“Silly caucasian girl who likes to play with samurai swords…. “
It is rare these days why I get to spend some time in a movie theater. Even more rare when that time is spent keeping my jaw from hanging and telling to myself … Oh My God.
Kill Bill – Vol 1. was one of those movies. A movie that polarize whoever watch it – you either love it or hate it. There is no middle ground. The last one before that was Moulin Rouge… which I happened to love too. Go figure..
Where to even begin. The story of the revenge of the nameless bride against her former team mates, the Deadly Vipers Assassination Squad and her former employer, Bill, is outrageous, comical, and yet noble and sad throughout the movie.
The characters are tormented or mad, or both. The Bride lost her loved ones, including her unborn child on her wedding day and spent four year in a coma. She wakes up with an obsessive goal in mind – payback. Vernita Green is a deadly stay at home soccer mom. O-Ren Ishii watched her parents be executed by yakuza when she was a child. Fortunately for her, the murderer of her parents was a pedophile. She got even with him at 12 while he was trying to take advantage of her. Go-Go Yubari is an insane schoolgirl in uniform. Even the Man from Okinawa, Hattori Hanzo, is haunted by a promise to never make a sword to kill someone again. And finally, the Crazy 88, O-Ren Ishii’s private army.
The cheezy music from the 60s and 70s is as much a character as the others. It carries the movie as efficiently as the dialogs, playing on contrasts and enhancing the drama. Throw in some over the top gore effects, arms flying, heads splitting, and the mix becomes an electrifying story between Bruce Lee, Anime and Sergio Leone.
Favorite moments:
- Anime background story of O-Ren Ishii…. pure joy to watch
- Split screens dialogues
- Long shots of the brides’ toes
- The Pussy Wagon
- Interruption of the fight by little girl coming back from school on a bus
- Spanking of the last of the Crazy 88 …. “Go back to your mother”
- Go-Go Yubari gigling insanely before smashing her flail into the bride’s shoulder
- Sound of water features in zen garden before the last fight
- O-Ren Ishii with the top of her skull missing
- Dialog between the Bride and Hattori Hanzo, the sword maker
- The Blip sounds each time the Bride says her name
- Arrival of O-Ren Ishii and her gang into the club
- O-Ren Ishii polite talk to the yakuza council after beheading one of their founding members
- Enio Morricone music in the background
Now… if the next movie doesn’t have a long scene of standoff under the sun, with close ups on the eyes of Michael Madsen’s sad eyes, I am going to be seriously disappointed..