Entertaining, but... Never a Masterpiece (a few spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (10 October 2003)

I have been a huge Tarantino fan myself. I have always loved his insight and wit in his works. I know he owes Asian film-making tradition much in his creation, but I never thought that he lacked his creativity or originality. I rather admired his sense of style introducing flawlessly the part of that film history to his works without really ripping it off. He might have borrowed some ideas, but there have been many other things brilliant other than just HOMAGE to its tradition. At least, BEFORE KILL BILL Vol. 1.

Unfortunately, Kill Bill Vol. 1 can never be one of Tarantino¡¯s masterpieces so far. At best, it is no more than his so-so work. Although I am hesitant to say ¡®ripping off,¡¯ it too much depends on Asian cinema stereotypes, especially focusing on the cheesy ones.
Do not misunderstand me. Trust me. Kill Bill Vol. 1 was really entertaining unless you hate his bloodthirsty taste. Acting was overall good. Especially Uma Thurman's performance was very impressive to me. All the characters are well defined. The chain-throwing school girl (you know, she is really almost 20 years old, not 17 years old.), one-eyed Daryl Hannah, and the Japanese-speaking Star Track vixen are all lovable. (If you did not watch the movie, you may not understand what the heck I am talking about.) The scenes are well captured and connected. Especially, if you have never seen the real Japanese animation (I am not talking about Pokemon!!), you will have the taste of the finest of the finest of its kind.

Also, as an Asian that I am, I have to admit that his understanding of Asian movies, stories, and even music are more than just a superficial level, although he probably got some helping hands. I laughed a lot listening to typical Japanese note of the background music on the scene after the duel of Uma and Lucy, and especially, when Uma and Lucy are talking about the craftsmanship of the sword even at the very end of Lucy's life, I was quite impressed.
HOWEVER, it was too typical, nothing new, especially for Asian people. Let me say one thing to the people saying that the movie has something new, unique, or saying that the movie is the best of this year or all-time. Asian moviegoers have gone through tons of better ones if Kill Bill is that great. For example, Jet Li has had tons of better mass fighting scenes in his early works than ¡®Uma-to-Everyone else¡¯ in Kill Bill. I have even seen those one-to-everyone fighting scenes in TV soup operas many times this year. So PLEASE, SAVE the expression, ¡°THE BEST¡¯ until you see the originals. In addition, another complaint would be that I almost smell of stereotyping and orientalism. However, while it is not certainly pleasing, I would not discuss it more because stereotyping and school girl fetish certainly sell.

Again, don't misunderstand me. I enjoyed this movie a lot. I am just saying that it cannot be the masterpiece like many people think and that Tarantino could have done better than this. Kill Bill is nothing more than just a mishmash of things Asian unlike his real former masterpieces and Tarantino just succeeded in entertaining people putting the mishmash in the context of Hollywood.