SPOILERS AHEAD

I think I really said my piece on this movie with the last review so all that remains is to add a star rating and a cover image. I enjoyed this on this viewing more than on my last. I love how the whole movie is “really” under all the violence about a mother’s love for her murdered daughter only to find before the end credits that she’s not really been murdered. There’s so much here that’s ridiculously non-Tarantino-esque, like Sonny Chiba’s sushi chef scene, so comic, almost Fawlty Towers or something. There’s so much respect and honour about the violence, however comic-book extreme it is. And the soundtrack is perfection. One thing I want to say that I thought I’d said in the other review but hadn’t is a stupid niggling thing but when I saw the movie the first time, the end credits actually began before we saw B. making her deathlist on the plane and Bill’s revelation. After B said “They’ll all be dead as O-Ren …” came Tarantino’s director credit, and the whole ‘preview’ of Vol. 2 plus the big twist came after, kinda like a post-teaser. This TV screening and, I think, my DVD, place all the end credits after the action’s over. I think it works so much better when you have that brief moment of, “What? No, that can’t be it!” Much as I’d love to see the big-ass complete cut that Tarantino talked about once upon a time, this two-parter would lose so much without the cliffhanger.

18th March 2004:

Disclaimer: I’ve been a Tarantino fan since the time I was only allowed to read the 4-screenplay pack I got for Christmas in (I think) 1994 when I was 14. I’m of that lucky age where I remember the thrill of Reservoir Dogs being a “banned” movie and that was basically my route into Tarantino, I was really big on anti-censorship when all kinds of movies were unavailable in the UK, and I guess that’s why Tarantino caught my eye. I’m pretty much forever biased ‘cos of this early introduction to his work, but I hope my opinions not completely skewed.

Aside from the ones he didn’t direct (True Romance, Natural Born Killers, From Dusk Till Dawn), before Kill Bill came along, my favourite Tarantino film always turned out being the underdog Jackie Brown, Tarantino really broke from the things he was infamous for with that movie and showed his intelligence a lot more, despite the source material not being his. With Kill Bill he’s combining that intelligence and depth with the things he’s infamous for, emphasising both by multiple degrees, and adding another layer that’s hard to describe but most comparable to Oliver Stone’s interpretation of Natural Born Killers, which was shot by Robert Richardson, the same cinematographer as here. We’ve got flipping from colour to black and white, music being cut with the visual cuts, a whole reel of animé (some of the most beautiful images ever), a mix of Hong Kong action and Sergio Leone, more homages and references than you can shake a stick at; yet it’s all unmistakably the work of one man. They advertised it The Fourth Film By Quentin Tarantino and he is one of the few directors who can rightfully claim the slightly selfish “Film By” credit.

It would’ve been nice if they’d delivered the movie in one chunk rather than these “Volumes” – it wouldn’t have made any difference to the overall movie, I don’t think, and I’m hoping there’s some kind of DVD which allows the viewer to watch it all unterrupted, maybe even chronological, could be fun (but I guess we’re still waiting for them to do that with Pulp Fiction so I guess we’ve at least a decade to wait..) But there’s one great part of this first part that would have never come about if it had been released as one movie – the beautiful, fairly predictable but incredibly moving, cliffhanger. There’s a real sense of Vol. 1 working on its own – the title tells you where it’s going to end, The Bride has already proven herself a great “warrior”, and flashes of the story outside the story give glimpses that expand in your imagination to fill the gaps. Of course Vol. 2 is probably going to be even better… but I still think Vol. 1 has the ability to standalone somehow.

This feels like it’s been a less passionate and gushing review than I’ve been giving 1) in the past few days and 2) in general for movies in my top 250 list… maybe I’m just tired. I do feel compelled to say that the animé sequence is worth watching the movie for alone, it’s probably the key sequence that propels the movie up so high in my memories and thoughts. Raining blood… it just thrills me and breaks my heart all at once and makes me imagine what a feature-length animé by Tarantino could be… can’t wait till Vol. 2.

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