A Wonderful Homage To Hong Kong Cinema.

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2014)

"Kill Bill Volume: 1" is awesome in every sense of the word. It's "Lady Snowblood" (1973), mixed with other famous exploitation movies such as "They Call Her One Eye" (1973). All blended into Quentin Tarantino's talent of taking 1970's or 1980's cheese, and making something unique with his camera skills. The fact that he also continues to execute non chronological storytelling so well, whilst also using both the Quincy Jones's theme from TV series "Ironside" (1967-1975) and Bernard Herrmann's "Twisted Nerve" (1968), further solidifies my love for this picture.
One thing that really frustrates me to no end, is that this film came under heavy fire from feminists. I understand what the commotion is to some degree, considering the picture is a dark, gritty rape and revenge movie. However, that's kind of what really invested us in The Bride's quest and somewhat fuels our desire to see her succeed, as throughout both volumes the character slowly became regarded as a Cinema icon through the early 2000's for her strengths and independence. Regardless, if it was a man chopping up hundreds of woman, I'm sure we'd hear complaints about that as well. I guess there's no way to win them all, and for those people it remains their loss as they miss out on some really good genre mash ups.
For everything good I have to say I feel that some scenes intend to drag on, but then again that's personal preference. There's something for everyone who's a fan of Yakuza, Samurai, Blaxploitation, Spaghetti Westerns and hey, even Anime. In the end, I'm more than willing to watch through them all just to see how well done those action scenes are choreographed.
The casting is also done extremely well. David Carradine (Most notably from the 1970's cult TV series "Kung Fu") is Bill and it's super pleasant to see both Sony Chiba, whose renowned for his Martial Art talent and Chiaki Kuriyama again straight after the success of "Battle Royale" (2000), Tarantino's favourite movie since he became a director in 1992. Some of Tarantino's regulars show up, yet hands down the performance from Uma Thurman is what keeps you watching. Recently I looked up a list of female action heroes, and no doubt Tarantino and her input have created a character that would be well within the likes of Sigourney Weaver in "Alien" (1979), or Anne Parillaud in "Nikita" (1990).
Final Verdict: Tarintino's story of a woman's quest for vengeance is told and shot beautifully. It just gets better with every viewing. 9/10.