Kill Bill

[StoryofE]

Movie Discussion/Review: 'Kill Bill, Volume 1'

I'm a big Tarantino fan and even I had some reservations about a big budget exploitation movie. But from the opening 'Shaw Scope' credit to the Japanese ballad that closes the film, I was riveted. QT let all his obsessions hang out in this one, taking elements from all of his genre faves(kung fu movies, samurai movies, giallo) and put them in a blender and made something completely his own. There's not a lot of patented Tarantino dialogue, but he shows what he can do when it comes to filming action scenes.

Uma Thurman's character 'The Bride', has got to be the most ass kicking on-screen female I have seen since Ripley in Aliens.

This is a great looking movie too, cinematically speaking this is the best his movies have ever looked. The final showdown between The Bride and O-ren Ishii(Lucy Liu) shot at night in the falling snow has got to be one of the most evocative set pieces I have seen in a long time.

I've already seen this one twice and I can't wait for the next one! If you want to get a heads up on all the references and homages in this movie below is a link to a 'Study Guide' on the movie.




Kill Bill, Volume 1 Study Guide

:smokin:

[Emp edit: Re-edited to make the title more generic]

 

[Jerry_B]

I thought it was absolutely crap.

Sorry, but that's just how it is to me. Tarantino has now gotten so geekily derivative that the whole movie is like going to see a band you like, only to hear them do a long set of not very capable cover-versions instead of their own orginal stuff. Everything is a cliche of a cliche - if you're interested in films, you can watch the whole thing and reel off how many other better films or styles he's pretty much ripped off to get his directorial point across. The characters are all like something from a pretty bad comic - in fact, I think Tarantino should just give up even trying to be original and from now on just direct movies based on comics. Therefore, he should just make Batman films, or something along the lines of 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', or whatever comic-based film comes out next. 'Kill Bill' has absolutely no substance - even as an action flick it's stitched together too much from other stuff to be watchable.

:cross eye

 

[James_H]

I liked it a lot, but i thought it half didn't work. for instance, i didn't like the first two chapters much, i did like the first three. I thought the character of o ren ishii worked well, the bride didn't, etc.

 

[OneWingedBird]

I didn't care for it much myself.

A lot of it strikes me as very trying hard to be contraversial, taboo themes get thrown in willy nilly for pure stunt value eg rape, paedophilia, children witnessing acts of violence. I can imagine it appealing to fans of Bizarre magazine.

Some of it was just plain dumb, I mean when O-Ren-Shi walks down the table and decapitates the guy and all the Yakuza bosses just sit there and watch, like they wouldn't all have pulled guns on her?

And the fight with the 88 kenshi was so excruciatingly boring I nearly fell asleep.

I thought it made the Japanese look so dumb they should sue for defamation.

 

[Anonymous]

God no, it's one of the most perfect films ever made. As to it being offensive...well, as someone once said, no-one ever complained about 7even did they? Now that was a load of stretched bearings, but I digress.

I think the mistake that anyone would make is taking it seriously. It is quite clearly a huge black joke...does anyone really think that blood sprays out at that rate?

Incidentally, the guys in the decapitation scene are loyal to Oren already, hence why they don't attack. The stereotyping was subtly underlined in the script as Oren makes her announcement in English, to underline its importance, despite the fact that the only English speakers present are the audience.

Plus, c'mon, Green Hornet, y'know?

 

[Anome]

I enjoyed it. (Saw it in Santa Barbara with friends.) Not a film masterpiece, but he's certainly willing to mess about with media.

There are some mild spoilers below. Do not read if you don't wish to find out some minor details of the story.

A lot of effort went into capturing the feel of manga, and some of it worked really well. (The split screen work, with close ups on detail next to another angle on the scene, or related scene, for example.) It also captured some of the absurdist feel of many manga. (The fact the Bride was able to carry a sword in the cabin of a plane. She sat in the carpark of the hospital for 13 hours, while the owner of the truck she was in lay bleeding to death upstairs. Ordinarily these would be seen as problems, but in the millieu of manga or anime, they become typical.)

Two quibbles: The fact he got into a situation where he couldn't avoid saying the Bride's name (and bleeped it out), and the animated young O-Ren's eyes weren't crossed. (Made it dificult to accept it was the same character as Lucy Liu.)

 

[TulipTree]

I liked it. Maybe because it was a "serious" parody. Meaning he didn't just goof joke his way through it but made it for fans of the genre.

Sometimes, watching movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, or the Matrix, or other new action films I get kind of embarrassed because they take themselves so seriously and downplay the horror of the constant non-stop visceral carnage.

I really do like old action movies which aren't as special effects laden as the new movies, and don't take themselves as seriously, but have a lot of style. Like In Like Flint or Diabolik and of course Kung Fu movies.

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting mix of views here, though the majority appeared to like it. Sorry, not a Bizarre reader here, I really enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure that anybody else who enjoyed it isn't a lesser breed of mortal either

As for Taboo's...Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, Dusk Till Dawn, True Romance, Resevior Dogs, I'm pretty sure ALL those films had equal helpings.

the people leaving the cinema I heard saying "the spraying blood was so unrealistic" I'm pretty certain they're the same ones that said "all that flying was unrealistic" in Crouching Tiger hidden dragon...or shouted out "As if" when superman flew up and caught Miss Lane AND the helicopter in the first superman movie many many years ago.

Looking forward to Vol. 2

Just remember folks, relax that sphincter, sit back and enjoy. It's only a movie

 

[Jerry_B]

Yes, it's only a movie. A very very very bad movie

As I've said, it doesn't work even as a action film - it's like the Matrix series. I find myself sitting there thinking 'Whoopee, another over-long dull fight scene'. Martial arts films can get away with it because they did it first many moons ago. Ol' Quentin's just making a fast geeky buck ripping off as many things as possible, even more than he's done already. He's crossed the line where homage becomes stretched very very thin, IMHO. It's just one long bad cover-version.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's only a movie. A very very very bad movie

As I've said, it doesn't work even as a action film - it's like the Matrix series. I find myself sitting there thinking 'Whoopee, another over-long dull fight scene'. Martial arts films can get away with it because they did it first many moons ago. Ol' Quentin's just making a fast geeky buck ripping off as many things as possible, even more than he's done already. He's crossed the line where homage becomes stretched very very thin, IMHO. It's just one long bad cover-version.

So I take it, unlike the matrix series, you won't be going to see Vol. 2?

You know, maybe these films split in two are a good thing. those that actually liked the first one will be able to go see the second with more elbow room...unless (and i highly suspect that this will be the case) the cinema is full of people who hated the first one, but are out to watch the second one so they can tell everyone how crap it is again....which happened with Matrix reloaded and revolutions (not right across the board obviously, but I was surprised at how many who hated the second one then went to see the third...only to moan about it all over again). Haven't heard anyone do that with Lord of the Rings however.

 

[Jerry_B]

Luckily for me, I didn't have to pay to see any of them I think Kill Bill and the Matrix series are good examples of some things becoming more homogenised - it always reminds you of something else so much that (with hindsight) you didn't really need to see it. This is why I enjoy (Chinese) Jackie Chan films more (if we're talking about OTT fight scene-based films) - their more inventive, quite daft and you know that Mr. Chan is doing all those stunts for real. I think Tarentino, like John Woo, is flogging a dead horse WRT their approach and style to films - they started off okay, now they're just stale and formulaic, even as action films. You get the feeling that they haven't really progressed with their way of doing things. With Kill Bill, I just had this mental image the whole time of Tarentino typing out the script and cackling to himself like Butthead

 

[Anonymous]

With Kill Bill, I just had this mental image the whole time of Tarentino typing out the script and cackling to himself like Butthead

The 'Great Cornholio', himself!

 

[phi23]

...The fact he got into a situation where he couldn't avoid saying the Bride's name (and bleeped it out)...

Excuse me for being dumb but why exactly was The Bride's name bleeped out?!?!

 

[Anonymous]

Luckily for me, I didn't have to pay to see any of them

Oh, but you did, since you sat through them and hated them...the Matrix series and Kill Bill Vol. 1, that's a fair chunk of your life to be handing over to crap films....I mean if lost time was like air miles...imagine, that's a marathon of wasted time right there....I wonder if you coudl at least get necter points for those.

This calls for someone to invent a "waste of time" refund machine, where you step into a booth, and reappear two, sometimes three hours earlier, knowing that you could put that time to good use. I notice the lobby of the cinema where I went to see "Hulk" was short of one of those

Speaking of those air miles....you know, they really should have emergency instructions in cinema's like they do on planes, in a pocket on the back of the seat infront of you. And an usher should signal to the emergency exits, and a broadcast should come up on the screen, announcing, "In the event of this film being crap, please head for your nearest exit. After all, life's too short to be wasting it on films you hate."

 

[Jerry_B]

This calls for someone to invent a "waste of time" refund machine, where you step into a booth, and reappear two, sometimes three hours earlier, knowing that you could put that time to good use. I notice the lobby of the cinema where I went to see "Hulk" was short of one of those

I'd rather a machine was made to make QT and a few other directors give up and go and do something more productive - in QT's case, go back to working in a video store Then I wouldn't even have to waste time getting into the refund machine

 

[Anonymous]

I'd rather a machine was made to make QT and a few other directors give up and go and do something more productive - in QT's case, go back to working in a video store Then I wouldn't even have to waste time getting into the refund machine

Have you ever read "Word Processor of the Gods", a short story from "Skeleton Crew" by Stephen King....in which someone types in a name and deleats it, then that person no longer exists...same for objects etc? I mean, King could do with such a word processor himself given some of the books he's written, but I'd imagine you'd love one of those.

So I gather that in sticking QT in this machine of yours, sort of a room 101 for film makers, you hated all his other films too? which begs the question, why on earth go and see Kill Bill? If you already had such a low opinion of the director, then why waste your time, evidently again?

 

[Jerry_B]

'Reservoir Dogs' was pretty good, and 'Pulp Fiction' was good when it wasn't trying to be too cool (QT should never appear in his own films, unless he plays a nerd). I think I've ended up seeing his films as some friend has said offered to pay for me to go with them, or (in the case of Reservoir Dogs) it was only 2 quid to see it at the Prince Charles cinema in London.

I was all the more convinced that 'Kill Bill' was kack when the following evening I watched an Argentinian film about conmen called 'Nine Queens'. Like KB, it uses a few standard genre plot devices, but it waaaaaaaay better just as a film in general.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some snooty film buff, far far from it - it's just that alot of stuff being churned out nowadays is crap. People slag the latest incarnation of 'The Italian Job' when 'Kill Bill' is pretty much itself a remake - of various other films. A real Frankenstein's Monster

 

[Anonymous]

the Prince Charles cinema in London.

That's something I most definately miss about London

 

[Anome]

Excuse me for being dumb but why exactly was The Bride's name bleeped out?!?!

It's all about how she's no longer a person, she's a vessel of vengeance, etc. It's a stylistic thing, and he should have reworked that scene so that she didn't have to be named.

 

[Spookyangel]

I thought her name was something rude and that was why it was bleeped out...

Maybe I shouldn't have admitted that!

I loved this film. It gave me a real adrenaline rush when I was feeling a bit run down. I wanted to go out an buy a samurai sword. Hehe. Loved the use of the Green Hornet music too. It was so OT it was great!

 

[Anonymous]

Yup, that fairly sums it up; it was fun. In an 'arms coming off' kind of way. Incidentally, I can't stand Bizarre, since I have no interest in seeing real corpses, but do like to watch Uma slapping people with the wrong end of an unrealistically big sword.

That said, I like Lynch, Cocteau, Powell/Pressburger and the like. But I also like to watch that guys head disintegrate in Dawn of the Dead. 'ere, I watched Doctor Phibes on DVD the other night. How nasty is that?

 

[StoryofE]

Was anybody else grossed out by the jar of vaseline? :cross eye

 

[Anome]

Grossed out in a sick joke kind of way. That was what it was there for.

(Gee, Tarantino sure made certain we'd really like Buck as a person, didn't he? At least you can't claim any innocent bystanders got killed.)

 

[Anonymous]

'ere, I watched Doctor Phibes on DVD the other night. How nasty is that?

Perverse, in a 'Grand Guignol' sort of a way!

 

[Anonymous]

Excuse me for being dumb but why exactly was The Bride's name bleeped out?!?!

Hmm...
reminds me of 18th century novels like Tristam Shandy; often the name of one of the characters would be blanked out, for no real reason, as in Colonel B____;

Back then the conventions of the novel were still being worked out, and often were written as collections of letters or newspaper reports; Laurence Sterne for instance was experimenting with his medium, just like Tarantino is today.

It is a shame in fact that most potboilers, both novels and films, are written in such a boring, sterotyped fashion; experimentation is a rare thing in Hollywood.

Fortunately this is not true of Mr Quentin's efforts in general.

 

[phi23]

I got a feeling that it might be a convention from Japanese or Chinese films but I've not seen it occur before. Has QT not mentioned it?

 

[Anome]

It goes back to the Manga tradition, I think. (For a start it's a lot easier to do that sort of thing in a comic book.)

Tarantino certainly isn't into conventional film making. From what I've seen, he's into bringing together a range of different styles and traditions, mostly ones he likes, and blending them into his films. He makes films he wants to watch, and if others like them too, he gets paid for it. (He's said that in interview a number of times.)

One of the friends I went to see it with felt that one of his stronger film influences, after the HK and Japanese action genres, was Naturally Born Killers: a film he wrote, and at one point completely disowned, I believe. Certainly Stone was attempting to blend cross-media techniques - some of which may have been in the script, but some was definitely Stone's work.

I'm not sure, in retrospect, that it was as strong an influence as my friend claimed, but they were both doing similar things in trying to tell the story in a different way from the usual cinematic techniques.

That's enough pretentious movie talk from me for now.

 

[OneWingedBird]

The Abominable Dr Phibes is one of my favourite films ever.

"I think it's a left hand thread" has me ROFLMAO every time.

Though the sequel isn't quite the same without Virginia North as Vulnavia.

It's quite possible I just took Kill Bill a bit too seriously, and I'm not really a fan of the movies that it's based on.

 

[StoryofE]

Excuse me for being dumb but why exactly was The Bride's name bleeped out?!?!

I've read that if you look closely at the Bride's plane ticket that you can read her name on it.

The Abominable Dr Phibes is one of my favourite films ever.

Mine too! That and the sequel are the only Vincent Price dvd's I own.



:smokin:

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

With Kill Bill, I just had this mental image the whole time of Tarentino typing out the script and cackling to himself like Butthead

I'm afraid whatever QT does he'd be cackiling like Butthead or saying 'alirght' an awful lot (I can't watch him being interviewed anymore).

Anyway I saw the film last night and thought it was superb and I'd happily go and see it again now!!

It does seem to be a love it or loath it type of film though

Emps