Kill Bill Volume I

10/12/03 “Kill Bill”

Starring:Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba

Directed by:Quentin Tarantino

Rating:Slender Tampon

Plot Summary: Uma Thurman is going to KILL BILL, in Quentin Tarantino’s latest film about a former assassin betrayed by her boss, Bill (David Carradine). Four years after surviving a bullet in the head, the bride (Thurman) emerges from a coma and swears revenge on her former master and his deadly squad of international assassins, played by Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox and Michael Madsen.

I was mildly interested in going to see “Kill Bill.” Like many of the people I have spoken to, when the first trailers came out I was thinking “pass!” But once I heard more about it and saw some better, more updated trailers, I was interested. I am a big “Pulp Fiction” fan, I hated “Reservoir Dogs” and I could take or leave “Jackie Brown.” So, I was prepared to be entertained, without expecting too much. That said, I really really enjoyed “Kill Bill Volume 1.”

The action is so over the top, gory and cartoonish that you can’t help but be drawn in, with trademark QT mind-fucks and scenes shown out of order, so that much of your time is spent having “aha!” moments. Of course, Quentin’s view of the world is a dark one indeed. He seems to have a talent for treating the most horrific of human behaviors as if they were mundane, everyday things. Which they probably are, though we don’t like to admit it. Like Buck “I came to Fuck” the male nurse who rents out his comatose patients to friends, and even supplies the dodgy looking tub of crusty lube. He’s also careful enough to note that “her plumbing’s all messed up so you can come in there as much as you want.”

After waking and ridding the world of Buck, Uma (we never learn her characters name, at least in Volume 1) proceeds with singular resolve to dispatch with the team of assassins in Bill’s hire who massacred her wedding party on her wedding day, leaving her and her unborn child for dead.

Even though the world is dark and pessimistic through QT’s lens, it’s got a gritty, if over the top, realism and sense of honor in its characters, as evidenced by Uma Thurman’s character’s words to the 4-year old daughter of the woman she’s just killed. “When you’re grown up, if you’re still raw about it, I’ll be waiting.”

Tarantino uses several interesting effects (blood geyser, anyone?) to make his cinematic point, one of which is a beautiful anime sequence to develop the character of “Cottonmouth.” Though I am not a fan of anime I really enjoyed it, and saw that it was the best way to move the plot along, while giving us a break from all the blood and gore that we’d already taken in. And blood and gore there are aplenty. But in such a way as to be non-disturbing. There are more severed limbs in this film than you’d find at a tree surgeon’s convention, but the violence is not realistic, plus it’s a girl who’s doing the perpetratin’ so it’s all good…

I recommend KBV1 – and will absolutely go see KBV2 – though I do think the studio gouging us for double the admission price sucks. From what I have read, they intend to release the DVD and rental in two phases too – capitalistic bastards.

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