‘Kill Bill’ not once, but twice
Published 8:31 am Thursday, February 28, 2008
From the looks of the long awaited “Kill Bill Volume 1,” obsessive auteur director Quentin Tarantino has spent the six years since his last film “Jackie Brown” hunkered down in a darkened screening room watching movies. Hong Kong martial arts flicks. Samurai films. Spaghetti westerns. These “grind house” genre films of his youth have apparently reinvigorated his creative juices, resulting in enough material for not one “Kill Bill,” but two — the second scheduled to arrive in theaters in February 2004.
Just as 1997’s “Jackie Brown” was Tarantino’s nod to the “blaxploitation” films of the 1970’s (complete with the queen of the genre, Pam Grier), “Kill Bill” is an indulgent homage to Asian action cinema. In this installment, Tarantino introduces The Bride (Uma Thurman), left for dead after taking a bullet in the brain during the brutal wedding day massacre of her fiance and family. The Bride’s departure from her position in the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS) is perceived as a betrayal by her former boss and lover, Bill (David Carradine) — as is her pregnancy. When The Bride awakens in a coma ward four years later, the trained killer within her vows revenge and sets out to finish off each of the remaining members of the DiVAS who took part in the slaughter.
It’s a story line and pacing that’s not unlike that of another movie still in theaters, Robert Rodriguez’s “Once Upon A Time in Mexico.” Which isn’t surprising, given the writer/directors previously collaborated on 1996’s “From Dusk Till Dawn,” a refashioning of yet another “grind house” genre — that of the Mexican vampire movie. The two share an affinity for stylized, outlandish violence, dramatic pauses in action and stinging dialogue. The difference in the two lies in how accessible each is to mainstream audiences. “Kill Bill” may be too much to swallow for those not familiar with the nuances of Asian action cinema. Long, drawn out battle sequences and gushing blood might lose the uninitiated in your group. Those who are unfamiliar with the legendary Sonny Chiba will leave to get popcorn during his too brief appearance as a samurai sword-smith. Otherwise, for obsessed film junkies, “Kill Bill” is a dream come true.
Ultimately, “Kill Bill” is difficult to assess because the film ends without any resolution. Like the cliffhanger serials of early cinema, how it plays out in February with “Kill Bill Volume 2” remains to be seen. In the mean time, Tarantino has unveiled an elegantly brutal first chapter in The Bride’s tragic tale.
