Kill Bill Vol 2 Review "Bitch! You haven't got a future!"

 

 

 

 

So, I thought I would start by saying this is my 800th post on this blog, which is quite a feat although I haven't posted as much as I used, its still great to reach this amount after all these years blogging. 

Anyway, so with that said, I figured its time to move on to doing Kill Bill Vol 2 since I've been putting off for a bit and this will again be a revisit of the older post I did for this film. So, the usual expansion of sections will be done etc looking into the film and ordering it a bit better.

So, with that said, let's take a look at this film, which is now 21 years old (already!) and see how it fairs...

And the usual warning is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

STORY  

So, the story begins with the flashback of the Bride (Uma Thurman) being paid a surprise visit by Bill (David Carradine) at her dress rehearsal for her wedding, where Bill appears to give her his blessing to marry her groom Tommy (Chris Nelson) but instead the Deadly viper squad then ambush the rehearsal and kill everyone (Bride excepted).  

The story then moves forward to the present with the Bride seeking out the next member of the Deadly viper squad on her hit list, Bill's brother, Budd (Michael Madsen), whom she follows home from work as he lives out in the middle of the desert in a trailer.  As the Bride attempts to charge in with her samurai sword, Budd shoots her with his shotgun which is loaded full of rock salt and he then buries her alive in a coffin.  

The story then flashes back to when the Bride was first initiated in her training by Bill as she meets the cantankerous martial arts master, Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) where he at first ridicules her but slowly the Bride gains his respect as she trains hard and develops her martial arts skills.  The story then moves forward to the present again where the Bride manages to loosen one of her boots and takes from it a straight razor and uses it to cut her bonds and she then uses her incredible punching skills she learned from  Pai Mei (Gordon Liu) to break free of her coffin and crawl her way up out of the earth back up to the surface to freedom.

After this Budd calls up one of his ex-viper squad members Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) who wears an eyepatch on one eye, and asks if she would want to trade the Bride's Hanzo sword for a million dollars.  Elle comes along to Budd's cabin the next day and secretly stashes a black mamba snake in the suitcase of money, which bites Budd several times on the face and he eventually succumbs to his wounds and dies just after Elle reads out information she acquired about the black mamba snake and the devastating effects of its poison.  Elle then calls Bill to tell him that Budd has died and that the Bride has been buried in a coffin and during the call gives the Bride's real name as Beatrix Kiddo.  

However just as Elle is about to leave the trailer, Beatrix flies into the room delivering a brutal kick to Elle and they engage in an intense fight, which Beatrix eventually wins by plucking out Elle's only remaining eye (the other one was plucked out by Pai Mei during her instruction and Elle reveals that she killed Pai Mei herself by poisoning his fish heads) but decides not to kill her and instead leaves the trailer with Elle screaming hysterically, flailing helplessly and now blind.  

After this Beatrix then travels to the Mexican countryside where she finally tracks down Bill but when she arrives and finds Bill she is given a surprise she did not expect as she sees her daughter, B.B (Perla Haney-Jardine) is alive and well.  Beatrix spends the night with Bill and B.B. and after Beatrix puts her daughter to bed, she goes down and confronts Bill for the last time.....

THOUGHTS 

Volume 2 continues the tale of bloody revenge of the Bride very well and given its the same film, its hard to quantify it being better than Volume 1 but I would say its about the same. What I would also say is Volume 2 is more character driven as well than Volume 1 and it also allows us to see more of Beatrix's backstory as well as that we also finally discover her real name as you might remember any instance of her name used in Volume 1 was bleeped out.  The second film also draws a more vivid picture of Bill as well and while he is still very much a ruthless killer and as he himself even puts it "a murdering bastard" you can also see how he was hurt by Beatrix's sudden decision to run away from her job as an assassin and let him think she was dead all this time she had been away.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers and strong language!) 

Getting onto the performances of the film the cast are all on great form.

Staring with Uma Thurman, who is great again as the Bride and she adds more elements to her character than before as we now see her more as a person in Volume 2 than in the first film, through her stages of training under Pai Mei's tutelage, her engagement with her fiance Tommy, and also her relationship with Bill.  

Uma has quite a few highlights in the film such as the scene of Beatrix's fight scene with Elle, which remains one of the best scenes in the film.  And as the two of them fight, Beatrix finds Budd's Hanzo sword (who Budd had previously lied to Bill that he pawned it) and Elle asks what it is and Beatrix replies "Budd's Hanzo sword!" and Elle says "Budd said he pawned it" and Beatrix smiles and says "Guess that makes him a liar now doesn't it?".  And as Elle taunts Beatrix by telling her that she poisoned Pai Mei and also that she will soon kill her and take her sword "That's right, I killed your master and now I am going to kill you with your own sword, which in the immediate future will become my sword!" and Beatrix says "Bitch! You don't have a future!" just before they clash swords and Beatrix then plucks out Elle's eye.  

Then there is the funny moment where the Bride punches her way out of her coffin and manages to climb her way to freedom up through the Earth and it then cuts to a diner, where we see an employee look out the window and we see the dusty and dithering figure of Beatrix slowly walks towards the diner.  And Beatrix covers in muck, dust and Earth enters the diner, sits down and calmly says "May I have a glass of water please?" with a smile.

Then there is of course a great moment where Beatrix finally tracks down Bill's whereabouts and as she enters Bill's expansive house, she is stunned to see her daughter B.B. and she nearly falls to the floor in shock and it remains one of Uma's best moments in the film. So, in the scenem Bill playfully tells B.B. to shoot Beatrix and she says "Bang bang!" so Bill tells Beatrix "You're dead, mommy, so die" and Beatrix catches on and dramaticaly clutches her chest and says "Oh, B.B! I should have known, you are the best!" and she fake collapses to the floor.  

This is then followed by the great confrontation scene where Beatrix and Bill talk with one another and Bill shoots her with a truth serum dart in the knee and as he does Beatrix groans loudly and says "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SHOOT ME WITH???!". So, Bill tells her "What I shot you with, which is just begging to course its way through your veins, is a potent and quite infallable truth serum". So, as they talk, Bill asks her "Why did you run away from me with my baby?" and Beatrix truthfully tells him "You remember my last assignment?" and BIll says "Yes. Lisa Wong" and Beatrix says "While I was in my hotel on that mission, I got sick and I threw up, so I started thinking, what if I was pregnant?". 

And in the scene Beatrix tells Bill why she ran away from him, which cuts to the flashback scene of Beatrix in a hotel room, taking a home pregnancy test, which turns blue, but she is then confronted by a rival assassin who tries to kill her but then they engage in a stand-off as both point guns at one another.  Beatrix then tries to reason with the assassin and tells her "I just found out, just a moment before you blew a hole in the door, that I'm pregnant!" and she get's the assassin to read the instruction of the pregnancy test to confirm it and Beatrix says to her "I'm the deadliest woman in the world, but right now I'm just scared shitless for me and my baby!" and the assassin let's her go saying "congratulations!" before running off.  

And last of all is the scene where in Beatrix and Bill's final scene together where Bill asks her if his reaction was so surprising and she says to him "Yes, it was.  Could you do what you did?  Of course you could.  But I never thought you would or could do that to me!" and Bill says she thought wrong, which prompts Beatrix put her samurai sword on the table and she says "You and I have unfinished business....!" and Bill says to her "Baby...you ain't kiddin!". 

Moving onto David Carradine who is great in his role as Bill and the film also helped revive his career somewhat as well. Carradine himself would die later in 2009 from suspected auto-erotic asphyxia.

Carradine also has some great moments in the film, such as his first scene where he meets with Beatrix during the flashback of the wedding rehearsal and Beatrix hears him play the flute and they meet eyes and he says to her "Hello Kiddo" and she asks "How did you find me?" and he says "I'm the man". So, as they talk, Bill then meets Beatrix's groom to be and afterward, Beatrix tells Bill "Bill I..." and Bill says to her "You don't owe me a damn thing, if he's the man you want, you go stand by his side".  

Then there is the scene where Bill meets with his brother Budd and he tells him how Beatrix killed the Crazy 88 and he says "There wasn't really 88 of them, they just called themselves the Crazy 88" and Budd asks why and Bill says "I dunno.  I guess they thought it sounded cool!".  Bill then asks Budd "I know this is a stupid question before I even ask, but you haven't been keeping up with your sword skills have you?" and Budd says "I pawned that thing three years ago" and Bill shocked says "You hocked a Hatori Hanzo sword??? It was priceless!" and Budd laughs and says "Not in El Paso it ain't. In El Paso, I got $250 for it". Bill then warns Budd "Look, I know the last time we spoke wasn't the most pleasant but you've got to stop being mad at me and start being afraid of (bleeps out the Beatrix's name) because she is coming to kill you and without my help, she doubtless will succeed".  

Another good scene from Carradine is where Bill drives Beatrix to Pai Mei's temple so they can start her training, and he comes down the long steps, his face beaten looking as they had a fight and he tells Beatrix "Just a friendly contest. He will accept you as his student".  Beatrix then asks "When will I see you again?" and Bill jokes "That's the name of my favourite soul song from the 70's. When he tells me you're done". So, Bill tells Beatrix of Pai Mei "Now remember, no backtalk, no sarcasm.  At least not for the first year.  You're gonna have to let him warm up for you.  He hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women, so in your case that may take a little while!".  

Then there is the scene where Beatrix and Bill confront one another at the end and he gives his speech on how Superman unlike other superheroes disguises himself, in this case as Clark Kent and uses that anology for Beatrix pretending to be someone she is not by intending to marry her fiance Tommy.  "And that's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us.  Clark Kent is how Superman views us.  Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race.  Sorta like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs Tommy Plimpton".  

Lastly there is the final scene between Bill and Beatrix where Beatrix says "You and I have unfinished business!" and Bill says "Baby... you ain't kiddin!" before they have their last fight and Beatrix (PLOT SPOILER, OF SORTS!) finishes him off with her five point palm-exploding heart technique (taught to her by Pai Mei).  So, as Bill gasps dying, he asks Beatrix "Pai Mei taught you, the five point palm exploding heart technique?" and Beatrix smiles "Of course he did" and Bill asks "Why didn't you tell me?" and Beatrix now a little teary eyed says "I don't know, because I'm a bad person". So, as they make, Bill says to her "You're not a bad person, you're a terrific person, you're my favourite person.  But every once in a while you can be a real c***!" and Beatrix laughs. So, Bill asks her "How do I look?" and Beatrix says "You look ready" and he stands up and takes his five fatal steps and falls to the ground dead.  

In the supporting cast Michael Madsen is also really good as Budd, Bill's somewhat downtrodden brother, who after the deadly viper gang disbanded, now works as a bouncer in a strip bar.  

Madsen also has some good moments in the film such as the scene where he meets with Bill and he reflects on Beatrix's quest for revenge and he says "I don't dodge guilt and I don't Jew out on paying my comeuppance.  That woman deserves her revenge and we deserve to die.  But then so does she!  So I guess we'll just see, won't we?".  

Then there is the scene where Budd surprises Beatrix as she barges into his trailer and he blasts her full of rock salt and then afterward buries her alive.  And as Budd is about to bury her he says "Now you are going into the ground tonight and that's all there is to it" and he gives her a flashlight and says "But if you're gonna be a horse's ass, I'll spray this whole can right in your eyeballs!" as he holds a can of mace in front of her eyes "Then you're gonna be blind, burnin and buried alive.  Now which is it gonna be sister?".  

Then there is the scene later on when Budd meets with Elle he says to her of Beatrix "You gotta hand it to the old girl.  I never anybody Buffalo bill the way she Buffaloed Bill.  Bill use to think she was so damn smart.  I tried to tell him "Bill, she's just smart for a blonde!". In the scene, Budd also asks Elle of her betrayal of Beatrix and what she feels more relief or regret. So, Budd asks Elle "So, which R are you filled with more? Relief or regret?" and Elle says "Little bit of both" and Budd says "Horseshit! I bet you feel a little bit of both but I bet you feel more one than the other. Now, which is it?" and Elle conceeds "Regret". Budd then sits down and opens the suitcase filled with money and he laughs as he looks at the stacks of dollar bills and he says to Elle "Thanks a bunch!" just before he meets his fate with the black mamba snake hidden inside, which suddenly bites him. 

Daryl Hannah is also really good in her part as the manipulative and conniving Elle Driver, who later confronts Beatrix in Budd's trailer.  Hannah has always been something of an underrated actress and this film confirms that as she provides a fun and corny performance which works really well in the film.  Hannah also rightfully appears to relish in the dialogue she is given as Elle and her main highlights are of course her scenes with Bill and later her fight Beatrix.  

Hannah also get's some good lines such as where the black mamba snake has just bitten Bill and he says to him "I'm sorry, Budd.  That was rude of me, wasn't it?  Budd, I'd like to introduce my friend, the black mamba.  Black mamba, this is Budd".  And Elle proceeds to read some facts she gathered from the Internet on the Black mamba and she says "A bite to the face or the torso can bring death from paralysis within 20 minutes.  The single amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bite can be gargantuan!  You know I've always like that word "gargantuan", I so rarely have the opportunity to use it in a sentence!".  

Elle then continues to say to Budd as he is dying from the snake bites from the Mamba, "Now in these last agonising minutes of life you have left, let me answer the question you asked earlier more thoroughly.  Right now the biggest "R" I feel is regret.  Regret that maybe the greatest warrior I have ever known, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin, scrub, alky piece of shit like you!  That woman deserved better!".  

Then lastly there is of course Hannah's fight scene as Elle takes on Beatrix and he taunts her by telling her that Pai Mei plucked out her eye because she called him "A miserable old fool!" and that she poisoned "That miserable old fool!".  And Elle then finally says to Beatrix "That's right I killed your Master!  And now I'm gonna kill you, too, with your own sword no less, which in the very immediate future will become my sword!" and she gives a rather cheesy villainous look as Beatrix glares angrily and tells her "Bitch! You haven't got a future!". 

Lastly, I will also make a quick mention of Gordon Liu who is great in his role as the cruel Pai Mei, the martial arts master who belittles Beatrix at every turn but he eventually gains her respect, which he shows his appreciation by flicking his long silver beard!  

Liu, who says all his lines in Madarin, also has some great moments particularly his first scene with Beatrix where he taunts and teases her and he says such things as "I despise the Goddamn Japs!" and also how "You're so called skills are quite pathetic! I asked you to demonstrate what you know and you did! Not a goddamn thing!". So, as the two of them spar again, Pai Mei effortlessly blocks all her moves, so Beatrix angrily picks up a rock and tries to hit him but he disables and twists her arm behind her back. So, Pei Mai says "How does that feel? Excruciating, isn't it?" and Beatrix painfully shouts "Yes!" and Pai Mei says "If I want I could snap your arm right off" and Beatrix pleads "No, please don't!". Pai Mei then relents and let's her go and says "That is the beginning!" so Beatrix falls to the ground and grabs her arm painfully and Pai Mei asks her "Is this the power you wish to have?" and Beatrix gasps and says "Yes!" and Pai Mei says "Very well, you're training will begin tomorrow" and he swishes his beard and walks away.  

And later as Beatrix struggles to punch the wooden wall block, Pai Mei taunts her again and says "Its the wood that should fear your hand, not the other way round!  No wonder you can't do it, you acquiesce to defeat before you even begin!" and he swishes his beard again and walks off. 

Last of all is the scene where Beatrix tries to eat rice with chopsticks but due to her pain in her hands from training, she can barely pick up the rice and she angrily throws the sticks down and picks up the rice with her hands to eat. However, Pai Mei then picks up the bowl and tells her "If you want to live like a dog, live out in the gutter" and he throws the rice away and tells her "If you want to live like a human, pick up those sticks!". So, Beatrix painfully and slowly picks up the rice with the chopsticks and eats it and Pai Mei once again gives an approving swish of his beard.   

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

Finally getting onto Quentin Tarantino as the director he does a great job here again with Volume 2 and here he shows off his filmmaking skills yet again with some great camerawork and striking cinemaphotography from Robert Richardson.  Tarantino also pays homage to the kung-fu films of the 1970s which he clearly illustrates in the flashback scene where Beatrix begins her training with Pai Mei and uses some amusing close-up shots when the camera zooms in on a character (in this case Pai Mei).  

Tarantino also provdes a fine soundtrack to the film aswell as he has selected an eclectic and effective mix of tracks such as Malcolm McLaren's "About Her" when Beatrix lies on bed with her daughter B.B.  It also features other well used tracks by Ennio Morricone for several scenes in the film such as the scene where Beatrix escapes her coffins. Not to mention, Tarantino also used some music that was composed by fellow filmmaker, Robert Rodriguez and orchestrated by rapper and composer RZA also known from the Wu-Tang Clan hip hop band.

FLAWS 

As for Volume 2's flaws...... well it get's most things right so there isn't too much worth quibbling over, although I would have to say there are still one or two niggles, such as the fact the film does feel just little bit long and there are certain scenes which are drawn out, particularly when Beatrix and Bill finally confront one another and it features that silly speech where Bill basically compares Beatrix to Superman, as someone pretending to fit into the world as someone they are not.  Its a pretty longwinded way for Bill to make his point to Beatrix and in the end it just feels like a pretty nerdy monologue written by Tarantino himself.  

The film is also a bit guilty of some ridiculous moments such as the one where Beatrix breaks free of her coffin and climbs up out of the earth to above ground. Now, realistically even if she could punch through her coffin lid (which is hardly the case!) she would have been crushed to death by the weight of all the soil that would fall ontop of her. So, the chance of her even surviving the heavy weight of the earth itself collapsing on her is extremely unlikely never mind punching her way out of her coffin!  

I also thought that their final fight scene was a bit of a letdown as well as its over in about 10 seconds and ends up with Beatrix killing Bill (indeed!) with the five-point palm exploding heart technique, which in a way is a bit of anti-climax after all the very impressive fight scenes on offer in the two films leading up to this point. Also the final moments of the film feel a bit drawn out where Beatrix lies on the floor in the bathroom sobbing over the death of Bill before she leaves for her new life with B.B.   

The film's final credits sequence is also a bit naff and is accompanied by Robert Rodriguez's typically Spanish music and features a pretty cheesy moment where we finally get to Uma Thurman in the cast list and we cut to a shot of Beatrix driving her car and it says "Uma Thurman as The Bride, aka Beatrix Kiddo, aka Black Mamba, aka Mom".  Yes we get it Quentin, you don't have to spell all her nicknames out for us!

Anyway, so that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, its hard to say that Vol 2 is better than Vol 2 as they are basically the same film but what it does do is a fine job at humanising Beatrix's character more and fleshing it out to appear more than her being a ruthless killer. The film also has some impressive fight sequences with the Pai Mei scenes and of course the intense battle between Beatrix and Elle. The performances are again also excellent here with Uma Thurman terrific again as the Bride and David Carradine is also great as Bill and additionally Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen and Gordon Liu all give sold support. Tarantino also makes good use of the tracks he chose for the film that include liberal doses of Ennio Morricone and Malcolm McClaren's "About Her" being a great choice. 

The film is arguably a little less tight and less well paced than Vol 1 and some scenes do drag a little bit but that aside, this is still a highly enjoyable film and well worth watching as well as a worthy conclusion to the film itself. So, I will rate Vol 2...

9.5 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back in July sometime with another post.

Until then, its bye for now! 

 

Kill Bill Vol 1 "You didn't think it would be that easy did you?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, since its June, I figured I would do another post and this one will be a revisit of an older one I did ages ago for Kill Bill Vol 1. I also recently rewatched Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2, so figured it would be a good idea to do a revisit of the reviews. 

So, with that said, let's take another look at this movie and see how it is 22 years on from its release...

And the usual is coming...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!  

STORY  

So beginning with a bit more about the plot of Vol 1, which starts with the blood spattered "bride" (Uma Thurman) who lies on the floor of a church in El Paso Texas, after her groom to be and her friends have been ruthlessly gunned down, by her former lover Bill (David Carradine) and his team of assassins, the Deadly Viper squad (Lucy Lui, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen and Daryl Hannah).  Just before Bill puts a bullet in his bride's head, she tells him that she is pregnant with his baby.  

The story then cuts to four years later where The Bride arrives at the house of one of the Viper squad, Vernita Green (Vivica Fox) where they both engage in fierce hand to hand combat, which is interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter, after which they both stop fighting and talk.  The Viper gang has since been disbanded and now Vernita lives a more ordinary suburban life and Vernita persuades the Bride into having a knife fight at night.  Vernita however then tries to kill the Bride with a gun hidden in a breakfast cereal packet, but the Bride manages to dodge the bullet and kills Vernita by throwing a knife into her chest, which the daughter witnesses and the Bride apologises for doing so in front of her and if she still feels angry about it later in life, she will be waiting. 

The story then shows in flashback that the Bride had indeed survived the bullet, as she lies in a coma for four years in a hospital and one night one of the Viper gang, Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) tries to kill her by using a lethal injection, but is called off by a phone call from Bill.  One night the Bride suddenly awakens from her coma, just before a hospital worker, Buck (Michael Bowen) enters with a trucker and offers him to use the Bride for sex (for money of course) only then for the Bride to spring to life, killing the trucker and then Buck, after which she steals Buck's truck.  

The bride then travels to Okinawa to find the legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) and she asks that he make her a sword, which he eventually does after she drops Bill's name.  After a month or so, Hanzo finishes the sword and the bride leaves with it, to start her bloody revenge against the Deadly Viper squad, starting with O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) who is by now the leader of the Tokyo yakuza and she follows them to a Japanese restaurant.  

What ensues is a very bloody (not to mention very spurty!) fight sequence as the bride takes on O-Ren's bodyguards, her crazed 17 year associate Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) and also the "crazy 88" who are O-Ren's hit squad, and ultimately O-Ren herself who she faces in the film's final confrontation....

THOUGHTS  

Kill Bill for me personally is easily one of Quentin Tarantino's best films, as it is a brilliant combination of different styles of film, from action to thriller, to western, to eastern to anime and Volume 1 really pulls the viewer into that world straight away with its dazzling and violent imagery.  And the film opens in such a dramatic way with the bride panting heavily as we see her bloody face as Bill stands over her he wipes her face before he puts a bullet in her head it sets the tone of the film perfectly as we know already its a revenge tale and its going to get very nasty pretty quick.     

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning; this section contains spoilers!)

Moving onto performances, the cast are all on excellent form here. 

Starting with Uma Thurman who gives a terrific performance in the main role as the Bride and she must go through just about every emotion there is an actress during both films, but in Volume 1 she is also for the most part very stern, steely and focused in her quest for revenge despite one or two moments where she allows for the odd bit of levity.  

Thurman has several highlights throughout both Volumes and one of the first scenes that comes to mind is the one where she wakes up from her coma, she looks down at her stomach at a wound where presumably her aborted child was taken from, and she screams and sobs uncontrollably.  Its a great moment in Uma's performance and the most distressing moments in the film and for that brief moment the Bride has to deal with her grief all at once, before she is interrupted, by the sleazy hospital worker, who has profited from her inert body for sex.  

This also does of course lead into the moment where the Bride kills the trucker and then stabs Buck and jams his head in the door and slams it several times and she notices the tatoo of his name on his knuckles and she says "Your name is Bud, right?  And you came here to fuck, RIGHT???!!!" before finishing him off.   

Uma also get's some good lines as the Bride such as the scene where climbs into Buck's truck and looks at her inert feet (one thing I have to say is Uma has ugly feet!) and she says to herself "Now wiggle your big toe" and then she narrates "As I sat in the back of Buck's truck, trying to will my limbs out of entrophy I could see the faces of c**** that did this to me and the dicks responsible!".

Another good scene for Uma is at the start where the Bride engages in an intense fist fight with Vernita and they have to stop the fight when Vernita's daughter arrives home from school.  And after they talk in the kitchen and Vernita tries to kill the Bride, who kills her with a knife, the daughter walks back in, impassive, the Bride says to her "It was not my intention to do this in front of you, for that I'm sorry.  But take it from me, your mother had it coming!  If later when you're all grown up, if you still feel raw about it.... I'll be waiting".  

Then there is the moment where the Bride narrates and says of O-Ren who was one of the assassins at the chapel that day. So, the Bride narrates "Four years ago she played her part in the massacre of 9 people in El Paso, Texas.  But she made one fatal mistake.  She should have made it ten!".  

Another good scene is where Uma as the Bride get's to show a little of her human side where she travels to Okinawa to meet Hanzo and Hanzo asks why she came and she said she is here to meet "Hatori Hanzo" which sends a shiver down Hanzo's spine.  And the two of them talk in Japanese and the Bride says "I need Japanese steel!" and Hanzo says "Why do you need Japanese steel?" and the Bride coldly says "I have vermin to kill!" and Hanzo "You must have some big rats if you need Japanese steel" and Bride says "Huge!".         

Then there is her great fight scene against the Crazy 88 where the Bride slices and dices O-Ren's men and as she deals with the last one, who is a small guy, terrified, in a fun moment she cuts down his blade and grabs him and bends him over and whips his butt with her blade yelling "THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR FUCKING AROUND WITH THE YAKUZAS!!!  GO HOME TO YOUR MOTHER!!!". The Bride then addresses all the maimed Yakuza who groan in pain and lie in their own blood and she yells to them in Japanese "Those of you are still alive, you can live but leave your limbs with me! They belong to me now!". Then we see the badly wounded Sophie tried to crawl away but the Bride calls out to her loudly "Except YOU, Sophie! You stay RIGHT THERE!". 

David Carradine is especially good as Bill, the man himself, who has a world weary charm but also shows that he's a killer and a vicious bastard through and through.  You never of course see Carradine in Vol 1 as you only sees his hands and hear his voice and Carradine's voice really lends a weighty gravelly tone to the character, which works perfectly.  

Carradine's best scene comes where he talks with Elle on the phone, whilst she is at the hospital ready to kill off the Bride.  And Carradine get's some good lines in the scene where Bill says to Elle "Y'all beat the hell out of that woman, but you didn't kill her.  And I put a bullet in her head and her heart kept on beating.  We've done alot of things to lady and if she ever wakes up, we'll do whole lot more.  But one thing we won't do is sneak into her room in the night like a filthy rat and kill her in her sleep.  And the reason we won't do that thing is because.... that thing will lower us!".    

Lucy Liu is also great as the deadly and foxy O-Ren Ishii, and her best scene is where she stampedes down the table in her conference room and beheads one of her impertinent associates (complete with blood fountain spurting!) and calmly tells her people that if you have problem with her, tell her so. 

So, in the scene after O-Ren beheads her adversary, Tanaka she says to the table in Japanese "To show you how serious I am, I will speak in English". So, O-Ren switches to English and says calmly "As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, to question my logic. If you're convinced a path of logic I've taken isn't the wirse, then tell me, but allow me to convince your first otherwise and I promise you right here and now, no subject discussed shall be ever taboo, except of course the subject that was just under discussion. The price of you pay for bringing my Chinese or American heritage, as a negative is, I collect your fuckin head" and she holds up the head of Tanaka "just like this fucker here! So, if any of you sonsabitches got anything else to say NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!". So, after a tense pause, O-Ren says "I thought not" and she drops Tanaka's head and says "Gentlmen, this meeting is adjourned".  

Later on Lucy has a good fight scene with Uma, as O-Ren and the Bride engage in battle, also before the Crazy 88 arrive we hear the sound of their motorcycles grow louder from the distance after the Bride has killed off a handful of O-Ren's bodyguards.  And O-Ren smiles and says to the Bride looking down from her balcony "You didn't really think it would be that easy did you?" and the Bride smiles back saying "You know for a second there, I thought it would".  And O-Ren says "Silly rabbit!" and they both say together "tricks are for kids!".    

And lastly is the moment during O-Ren and the Bride's sword battle where, O-Ren gravely injures the Bride, who goes down. So, O-Ren smiles and says "Silly little caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords. You might not be able to fight like a samurai but you can at least die like one". So, the Bride slowly get's up and with determination says "Attack me with everything you have!" and as they clash swords again, the Bride manages to cut O-Ren's heel. So, O-Ren surprised says to the Bride in Japanese "For ridiculing you earlier, I apologise" and the Bride says "Accepted. Ready?" and they cross swords for the last time.  

Sonny Chiba is also very entertaining as Hattori Hanzo, once a great swordswith, who vowed never to make another sword again, and now spends his time as a Sushi chef, arguing with his suborindate employee.  And his scenes with Uma are fun to watch, especially when she first arrives in Okinawa and he demands he assistant to get the Bride some sake, who says he's busy, and Hanzo sighs saying "Lazy bastard!  Get your ass out here!".  

And later when Hanzo shows the Bride his collection of swords and she takes one of them out of its sheath and he says to her "Funny you like Saumrai swords... I like baseball!" and he throws a baseball at her, which the Bride slices in half with precision.  And the Bride then reminds him that her vermin is a former student of his and "given the student you have a rather large obligation!" leading Hanzo to quietly go over to the window and writing Bill's name in the frosted window before telling her "You can sleep here.  It will take me a month to make the sword.  I suggest you spend that time practicing".  

Vivica A Fox is also very good in her role as Vernita Green, one of the Bride's would-be killers, who left her for dead at the chapel and the Bride later confronts at her home. 

So, Fox has some good moments in her sequence that include the one where Vernita after she stops her intense fight with the Bride asks her "Would you like some coffee?" and the Bride says "Yeah". So, they go into the kitchen where Vernita makes coffee and says "I suppose its too late to accept an apology" and the Bride says "You supposed correctly". So, Vernita says "Look, if I could go back in a machine and changes things I could but I can't. All I can tell you is that I'm a different person now". So, as they talk, the Bride asks her "When do you want to die?" and Vernita says "How about tonight bitch?" and the Bride grins and says "Splendid!". 

So, Vernita suggests they meet at midnight and dress in all black nearby her house and she says "Now, I have to fix my daughter's cereal". So, the Bride says "Bill always said you were the best he'd ever seen with an edged weapon" and Vernita grins and says "Fuck you, bitch! Bill never qualified that such, so you can my kiss ass, Black mamba! Black mamba, I shoulda been motherf***** black mamba!". The Bride teases her and says "Your choice of weapon? You can stick with the butcher knife if you want" and Vernita smiles and says "Very funny bitch! VERY FUNNY!" and we hear a gunshot fire, as Vernita hid a gun in a cereal packet, which misses the Bride, who then kicks her coffee mug across the room and throws a knife at Vernita, which hits her in the chest and she falls down dead.  

And lastly Daryl Hannah also is very good in her brief role as the evil and sly Elle Driver, who wears and eyepatch on one eye and her character appears more in Volume 2.  And after seeing Daryl give some pretty so-so performances in films from the 1980s such as Roxanne, and Wall Street, what she does do really well in this film is ham it up, and shows that she is in her own way a capable actress.  

Hannah only really has one scene in the film which is a memorable one where Elle attempts to kill off the Bride while she is in her coma in hospital but Bill phones her and calls it off.  So, in the scene Elle stands over the Bride's inert form in hospital and says to her "This is my gift to you" as she is about to inject poison into her but her phone goes off and she says "For fuck's sake!" and she answers it to hear Bill on the other end. So, Bill tells Elle "We're going to abort" and and Elle shouts "Oh, you don't owe her SHIT!" and Bill says "Will you lower your voice?!" and Elle says in a hushed tone "You don't owe  her shit!". So, after the call Elle says to the inert Bride "I bet you thought that was pretty fuckin funny didn't you?!  Word of advice, shithead.  Don't you ever wake up!".   

DIRECTOR 

As for Quentin Tarantino direction wise I don't think he has made a better film as his mix of skilfull camera work, and brilliant use of Japanese anime, and superb photography from Robert Richardson all add up to a visual treat for the viewer. Tarantinto took upon himself to make the decision to split Kill Bill into two films to avoid cutting any scenes out of the film(s) themselves and this is certainly one of the tautest films he's made in his career.  

MUSIC  

As for the music, Tarantino skillfully chooses some great tracks for the film starting with Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang", the cheesy but highly effective use of the theme from "Quincy".  I also can't forget to mention the catchy 5, 6, 7, 8's "Woo-hoo" which is annoying but at the same time it is also strangely quite enjoyable.  In general Tarantino has a like for 1970s funk music, and plenty of it permeates throughout the whole film, abd he uses it very well, especially tracks like "Ray Fan Ray" by Isaac Hayes in the anime scene with O-Ren killing one of her targets as an assassin.  Naturally Tarantino threw in the theme from the "Green Hornet" during the scene where the Bride drives the streets of Tokyo as she follows O-Ren and her entourage.  And lastly there is of course the track "Battle without honor or humanity" by the Japanese musician, Tomoyasu Hotei, which became very popular as a result of the film and is used well in the slo-mo scene of O-Ren and her bodyguards walking into the restaurant where the Bride will later do battle with O-Ren and her men.  

FLAWS (Warning: this section contains spoilers!) 

Getting onto the flaws of Volume 1.... well its a great film so overall nothing too glaring but what I would say is from a character point of view, what the bride has to endure is pretty horrendous, and Tarantino seems almost delight in putting his characters through the unbearable and the downright harrowing.  This is perfectly highlighted in the scene where the Bride is being used for sex whilst she lies in a coma in hospital, which is quite horrific in itself and it again it kind of highlights a rather mysognistic tone to the film, which could be levelled at some of Tarantino's other work.  

I also felt in a way that the Bride's character was less likeable in the first film and more difficult to relate to as she is largely more as a remorseless killer than anything else, who is consumed with revenge and its only in the scene where the Bride meets with Hanzo in Okinawa we get to see some of her charm start to emerge.  Volume 2 would however go on to address this but in a way it does serve to potentially alienate some viewers.  

Another concern could also come from the level of violence in the film as it is pretty OTT in terms of the blood as in the big bloody fight scene with the Crazy 88, its almost like the actors were fitted with sprinkler attachments so the blood could fly anywhere at all!  Despite that though Tarantino does somewhat succeed in making it all entertaining and overall it isn't too disturbing to watch but the Crazy 88 bloody battle is certainly not a scene for those with a weak stomach. 

Tarantino also skilfully cuts between colour and black and white once it starts to get really bloody (and then back again) and he amusingly uses the catchy song "Nobody but me" by the Human Beinz, which undercuts the harshness of the violence onscreen, which again highlights Tarantino's maxim that he sees violence as a form of entertainment. 

You could also argue that in the hospital scene where the Bride kills the man who pays to have sex with her and then the hospital ward worker who effectively pimped her out, its surprising the cops weren't ever called to the scene. I mean it was presumably during the night when this happens but the Bride does spend 13 hours in the hospital worker's truck, so if they wanted to conduct a police hunt for her, she wouldn't be too difficult to find! Especially if she wasn't able to walk by this point if they discovered her there. In the end though, it is just a film.

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Kill Bill Vol 1 is a terrific film from Quentin Tarantino and one of his very best works with a great mix of visual style and content as well as a great performance by Uma Thurman as the Bride. The film also has some great action scenes, which were cordindated by renowned choreographer, Yuen Woo-Ping (who did the Matrix films) and a great soundtracks featuring many memorable tracks. So, after 22  years, this is still a great film and well worth checking out as well as one of Tarantino's greatest achievements.

So, I will rate Kill Bill Vol 1:

10 out of 10     

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with Vol 2.

Until then its bye for now!