You and I have some unfinished business

Rating: 9/10 (26 November 2009)

There are so many things right about Kill Bill Vol. 1, but let me focus on one of the best aspects: Tarantino makes you so enthralled, you want more. So much more.
One of my biggest complaints about movies is the length and not knowing when to shut up. (Rarely, will I say the opposite, though Children of Men needed to be so much longer, or a series.) Heck, I've even complained about other Tarantino movies being too long. (Inglourious Basterds) But, Vol. 1 is just perfect in pacing and longing. He masterfully made us wanting more, or, Vol. 2. And I'm not just talking about the absolute spoiler in the final few seconds. The whole thing seems quick enough with barely a down minute and gives enough background to know there is so much more to this story line.
Plot line: "The Bride" is immediately "assassinated" in the opening and immediately reveals her unborn baby is the ultimate killer, Bill's. Then the movie moves fast-forward, reverse and in-between, much like Tarantino's other work, i.e. Pulp Fiction. It's not easy for the average movie-goer, but I felt he made it a lot smoother, and easier to follow this time around.
Tarantino gives enough background on what led her to the El Paso church where she ultimately "died" and why she eventually wakes from a four-year coma to seek revenge on the five responsible for her and her unborn child's attempted murder.
In Vol. 1, you get to see her vengeance on Green (Fox) in front of Green's daughter – spoiler alert, this is supposedly the setup for a Vol. 3 in years to come, and Ishii (Liu.) In between, she kicks some ass on bystanders and loyal gang members.
This movie is Tarantino at his best. The best he wants to be: a Grind-House voyeur. An excellent story-teller. You can't take this movie seriously. It's silly in a lot of ways, but that's the Grind-House in Tarantino. And this leads me to another fantastic quality of Vol. 1: Thurman.
Despite the foretold silliness, Thurman as "The Bride" does an excellent job, and in my opinion, at least an Oscar-Nominated acting job. She brought extreme realism to an otherwise campy character out for revenge. And, you wanna know another perfect quality about her? Tarantino makes you root for her despite her being a ruthless assassin. A real bad-ass-gal.
I don't want to give away too much about the plot, subplots or scenes in the movie, but almost everything works in this movie: Music, score, style, acting, originality, suspense, action, cinematography, dialogue and uses of both color, B&W and anime. This is Tarantino at the top of his game.
To expand: I loved this movie. The action was tight; the movie was extremely well paced. The music, both score and soundtrack was wonderful. The choreographed scenes were fun to watch. The twists exciting. The dialogue and writing was pitch-perfect. I would say this was his best work, if not for his even better earlier works (Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs) or movie to come: Vol. 2.
Just remember the origins of this movie: it's basically an explicit Japanese exploitation martial arts/revenge movie and you can get past the silliness, the plot-holes, such as how she always seemed to have money and no one ever investigated her murders, i.e. Buck during her multi-hour recover scene (speaking of which, why were her upper muscles so accessible while down-below were so, well, weak?) Word of advice: don't look too deep, enjoy the master Tarantino and sit back, have fun and look forward to the (so-far) conclusion in Vol. 2.