Excellent homage...worth all the wait

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2003)

It's funny to learn Tarantino's earlier life (in a video store, for example) when we consider that this man did one of AFI's top 100 movies, Pulp Fiction, somehow, I think it does give great hope to young film makers that dream of having their passion as their job. His story is interesting, nonetheless, if you learn how he got Reservoir Dogs done and then Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown, and then...Kill Bill.
Tarantino does something very special here...he does everything a film maker could ever dream of: a movie for himself, a movie he does cherish as much as some people will do in a couple of years, when Kill Bill is going to be a cult classic. A movie in which he pays homage to Oriental cinema, while Lucio Fulci fans will be totally pleased to see guts being spilled and people being sliced and diced in very bloody fashion. Also, Tarantino does punctuate the film with his own style, which has become a landmark in American cinema. Here we get many things that differentiate Kill Bill from an conventional institutional film; the chronology, which is, as usual in a Tarantino movie, like a puzzle in which all the short stories finally fit well together, there is also the very appreciated presence of an amazing anime sequence in the middle of the film, the fact that some scenes are in black and white, and not always to symbolize flashbacks (maybe in the case of Kill Bill Vol.1 it was only to avoid an NC-17 rating though, but I'll talk about that later), and, to top it all, we got way too much blood and gore for a typical American film, which Kill Bill Vol.1 definitely isn't.

Now, it really is evident that Tarantino did watch many Japanese movies. The animated part in his film is just as great and has the same crazily Japanese feel to it than "Akira", for example. The animation is done quite beautifully, much better than any manga, but still keeps a very Oriental aspect. Also, the combat scenes, especially at the end, keep the spirit and slow pace of classic Japanese cinema (think of Kurosawa or Kobayashi). Yeah, aside from all that crazy gore and limbs that fly all over the room, the honour-oriented aspect of the sword fights and the choregraphy just help to make of Kill Bill Vol.1 a true homage to Samurai films. Yes, it is an American film, yes, that's also something you'll feel while watching it, but it is not common at all, and it really makes an interesting mix of genres which I think only the Tarantino blender could put back together to obtain something very interesting. Yes, it did bother me a little at first to see that the fight against the 88 men in the restaurant was suddenly turning to black and white. Yes, the violence impact was mostly gone because of that, but really, with the grainy picture and the sound changing too, for a moment, I really thought I was watching a better version of "Shogun Assassin" with better camera angles and much, much more blood. And, then, right after that comes a fight which is shown only in shadowgraph...wonderful.
Kill Bill Vol.1 (and probably the whole film) does not really suffer from its very thin storyline, which is stylistically exploited to its maximum. Yes, it's just a plain story of revenge, but remember that Tarantino is behind it. And, by the way, another movie last year had pretty much the same storyline and was considered by many (which include myself) as an excellent film; "Gangs of New York". These two films exploit one of the oldest subgenres ever: the revenge flick. Scorsese's film had an amazingly delivered historical background to it, but Tarantino's has something hard to describe. One thing is sure, though, substance is not the main attraction here. But who cares? This film expresses the fundamental joys of cinema from someone who truly had fun making his baby. And it does make a great homage to Oriental movies , and it SURE delivers lots of entertainment.

Tarantino's directing is, as always, pretty good, while improvement has been made here; his three previous films were shot like (as he said himself) "good old boring television" but punctuated with some great shots and a pretty interesting knowledge in directing. But in Kill Bill Vol.1, Tarantino keeps his good old habits, but adds some new things to his direction. The black and white scenes are part of that, as well as some very dynamical camera procedures. I would say Kill Bill Vol.1, for right now (because I haven't seen Vol.2!) is not Tarantino's best film. But for the direction, it's the most original, and probably the best, though his style did fit better in his other movies.
The actors are all great. Uma Thurman is pretty good as the protagonist, but David Carradine, which we don't really see in the first volume, was frightening in his parts. Also, Lucy Liu does a great job as O-Ren Ishi, a professional assassin with a very dark past. All the others are very good too.
The soundtrack is brilliant, really. That's a Tarantino trademark too. The music is just perfect for the film, bringing incredible energy to the colourful and beautiful images which are delivered in a splendid and versatile photography. Tarantino uses different colour textures and image grain for the different scenes, as well as the sound. Yes, those things are apparent, which is something many people might dislike, but trust me, it does add a lot to the style and and value of this film.
So, overall, as a first volume, this was good, very good. Sure, it is not as good as "Reservoir Dogs" or "Pulp Fiction", but it does have bite, and a lot of it. And, to be honest, I'll be impatiently waiting for the second volume to be released.
8.5/10