awe inspiring film

Rating: 10/10 (25 August 2008)

I watched this film with my mother one night, and she doesn't exactly take to the genre of martial arts films except where Bruce lee was concerned. But Kill Bill had to have been the greatest story i have watched for a long time. I understand that uma Thurman learned to use the katana from the legendary Sonny Chiba himself who had a role as a sushi bar chef. For over six months uma learned the art of wielding the sword like a pro, and my own mother was awed by her use of it as well. I said after the film, that this was the greatest display of swordsmanship i have ever seen in my life. To which my mother agreed in reply your not kidding where she gasped for breath at the end of the scene. Never in my life have i ever sat with my mouth open during a battle like that, the carnage was unbelievable in a artistic way as well as historic. The katana has always been revered as the most civilized way to solve disputes in warring clans of the sho-gun and samurai. This was no different where the blue leaves café was concerned, warriors fighting to the death with honor and accepting defeat in the long run, with no honor lost in the process. And the final scene o-rin and kiddo, that was something to behold, where two female warriors facing off in the traditional manner until one is left standing. Unlike any other film i have watched containing martial arts, this one held my breath, and tarentino captured it perfectly giving us the broadside view of how the sho-gun lived and died with honor. But just to let you all know, in the second film where we see kiddo train with pai-may, using kung fu was excellent, but it would have done more profound impact if they used the old world martial art where the sho-gun were trained with an art which was forbidden to outsiders until about 65 years ago. The art is called Hwa-Rang-Do, and with this art the sho-gun were the most unstoppable force walking the earth, which is why even the roman empire never tried to conquer because of the fact the sho-guns always won every battle. Kung-fu uses about 800-950 moves and techniques white to black belt, but hwa rang do when learned is over 4000 moves and techniques making the art the deadliest art on the planet. Tarentino should have used that as a good plot for the scene, not relinquishing a strict and hard teacher, in fact using a true hard teacher from Korea in the art would have given the excuse to showing why she used the katana, because the sho-gun or samurai was the ultimate masters of the weapon. Still we both thoroughly enjoyed Kill Bill, fantastic display of traditions.