Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill is a two-part action thriller film released in 2003 and 2004 by writer-director Quentin Tarantino, and starring Uma Thurman as The Bride. Originally conceived as one film, it was released in two 'volumes' (in late 2003 and early 2004) due to its running time of approximately four hours. The film is an epic-length revenge drama, with homages to earlier film genres, such as Hong Kong martial arts films, Japanese Chanbara films, exploitation films and Italian spaghetti westerns; an extensive use of popular music and pop culture references; and aestheticization of violence. Filming took place in California, Texas, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Mexico.

Plot

Kill Bill is one story, divided into two volumes with five chapters each, presented in a nonlinear narrative style, as is common among Tarantino's films. This synopsis follows the narrative structure of the film, meaning that the events are not all presented in chronological order.

Volume 1

Kill Bill: Vol. 1
File:Kill bill vol one ver.jpg Teaser poster for Vol. 1
Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Quentin Tarantino
Produced by	Lawrence Bender
Starring	Uma Thurman Lucy Liu Vivica A. Fox Daryl Hannah David Carradine Michael Madsen Julie Dreyfus
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Edited by	Sally Menke
Music by	The RZA
Production companies	Band Apart Super Cool ManChu
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date	October 10, 2003 (2003-10-10)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$30 million
Box office	US$70.1 million (domestic) US$180.9 million (worldwide)

The film opens with a shot of The Bride (Uma Thurman), covered in blood and gasping for breath. The unseen Bill (David Carradine) monologues briefly. As The Bride attempts to tell him “it’s your baby”, he shoots her in the side of the head.

In the next scene, The Bride arrives at the home of Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox). Without saying a word, The Bride engages her in a vicious fight; however, she agrees to cease the hostilities when Vernita's four year old daughter arrives home. Through The Bride’s narration, we learn that the two women were acquainted four years ago (they were both assassins under the employ of Bill, although this is not made explicit here). Vernita apologizes to The Bride, but The Bride is unmoved, insisting that the two have “unfinished business” (what Vernita is apologizing for is not entirely clear at this point, although The Bride implies that it resulted in the deaths of a number of people close to her). They arrange to continue their fight later that evening, but before The Bride can depart, Vernita attempts to kill her with a gun hidden inside a cereal box. The Bride reacts instantly, throwing a knife that kills Vernita. As she removes the knife from Vernita's body, Vernita's daughter walks into the room. The Bride unapologetically assures the child that she will have a chance for revenge when she is older. Chronologically, this scene occurs after the remaining events of the first volume; Vernita is the second of The Bride’s revenge targets, O-Ren Ishii (see below) being the first.

The following scene takes place “Four years and six months earlier in the city of El Paso, Texas”. A small wedding chapel with a number of blood-stained bodies is being investigated by the police. One of these bodies is The Bride; she is wearing a wedding dress and quite heavily pregnant. She is examined by Earl McGraw and his son, Edgar McGraw, the former discovering that she is not in fact dead.

Soon after this, the one-eyed Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) (a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad: the group of assassins of which The Bride was once a member) enters the hospital where The Bride is lying comatose. She prepares to administer a lethal injection, but is interrupted by a phone call from Bill, who orders her to “abort the mission”. (During this phone conversation it is also made explicit that the Deadly Vipers were the perpetrators of the wedding chapel massacre.)

Four years later, The Bride awakens from her coma, finding herself in a hospital ward. She is horrified to discover that she is no longer pregnant, leading her to assume that her baby is dead. An orderly named Buck enters the room with one of his “customers” (he has apparently been selling sexual access to her body while she has been comatose). The Bride kills both men, before taking the keys to Buck’s truck and escaping the hospital ward. Lying in the back of the truck, having been unable to move her legs since regaining consciousness, she orders herself to “wiggle your big toe”.

During this time her thoughts turn to those responsible for the massacre (“members all of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad”), and in particular on her first revenge target, O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), who, we learn, has become “Queen of the Tokyo Underworld” in the four-year interim. A short animated sequence details the early life of O-Ren.

After regaining full control of her lower body, The Bride travels to Okinawa to obtain a sword from Hattori Hanzō (Sonny Chiba), a renowned swordsmith who has retired to the life of a sushi chef. Though Hanzō has taken an oath to never make another sword, The Bride is able to convince him to break this oath by telling him the name of her target: Bill, one of Hanzō's former students. Hanzō takes a month to make the sword, and in that time The Bride follows his suggestion to practice.

The Bride then travels to Tokyo, where she confronts her first revenge target (O-Ren Ishii). The Bride first severs the arm of O-Ren's “second lieutenant”, Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus), who was also present at the wedding chapel massacre. She then kills all of O-Ren’s immediate guards, including her personal bodyguard, Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama). O-Ren's army of henchmen, the Crazy 88, then arrive, and The Bride engages them in a lengthy fight, killing or seriously wounding all of them except one. She then duels O-Ren, and eventually kills her.

The Bride dumps the badly wounded Fatale at a hospital, where she later admits to Bill that she revealed to The Bride the locations of the remaining Deadly Vipers (under threat of further injuries), and that The Bride is setting out to kill all of them. Bill then asks if The Bride knows that her daughter is still alive (something which the audience has been unaware of up to this point). This ends the first volume.

Volume 2

Kill Bill: Vol. 2
File:Kill bill vol two ver.jpg Theatrical poster for Vol. 2
Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Quentin Tarantino
Produced by	Lawrence Bender
Starring	Uma Thurman David Carradine Lucy Liu Vivica A. Fox Michael Madsen Daryl Hannah Gordon Liu
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Edited by	Sally Menke
Music by	Robert Rodriguez The RZA
Production company	Band Apart
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date	April 16, 2004
Running time	136 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	US$30 million
Box office	US$66.2 million (domestic) US$152.2 million (worldwide)

The second volume begins with a depiction of the events leading up to the wedding chapel massacre. The Bride is at her wedding rehearsal, along with her groom-to-be, Tommy Plympton, and a number of others. Bill arrives at the chapel, much to The Bride’s surprise (with her asking: “How did you find me?”). Through the ensuing conversation it transpires that The Bride has decided to leave the life of an assassin (as well as Bill, her former lover), in order to settle down with her as-yet unborn daughter and soon-to-be husband. Shortly after this conversation, the Deadly Vipers enter the chapel (at the behest of Bill), opening fire on those assembled inside.

The next scene is set over four years later, after the killing of Vernita Green at the end of the first volume. Bill has travelled to warn his brother Budd (Michael Madsen), another former Deadly Viper, that The Bride is coming to kill him. Budd has put his assassin days behind him, living in a trailer and working as a bouncer at a local strip club (where he is treated poorly by the manager). The Bride arrives at Budd's trailer that night, but Budd pre-empts her attack, shooting her in the chest with rock salt and then injecting her with a sedative. Budd calls Elle and offers to sell her The Bride's Hanzō sword for $1 million; they arrange for her to come to Budd’s trailer the next morning. Later that night, Budd takes The Bride to a cemetery, seals her inside a coffin and buries her alive.

At this point there is a flashback to The Bride’s early training in China, when Bill takes her to the temple of the legendary martial arts master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). Although Pai Mei expresses immediate dislike for her, over a period of brutal training she eventually wins his respect.

(Mentioned by Bill is Pai Mei’s Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique: “He hits you with his fingertips at five different pressure points on your body, and then lets you walk away. But once you’ve taken five steps your heart explodes in your body, and you fall to the floor, dead.” When asked whether Pai Mei taught him the technique, Bill replies: “He teaches no-one the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.”)

During The Bride’s training, particular emphasis is placed on her development of the ability to strike powerfully at an object positioned mere inches from her chest. In the present, The Bride calls on this ability to break out of the buried coffin, before digging her way up to the surface, thus escaping death.

The next morning, Elle arrives at Budd’s trailer (The Bride watches them from a nearby hilltop, unnoticed by the other two, who believe her to be dead). Elle brings with her a suitcase which Budd assumes contains payment for the sword. However, when Budd opens the suitcase, a black mamba hidden amongst the money bites him repeatedly. The venom kills him in a matter of minutes.

Elle receives a call from Bill, and she informs him that his brother, Budd, is dead. At this point The Bride’s real name – Beatrix Kiddo – is finally revealed. As Elle goes to leave Budd’s trailer, she is attacked by Beatrix, and a furious fight ensues. Towards the end of the fight, it is revealed that Elle’s eye was plucked out by Pai Mei after she insulted him, and that she later killed him by poisoning his food. The fight ends with Beatrix plucking out Elle’s remaining eye, leaving her completely blind. Beatrix leaves Elle (writhing and screaming hysterically) in the trailer with the mamba. Her fate is ambiguous.

After learning of Bill’s location from Esteban Vihaio (a pimp who was one of Bill’s “father figures”), Beatrix arrives at Bill’s home. Here she is shocked to find B.B., her four-year old daughter, alive and well. The family spend the evening together peacefully. Later, once B.B. is asleep, Bill shoots Beatrix with a dart containing a truth serum. This is in order to guarantee honest answers from her in response to a number of questions he has.

A short flashback recalls the moment in which Beatrix finds out that she is pregnant. She is on an assignment at the time, and her target has sent an assassin of her own, Karen Kim, to kill Beatrix. Beatrix manages to convince Karen not to kill her (since she is pregnant), and promises that she will “go home”. Reflecting on these events, Beatrix reveals the reason that she ran away once finding out that she was pregnant: in order to protect her unborn daughter.

The couple’s conversation is brought to an end when Bill draws his sword to attack Beatrix. A brief fight results in Beatrix disabling Bill with the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique (secretly taught to her by Pai Mei). Bill, defeated, says a tender farewell before rising to his feet and walking across the lawn; falling to the ground, dead, after five steps. Beatrix departs with B.B. in her arms.

The next day Beatrix is seen in a state of heightened emotion, whilst B.B. watches cartoons in the next room. Beatrix joins her daughter, and the film ends with a shot of the mother and daughter together.

Cast

See also: List of Kill Bill characters

Actor / Actress	Role	Vol. 1	Vol. 2
Uma Thurman	Beatrix Kiddo / The Bride ("Black Mamba")	•	•
David Carradine	Bill ("Snake Charmer")	•	•
Lucy Liu	O-Ren Ishii ("Cottonmouth")	•	•
Chiaki Kuriyama	Gogo Yubari	•
Vivica A. Fox	Vernita Green / Jeannie Bell ("Copperhead")	•
Michael Madsen	Budd ("Sidewinder")	•	•
Daryl Hannah	Elle Driver ("California Mountain Snake")	•	•
Gordon Liu	Johnny Mo	•
	Pai Mei		•
Michael Parks	Earl McGraw	•
	Esteban Vihaio		•
Sonny Chiba	Hattori Hanzō	•
Julie Dreyfus	Sofie Fatale	•
Quentin Tarantino	Crazy 88 member	•
Michael Bowen	Buck	•
Jun Kunimura	Boss Tanaka	•
James Parks	Edgar McGraw	•
Christopher Allen Nelson	Tommy Plympton		•
Bo Svenson	Reverend Harmony		•
Samuel L. Jackson	Rufus		•
Larry Bishop	Larry Gomez		•
Laura Cayouette	Rocket		•
Perla Haney-Jardine	B.B.		•
Ambrosia Kelley	Nikki Bell	•
Helen Kim	Karen Kim		•

Influences

The overall storyline of Kill Bill — a woman seeks revenge on a group of people, crossing them off a list one by one as she kills them — is adapted from Lady Snowblood, a 1973 Japanese film in which a woman kills off the gang who murdered her family. The Guardian commented that Lady Snowblood was "practically a template for the whole of Kill Bill Vol. 1". Lady Snowblood was adapted from the manga of the same name written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Kazuo Kamimura. Koike also wrote Lone Wolf and Cub (see below).

The film also references Samurai Reincarnation (1981) by quoting its iconic line "If you encounter God, God will be cut". Hattori Hanzō is modelled on legendary sword maker Muramasa. The character is also a reference to the Japanese television show Kage no Gundan (Shadow Warriors in America), in which Sonny Chiba portrayed a fictionalized version of Hattori Hanzō, as well as his descendants in later seasons. Tarantino, in Vol. 1 special features, claims that his film's Hanzō is one of those descendants.

Kill Bill pays tribute to film genres including the spaghetti western, blaxploitation, Chinese wuxia, Japanese yakuza films, Japanese samurai cinema, and kung fu movies of the 1960s and 1970s. This last genre, which was largely produced by the Shaw Brothers, is given an obvious nod by the inclusion of the Shaw Scope logo at the beginning of Kill Bill Vol. 1. The yellow tracksuit that Uma Thurman dons in the restaurant fight sequence is a tribute to the cultural icon and martial artist, Bruce Lee.

The scene in which The Bride fights O-Ren Ishii in the snow is virtually identical to the one in Sex and Fury.

Daryl Hannah has claimed that the more slapstick elements of Elle's brawl with Beatrix were inspired by Jackass: The Movie, which Tarantino watched during the filming of Kill Bill.

One influential exploitation film that Tarantino has mentioned in interviews is the Swedish Thriller - en grym film, released in the U.S. as They Call Her One Eye. Tarantino recommended that actress Daryl Hannah watch the movie to prepare for her role as the one-eyed killer Elle Driver.

The Japanese Lone Wolf and Cub series of manga and films are echoed in the characters of The Bride and her daughter. The Americanized compilation version of this series, Shogun Assassin, is actually viewed by the two characters.

Bill's speech towards the end of the movie, regarding the differences between Spider-Man and Superman, is taken from "The Great Comic Book Heroes" by Jules Feiffer.

The films also contains a number of references to specific American and European films, such as "Pussy Wagon" (taken from lyrics in the film Grease).

The closing credits to both films included a short list of deceased directors, writers and actors, under the title "R.I.P.": Charles Bronson, Chang Cheh, Kinji Fukasaku, Lo Lieh, Shintaro Katsu, William Witney, Sergio Corbucci, Lucio Fulci, Sergio Leone and Lee Van Cleef.

Reception

After a six-year hiatus of Tarantino movies, Kill Bill was much anticipated by fans and critics and generated a tremendous amount of discussion. Reaction by film critics was very positive, each volume receiving a score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Both volumes did well at the box office. Kill Bill Vol. 1 grossed $180,949,045 worldwide, followed by Kill Bill Vol. 2 with $152,159,461 worldwide, for a combined gross of $333,108,506.

A movie in two volumes

Though released as two parts, the film differs from multi-part "franchise" series like Star Wars. The short duration between the releases of the two volumes, the film's internal structure, and the history of its development all strongly imply that Kill Bill be regarded as one movie (for example, the cast of Vol. 1 are credited at the end of Vol. 2). The dual-release strategy, ostensibly due to the film's length, has been criticized as an attempt by Miramax to sell two tickets to one movie.

The two-volume format also amplified what some saw as a structural problem with the film: most of the action occurs in the first half, while most of the dialogue and plot are conveyed in the second. Thus, the two volumes are noticeably different in style and tone, leaving some viewers enamored of one volume but disappointed by the other. Of Volume 2, Sean O’Connell of Filmcritic.com writes, "The drop-off in energy, style, and coherence from Volume 1 to its bloated, disinteresting counterpart is so drastic and extreme that you can hardly believe they come from the same director, let alone conclude the same storyline." Jeffery M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid, like some other critics, preferred Volume 2, writing "…Characters actually talk to one another here rather than the stilted samurai movie-speak of the first volume."

Roger Ebert celebrated the films, saying "[p]ut the two parts together, and Tarantino has made a masterful saga that celebrates the martial arts genre while kidding it, loving it, and transcending it.... [T]his is all one film, and now that we see it whole, it's greater than its two parts."

Violence

Much criticism concerned the amount and presentation of bloodshed and general mayhem, especially in the first volume. One critic referred to Volume 1 as a "cocktail party in an abattoir".

Style and substance

Much of the controversy over the film reflects the differing expectations of those who look primarily at a movie for its style and craftsmanship against those who look at story and substance. "You never forget that Kill Bill is an exercise in genre-sampling," writes the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Caro. However, other critics found it well-constructed, with tightly edited action scenes, strong performances, often-clever dialogue, and an effectively exciting soundtrack. On the whole, both volumes of the film received positive reviews.

Awards

Each part was nominated at the Golden Globe Awards. Uma Thurman received a Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama nomination in 2004 and 2005 for her work in Volume 1 and Volume 2. David Carradine received a Best Supporting Actor nomination in 2005 for his work as the mentor-like titular character in Kill Bill: Volume 2. Uma Thurman was also nominated in 2004 for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in 'Kill Bill: Volume 1.' The film was nominated for 5 BAFTAs at the 2004 BAFTA awards ceremony.

The film was very popular at the MTV Movie Awards. At the 2004 MTV Movie Awards Uma Thurman won Best Female performance for Volume 1, Lucy Liu won Best Villain in Volume 1, and the fight between The Bride and Gogo Yubari won Best Fight. She also thanked Chiaki Kuriyama during her acceptance speech. At the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, Kill Bill Volume 2 was nominated for best movie, Thurman was nominated for best female performance, and the fight between The Bride and Elle Driver in Kill Bill Volume 2 also won Best Fight. Uma Thurman also received the Saturn Award for Best Actress in 2003 for her work in Volume 1.

Music

Main articles: Kill Bill Volume 1 (soundtrack) and Kill Bill Volume 2 (soundtrack)

As with Tarantino's previous films, Kill Bill features an eclectic soundtrack comprising many musical genres. On the two soundtracks, music ranges from country music to selections from the Spaghetti Western film scores of Ennio Morricone. Bernard Herrmann's theme from the film Twisted Nerve is whistled by the menacing Elle Driver in the hospital scene. Instrumental tracks from Japanese guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei figure prominently, and after the success of Kill Bill they were frequently used in American TV commercials and at sporting events. As the Bride enters "The House of Blue Leaves", go-go group The 5,6,7,8's perform "I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield", "I'm Blue" and "Woo Hoo." The connection to Lady Snowblood is further established by the use of "The Flower of Carnage" the closing theme from that film. The end credits are driven by the rock and roll version of "Malagueña Salerosa", a typical Mexican song performed by "Chingon", Robert Rodriguez's band.

Releases

Kill Bill: Volume 2 was screened out of competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

DVD and Blu-ray release

In the United States Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released as a DVD on April 13, 2004, while Volume 2 was released August 10, 2004.

In a December 2005 interview, Tarantino addressed the lack of a special edition DVD for Kill Bill by stating "I've been holding off because I've been working on it for so long that I just wanted a year off from Kill Bill and then I'll do the big supplementary DVD package."

The United States does not have a DVD boxed set of Kill Bill, though box sets of the two separate volumes are available in other countries, such as France, Japan and the United Kingdom. Upon the DVD release of Volume 2 in the US, however, Best Buy did offer an exclusive box set slipcase to house the two individual releases together.

Both Kill Bill movies were released in High Definition on Blu-ray on September 9, 2008 in the United States.

Differences in Japanese cut

The quotation "Revenge is a dish best served cold" (attributed as being "an old Klingon proverb," in reference to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) at the beginning of Volume 1 was replaced with a dedication to "master filmmaker" Kinji Fukasaku in the Japanese version. There are also numerous differences in the editing of the film, including, but not limited to; a longer version of O-Ren's origin anime, more violence and comedy in the House of Blue Leaves battle (which is also shown in full color) as well as Sofie Fatale having her right hand removed by the bride during the interrogation scene in the trunk of the car.

The differences between International and the Japanese version of Volume Two are rather marginal.

Forthcoming

Tarantino announced at the 2008 Provincetown International Film Festival that a single film version of Kill Bill with an extended animation sequence was to be released in May 2009. As of yet, no such release has been announced.

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.

According to Bloody-Disgusting.com, details have emerged about Kill Bill Volumes 3 and 4. According to the article, "Bennett Walsh said at the Shanghai International Film Festival the third film involves the revenge of two killers whose arms and eyes were hacked by Uma Thurman in the first stories," which suggest Sofie and Elle, respectively. The article adds that the "fourth installment of the popular kung fu action films concerns a cycle of reprisals and daughters who avenge their mother's deaths".

Quentin Tarantino said at the 2006 Comic Con that, after the completion of Grindhouse, he wants to make two anime Kill Bill films. One will be an origin story about Bill and his mentors, and the other will be an origin starring The Bride. The latter is most likely to be a prequel, but could also follow the rumored (sequel) plot reported in Entertainment Weekly in April 2004.

On October 1, 2009, it was revealed while being interviewed on an Italian TV show after being asked about the success of the two Kill Bill films, Tarantino addressed the hostess by claiming "You haven't asked me about the third one" then asking the woman to ask the question would he be making a third Kill Bill film, which he replied "Yes", and claiming "The Bride will fight again!"

On October 3, 2009, at the Morelia International Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino announced that Kill Bill 3 would be his ninth film, and would be released in 2014. He said he intends to make another unrelated film before that date as his eighth film. He confirmed that he wanted ten years to pass between the Bride's last conflict, to give her and her daughter a period of peace.

See also

• List of women warriors in folklore
• Double Dare

References

External links

• Vol. 1 at IMDb
• Vol. 2 at IMDb
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Vol. 1 at AllMovie
• ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› Vol. 2 at AllMovie
• Vol. 1 at the TCM Movie Database
• Vol. 2 at the TCM Movie Database
• Vol. 1 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Vol. 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Production I.G on the Kill Bill Anime Sequences Article from CGSociety.org
• Kill Bill References Guide at tarantino.info
• Article from Universal Library including extended analysis
• Kill Bill Wiki, an external wiki