plays 'The Bride' a woman seeking vengeance on those who massacred her wedding party... Inspired by countless Japanese swordplay actionfests...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
The acclaimed fourth film from groundbreaking writer and director Quentin Tarantino, KILL ... more
BILL VOLUME 1 stars Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu and Vivica A. Fox in an astonishing. action-packed thriller about brutal betrayal and an epic vendetta! Four years after...
Advantages: Fantastic gore drenched classic for fans of Samurai/Yakuza/Ganster/Kung Fu and Hong Kong Films. Disadvantages: Strictly for fans of Tarantino and Martial Arts films only. The rest of you just won't get it.
willgould 23.10.2003 (24.10.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Kill Bill Vol.1 (DVD)
clarebartlett1974 12.07.2004 (12.07.2004)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Kill Bill Vol.1 (DVD)
Advantages: A Quentin Tarantino film with a great plot, and amusing blood Disadvantages: Some people find it boring, but I don't understand it myself...
![Kill Bill, Volume 1 [DVD] [2003]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78528686.jpg "Kill Bill, Volume 1 [DVD] [2003]")
Mar 14th, 2006
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