Kill Bill: Volume 1
Kill Bill is the fourth feature film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Uma Thurman plays a character known only as "The Bride" (for the first half of the movie, at least) who is set on getting revenge against "Bill" (David Carradine) and his squad. Other members of the cast include Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba and Daryl Hannah. Due to the film's three-hour length, it was decided during production to split the film into two parts, called "Volume 1" and "Volume 2" and released in October 2003 and April 2004, respectively.
Reviews were mostly positive, with some reviewers regarding it as a cinematic masterpiece, but other reviewers felt that Tarantino's homage to Asian cinema was overly indulgent and still others felt that it was a new low in cinematic morality. Some conservative critics decried its extremely graphic and exaggerated depictions of violence.
Volume 1
The film begins with a dedication to Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku. A different cut of the film was released specifically for Japan, where it opened several weeks later. While the American cut of the movie shows a notably violent segment (the battle at the House of Blue Leaves) in black and white, the Japanese cut shows it in color. The film was shot over eight months, with some scenes filmed on location in Japan. (Most Japan scenes, however, were actually shot in Beijing, China [1].) Miramax Films is the U.S. distributor.
Scenes in the movie are shown heavily out of order (e.g. it starts with footage of the wedding, flashes forward to The Bride's second kill, goes back to the wedding and The Bride's recovery from her coma, etc.). This technique was already used by Tarantino in Pulp Fiction.
The film also features Japanese Animation (anime) from animation studio Production I.G.
The Bride (AKA Black Mamba, played by Uma Thurman) is a former member of "The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad". She attempts to retire, but, while heavily pregnant, is attacked on her wedding day by the group. The groom and the rest of the wedding party are murdered and The Bride is shot and left for dead. Bill (David Carradine) sends Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) to finish off the comatose Bride, but subsequently decides to give her a reprieve until such day as she might wake.
After four years the Bride awakes, childless, to the sight of a man preparing to rape her; while she was in a coma, Buck, a hospital employee, had arranged to prostitute her body. Exacting her revenge against the rapists and appropriating the late Buck's "Pussy Wagon", she begins her quest to eliminate all her former associates.
She travels first to Okinawa, Japan where she asks master swords-maker Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) for a katana with which to accomplish her revenge. Hattori Hanzo was Bill's teacher, and feeling an obligation for having trained him, he agrees.
Flying to Tokyo, the Bride wastes no time in locating O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), a half-Chinese, half-Japanese-American, former army brat orphaned by the yakuza, and her bodyguards, the Crazy 88. The Bride kills or maims all but one of the Crazy 88 inside a restaurant and pursues O-Ren Ishii outside to a snow-covered garden. Although injured in the exchange, the Bride manages to finish the duel by slicing off the top of O-Ren Ishii's head. Next, she obtains information about Bill and her other former associates by torturing Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus), one of Bill's lovers and O-Ren's lawyer.
Making a kill list on the plane, the Bride then returns to the United States where she kills Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox).
Volume 2
Kill Bill Volume 2 continues the story of the Bride's quest for vengeance against the remaining members of The Deadly Viper Assasination Squad and, of course, Bill. We learn that the Bride was ambushed not at her wedding, but at her wedding dress rehearsal. In this installment we also learn that the Bride's real name is Beatrix Kiddo.
When Beatrix tries to kill Budd (aka Sidewinder, played by Michael Madsen), he is ready for her and buries her alive. Although she panics at first, she then recalls her training with Pai Mei (Chia Hui Liu) and is able to escape. She then hikes back to Budd's trailer where she finds Elle Driver (aka California Mountain Snake) has already killed Budd. In the ensuing fight between the two women, Beatrix is able to pull out Elle's single remaining eye and leaves her for dead.
When Beatrix is able to track down Bill, she is astonished to find him with their four year old daughter, B.B., who she thought had been killed at her wedding rehearsal. After spending some time with her daughter, Bill shoots Beatrix with a truth serum and she tells him about why she tried to retire. In their final fight, Beatrix ultimately kills Bill using a lethal technique taught to her by Pai Mei. She then takes B.B. and they drive off to start new lives together.
Samuel L. Jackson had a cameo in the movie as Rufus, a pianist in the El Paso Chapel.
It is also noticed that when Bill is interrogating Beatrix, he says that she is a "natural born killer," which is a reference to a screenplay that Tarantino wrote.
Planned sequel
Tarantino told Entertainment Weekly in April 2004 that he is planning a sequel:
- Oh yeah, initially I was thinking this would be my Dollars trilogy. I was going to do a new one every ten years. But I need at least fifteen years before I do this again.
- I've already got the whole mythology: Sofie Fatale will get all of Bill's money. She'll raise Nikki, who'll take on The Bride. Nikki deserves her revenge every bit as much as The Bride deserved hers. I might even shoot a couple of scenes for it now so I can get the actresses while they're this age.