Dir. Quentin Tarantino, US/Japan, 2003, 111 mins
Cast: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Soni Chiba, Chiaki Kuriyama, Julie Dreyfus
You will have heard many things about Tarantino's Kill Bill, and most of them are probably true. Certainly, it is a high-octane race through a mish-mash of genres, deftly juxtaposing martial arts 'grind' movies with seventies TV detectives and soap opera queens. And yes, it is undoubtedly one of the most violent films you will have seen. However, it is also one of the most near-perfect pieces of filmmaking too.
Uma Thurman is 'The Bride' - a woman with no name - shot down on her wedding day, along with the rest of the bridal party, at the hands of her ex-lover, Bill (David Carradine - "Grasshopper" - oldies will get the joke), and his team, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. Her bloodied, gore-encrusted face, thankfully in black-and-white, in solitary close-up is the opening shot. "It's your baby, Bill," she cries in true soap opera style, just as Bill blasts her away. Cue opening credits set to Nancy Sinatra's 'Bang Bang.'
Some four years later, a buzzing mosquito awakens the comatose bride in her hospital bed. Realising she has been subjected to the unwanted sexual attentions of any old Tom, Dick or Harry happy to pay the price to the hospital orderly, she takes on her latest would-be suitor, smashing a door repeatedly into his head. Violent? We haven't even started yet!
Using all her powers of concentration to regain the use of her weakened limbs, she steals the car keys and clothes of the man now lying on the hospital floor and makes her getaway in his "pussy wagon", going in search of the Viper Squad, and ultimately Bill, to extract her revenge. In volume 1, The Bride first takes on Vernita Green (Vivica Fox) over rice krispies in the kitchen. Tarantino sees his film as being about 'girl power' rather than a feminist movie. By that, I take him to mean the fun and sisterhood of being a modern women and it is evident in this scene, with the two lethal assassins snapping into smiling apple-pie mom mode when Vernita's young daughter returns from school, united in the motherly instinct of protecting the child at all costs, while knives glisten behind each other's back. Lucy Liu, meanwhile, as O-Ren Ishii, the female head of the local Yakuza, (and second person on The Bride's list) demonstrates a nice little turn in dealing with dissenters showing, quite literally, that heads will role.
The premise is simple, and Tarantino is fortunate in that what must have started out as a device on the part of a novice filmmaker to by-pass tricky narrative structure, has now become a stylised Tarantino trademark, namely his use of 'chapters', allowing each individual story to be announced, with flips not only between space and time, but switches between style and genre. It is perfectly feasible for O-Ren's early childhood to be told anime-style, with a brutal but moving sequence of animation.
According to the director, Kill Bill is not meant to be realistic, rather that it is the sort of movie the characters in his earlier films would watch. It wallows, glorifies, and celebrates popular culture, with homages, parodies and in-jokes coming thick and fast. Tarantino was a child of the seventies and it shows. Here is an eclectic mix of every trashy TV show of the time, from Ironside to General Hospital to Kung Fu to even Dallas as Uma Thurman's Bride delivers her lines in the style of the lip-quivering Mrs J.R.Ewing, Sue-Ellen.
Tarantino's genius is not only in is his exquisite, finely-tuned understanding of film but the way in which he is able to combine this with his love for popular culture and his sheer exuberance in movie-making. His 'joie de cinema' bubbles over into every gut-wrenching, stomach-churning, glossy, gory piece of frame, retaining the fun of a student film and which, by the time the student has attained even a modicum of Tarantino's standing, has been completely annihilated. Watching Daryl Hannah in her white nurses uniform, pockets and belt drawn on in black marker pen one can't help but imagine the filmmaker giggling over his work, thinking "how much can I get away with?"
The climax of the film is the battle between The Bride and Crazy 88 Fighters, as they try to protect O-Ren. Hardly a fair fight, but they do their best. Tarantino's love for the martial arts genre is most evident here, The Bride dressed in what is rapidly turning into a iconic image, the yellow track suit that is a direct reference to the outfit worn by Bruce Lee in his last film, plus countless little images and moments that hearken to some of Tarantino's own favourites. Many will go over your head but it doesn't matter: Kill Bill is so much more than the sum of its parts, and you do not need to be an Enter the Dragon aficionado to enjoy the cascade of quick and inventive deaths, and gruesome, humorous images that pound the screen, one after the other, before the final beautiful and almost serene showdown between the two women, set against an exterior of a snow-covered traditional Japanese garden.
Watching Kill Bill silences all its critics. Tarantino has reclaimed his throne as the US Wunderkind and how! He obliterates any doubts as to his genius. Furthermore, any accusations of the filmmakers - the much-maligned Miramax - 'cashing in' by releasing the film in two parts must also be cast aside. On viewing it becomes glaringly obvious that the film really could not be presented any other way, and the use of the 'in next week's episode' style of announcement to allow the audience a sneak peek at what to expect next time round is perfectly in keeping with the film's style, whilst at the same time achieves exactly what it sets out to do - leave the audience gasping for more.
Jean Lynch
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