Bloody awesome murder.

Rating: 8/10 (31 August 2011)

'Revenge is a dish best served cold.'
Welcome to the fiefdom of Kill Bill, a world where blood springs like water from the fountain of youth, heads fly like wild magpies, people are slaughtered like unfortunate pigs and in the end you are still with a sadistic smile lingering on your lips. Kill Bill is a movie about revenge, wrath, decapitation, blood bath, swords, evisceration, assassins; I could go on for a while.
One of those rare films with a female protagonist, Kill Bill is about an –ex-assassin bride (Uma Thurman), who was called Black Mamba in her better days. A bullet has been put through her head on her wedding alter and she has been left for dead; the culprits - her ex-comrades, leader Bill and a bunch of others. But she doesn't die; not just yet. After remaining comatose for four years, she flips her eyes open. First realization - the baby she carried is gone. Second realization - human tongues don't taste very good. Third realization - she has been immobilized from her knee down. Final realization - someone needs to die.
Tarantino's movies have a raw power about them and you can observe that through each of his films. He doesn't delve in being creepy or mysterious. If it's murder, it won't be a carefully injected air bubble in someone's vein; it will be a knife in the eye. Kill Bill takes this to a splendid new level. The movie is certainly not for the squeamish, and even those with otherwise strong stomachs should ensure that they haven't eaten anything volatile before watching it. The gore is immense, the blood flow relentless and the violence would probably make Gandhi pee his pants. At the same time, it doesn't disgust you, and only Tarantino could pull of something like this.
The film has all the necessary ingredients of a vintage Tarantino flick. His direction has a certain child-like quality about it. The title itself seems like a ten-year olds attempt at creativity. The movie has been made as neatly as a courtroom drama - hard camera shots, clever dialogue, rising tension - but underneath, it's an almighty mess; something like a monster dressed as Santa. There is the trademark from- the-trunk camera shot, and this time he even puts in a bonus from-a- bullet-hole-in-the-head shot.
Similar to Tarantino's second movie (Pulp Fiction), Kill Bill too doesn't rely very heavily on its plot, which is virtually non-existent. It is driven by the execution. Movies are meant for escapism and the director knows this. The story has been stretched to a point where it becomes almost farcical, which is also an escapist's paradise. Things that would have been awfully heinous otherwise become rather likable in the hands of Tarantino. Added to it is a dark tone and black comedy which make it highly even more compelling. Call me despicable, but there is something oddly appealing about cornflakes drenched in blood.
It is the subtle things that catch your attention and define the beauty of the movie. The cinematography is breathtaking. Right from a bullet leaving a gun to the large-scale mass murders every scene is awe- inspiring. There's B&W, slo-mo and censoring of names. There is a part in anime; a montage about the past of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), a deadly assassin, Tokyo's mob-boss and number one on The Bride's hit-list. Perhaps he did it to show a relation between O-Ren's half Japanese ancestry. Or maybe he did to avoid getting an NC-17 rating (there's a paedophilic goon, O-Ren's a kid; add two and two).
The eclectic soundtrack by RZA can be termed as one of the most befitting ever heard in Hollywood. It reached #45 on the Billboard 200 album chart and #1 on the soundtracks chart; so you see what I mean. It builds tension superbly, often causing feverish excitement. If you close your eyes and listen to the music playing during the battles in the movie, you can still feel the adrenaline coursing through your body – that's how amazing it is.
Uma Thurman does a wonderful job as the vendetta-seeking, yellow-haired bride. She clears all sexist misconceptions from your mind about men being better at war than women. She is lethal and ruthless with an ever- present sardonic smirk on her lips – a true femme fatale. You have to give her credit for managing to hold onto her expressions while performing things that are absolutely nuts.
Vol.1 does not offer a satisfactory conclusion, leaving expectations of a second part, which Tarantino duly followed it up with. It leaves many questions unanswered, many people unkilled and many viewers thirsty for more bloodshed.
However, while parting the movie does teach a very important lesson – when you kill a woman you need to make sure that she is dead because if she isn't, boy, you are screwed.