Excellent homage to Oriental cinema

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2003)

*SPOILERS*
I had never seen a Tarantino movie before this one. A friend of mine got the gang of us to go see it on impulse...it got me from the opening scenes of the bride battered but still alive, to the soccer-mom revenge duel, to the breathtaking and incredible fight in The House of Blue Leaves...which I have spliced on my PC, because it's UBBELIEVABLE.
That being said, some of the movie was very hard to watch, I speak chiefly of the manga sequence, where half of my friends almost left the theatre. I urged them to sit through it, and when they did, they saw the best swordfight ever.
The homages to Oriental cinema are thousandfold...The Bride wears Bruce Lee's jumpsuit from Game of Death, Go Go Yubari (the acress that portrays her) was in Battle Royale, Sonny Chiba needs no introduction, and neither does Lucy Liu.
The movie is style, style, style, from the arrival to Tokyo, to the conversation with Hattori Hanzo, to the acrobatic and relentless carnage of the House of Blue Leaves, to The Bride's duel with O-Ren Ishii.
Even the minor actors had their own (sometimes smarmy) style. Darryl Hannah as Elle Driver was coldly psychotic, and David Carradine was convincing as Bill.
Simply put, to those who complain there is no plot, the plot is one word:
REVENGE.
The Bride wants it for what happened to her, her husband, her child, her friends at the wedding, and she exacts it in spades. The swordfight sequence in the House of Blue Leaves simply eclipses ANY action sequence in recent memory.
The movie is pure gold. Grab some while you can.
10/10