Kill Bill
KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 (18)
D: Quentin Tarantino
Miramax/A Band Apart (Lawrence Bender)
US 2003
111 mins
Action/Adventure
W: Quentin Tarantino
DP: Robert Richardson
Ed: Sally Menke
Mus: The RZA
PD: Yohei Tanada & David Wasco
Uma Thurman (The Bride), Lucy Liu (O-Ren
Ishii), Viveca Fox (Vernita Green), Daryl Hannah (Elle Driver), Michael Madsen (Budd), David Carradine (Bill), Michael Parks (Earl McGraw), Sonny Chiba (Hattori Hanzo)
Even writer-director Quentin Tarantino acknowledges this
as a work of nonsense, going as far as describing it as "the kind of movie characters from his other screenplays (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, etc.) would enjoy watching", and
that's possibly the best way to describe it. Tarantino blends the elements of film's which have inspired his career to create a fun ode to martial arts and exploitation films of the
1970's.
Uma Thurman plays a nameless character referred to as 'The
Bride', who wakes from a lengthy coma to take revenge on the assassins who put her in hospital, ultimately 'killing Bill' a spurned ex-lover who arranged her wedding day ambush.
With the story split into two parts, this first instalment
deals mostly with The Bride taking on a female samurai and her cohorts in Japan and leaves the ending open for the adventures to continue in the second film.
7/10
KILL BILL: VOLUME 2 (18)
D: Quentin Tarantino
Miramax/A Band Apart (Lawrence Bender)
US 2004
136 mins
Action/Adventure
W: Quentin Tarantino
DP: Robert Richardson
Ed: Sally Menke
Mus: Robert Rodriguez
PD: David Wasco
Uma Thurman (The Bride), David
Carradine (Bill), Michael Madsen (Budd), Daryl Hannah (Elle Driver), Gordon Liu (Pai Mei), Michael Parks (Esteban Vihaio), Perla Haney-Jardine (B.B.), Samuel L. Jackson
(Rufus)
The continuation and conclusion of Quentin Tarantino's
ode to exploitation films and kung fu flicks of the 70's, with Uma Thurman as vengeful assassin, The Bride.
This second part to the double bill has much less
action, focusing instead on the relationships of the characters and the build up to the events in the first film.
Tarantino gives the film great style, with comic book
style composition and colours, while the premise is obviously not meant to be taken that seriously. As mentioned in the review for the first film, QT described the films as 'the type of
movies that the characters from Pulp Fiction would go to the cinema to watch'. Personally, I think Vincent Vega and Mr. Pink have pretty decent taste.
7/10
