Beyond reference

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2003)

Quentin Tarantino's fourth film starts as it means to go on. The film fades in on a broken, black and white Uma Thurman wheezing and coughing whilst listening to her former lover intone his parting words. She tries to speak, but before she can fully form her sentence, Bill (the omnipotent David Carradine) levels his gun at her head and starts The Bride on her path to vengeance. Cue Nancy Sinatra and some of the most mournful, slow opening credits I've ever seen. The relationship between music and image is neatly encapsulated and Tarantino makes it clear he's working at his own pace.
Kill Bill is about revenge, pure and simple. We learn just enough about our heroine in this part to understand that her retribution is just and deserved. Like a million nameless cowboys in a million Spaghetti Westerns, she is a living instrument of fate. Thankfully Tarantino's deft direction and Thurman's warm, charismatic performance are more than up to the archetype, carrying it with consummate ease.
Kill Bill and Tarantino instead choose to focus his attention on the rogue's gallery of adversaries. Lucy Liu's character Oren Ishii has her origins relayed through a series of split screen sketches and a braveu anime sequence courtesy of Studio IG, the talented individuals behind Blood: The Last Vampire and the Ghost in the Shell series. It is perhaps this scene that best illustrates Tarantino's objective with his fourth film, the marrying of various cult flavours the world over. Here sublime sketchy, fluid, animated bloodletting is scored to operatic Italian Western themes and it works beautifully.
As with his previous pieces, Tarantino is able to take disparate elements from world cinema and spin them into a cohesive whole, with his own imprint firmly stamped on every frame. Here it's European Westerns, Jidei Geki films, Yakuza and 70's Kung Fu epics, and whilst an understanding isn't essential it certainly helps. The tone is expansive and melodramatic, with a heavy helping of gallows humour.
What's most impressive about Kill Bill though is that the action and execution goes beyond reference, it actually matches what it's paying homage to. The fights and action sequences have that illusive rhythm that eludes most Western attempts to copy this unique brand of cinema.

What's astounding though is Tarantino's sheer mastery of the tempo. He effortlessly shifts through several different types of combat without it ever jarring, a fantastic achievement first time out on the action scene. It's almost like being a fan of John Woo's 70's comedy of eras, and then watching A Better Tomorrow. You never knew the man had it in him. Obviously a good portion of the kudos must be laid at Master Yuen Woo Ping's door (he of Matrix and Crouching Tiger. fame), but Tarantino's own voice and style are clearly visible.
As ever Tarantino breathes new life into a group of actors thought past their best. The two that stand out the most are the Street Fighter himself, Sonny Chiba and Kung Fu's David Carradine. Chiba best known for playing stoic, emotionless killing machines bleeds warmth as Hattori Hanzo, an accomplice for The Bride. His performance combines weary humour and a genuine regal air. Carradine as the never-seen Bill is perfect as the behind-the-scenes puppet master. Quite the feat considering you only ever see his feet and hands.
In all Kill Bill is for my money an unqualified success, although certainly not a film I could wholeheartedly recommend to anyone, it is certainly a film of true quality. If you've ever stayed up late to catch a Godzilla flick or marvelled at the sheer elegiac comedic woe of Leone's films, then this is the movie for you. As close to an instant masterpiece as I've ever seen.