So what's it all about?
A pregnant assassin, The Bride, aka Black Mamba (Thurman) is attacked
by her former employer and left for dead at her wedding rehearsal. After
waking up from a coma four years later, she embarks on a journey of
revenge on all those involved in the massacre.
In the first instalment of Kill Bill, The Bride confronts two of the
four assassins involved in church attack, Copperhead (Fox) and O-Ren Ishii
(Liu), as well as plenty of other minor villains.
Is it any good?
Kill Bill is a great bit of escapism - a violent, gory (but not too
graphic) action film that blends Western and Eastern film genres.
Stylishly cheesy, Tarantino creatively uses a variety of film techniques
to set it apart from standard action films. It is not in chronological
order and contains numerous flashbacks by The Bride and some scenes are
shot in black and white. Tere's a lot of Japanese dialogue with English
subtitles and an exquisite manga (Japanese animation) sequence describing
the origin of O-Ren Ishii.
The fight scenes are excellent - fast paced and well choreographed.
The knife fighting kitchen showdown between The Bride and Copperhead
(which is interrupted by Copperhead's four year old daughter returning
from school) is realistic and gritty, while the huge sword fighting
sequence in the Japanese restaurant is completely unrealistic, but
nevertheless brilliant to watch.
The film is very violent, containing fantastical fight scenes and
numerous decapitations and severed limbs, but these are more comical than
gory. The dialogue is great and all the actors deliver good performances.
Score: 4/5
How about those special features?
Kill Bill contains a lengthy and interesting "making of" documentary,
which includes interviews with Tarantino, Thurman and the music producer,
as well as location shots from the US and Far East.
The DVD also features two music videos by the group the 5,6,7,8's (who
also play in the film) called "I Walk like Jayne Mansfield" and "I'm
Blue". There's also two film trailers for Vol 1 and one trailer for Vol 2.
Score: 3/5
Best part:
The fight scene between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii's bodyguard, Gogo
Yubari.
Best quote:
There's so many to choose from, here's our pick:
"Leave the limbs you lost. They belong to me now"
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Kill
Bill Vol 1