Great and very artistic film!

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2012)

Kill Bill Volume 1 is a great film by Quentin Tarantino. It is a film about a Woman (Uma Thurman) who is out for revenge, after she was brutally shot in the head at her wedding, had her baby stolen, and her whole wedding party was murdered. It is very fast paced and action packed. There are tons of gory martial arts fighting scenes and sword fights. The Director Quentin Tarantino pays homage to a lot of old Asian martial arts films throughout the movie. In the opening credits he uses the "feature presentation" screen of an old martial arts film, before the actual opening credits begin. There are many fight scenes that are very over the top and cliché as well. One example being the sword fight scene in the snow Japanese garden at night, which looks as though it was taken straight from an old Asian kung fu movie.
The film is full of artistic style. The music of the film is very fitting and does not feel out of place. Much of it has a classic Asian style with a modern twist to it. The lighting is done well, and the grimmest scenes are shot in black and white, such as the scene in the beginning where Bill shoots "The bride" in the head. There is even part of the film that uses Anime animation to tell the back story of O-Ren Ishii (Luci Liu), instead of using live action. The anime' portion of the film is very dramatic, gory, and over the top. But it does a great job of conveying the tragedy and terror that made O-Ren Ishii become who she was. Using live actors would not have been nearly as effective.
Some scenes in the film look unrealistic on purpose, and they add to the feeling of watching an old Asian martial arts film. One such scene is the scene of the plane flying over Tokyo Japan. In that scene it is easy to see that the plane, and the city are not real, and that they are models.
Even with the very gloomy theme of revenge in the film, some parts are actually funny. One such scene is when "Black Mamba" is fighting "Vernita Green" (Vivica A. Fox) in her house, when Vernita Green's daughter gets home from school, both fighters stop and hide their knives, and pretend nothing wrong has happened even as the little girl can see the room is destroyed.
I recommend this film to anyone who likes action films, or old martial arts films. It is one of the best and most artistic films I have seen in a long time. But be warned if you do not like violence this film is not for you.