A timeless collage about a criminal bent on revenge. 77.5%

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2016)

This is a "timeless" movie in the sense that director Quentin Tarantino is like a lyrebird, drawing from sources covering different eras in pop culture. The introductory credits reek of 1970s Asian martial arts movies (in fact, the movie seems to represent itself as being the product of such a company) and text on the screen stating that "Revenge is a dish best served cold" is attributed to an "Old Klingon proverb"!
Soon we see what looks like the final moments of a battered bride, just before she is about to be murdered, for some mysterious reason, by a gang of unknown thugs. Early on in the film we can hear Nancy Sinatra sing "Bang bang (my baby shot me down)". Having just searched that song, I see that it was initially a song recorded by Cher and Nancy Sinatra covered it in the same year! Tarantino's pop cultural references here are both apt and illustrative of his eclectic approach and "borrowing".
Anyway, Uma Thurman's "The bride" is not one for dying and we soon embark on her backstory and thirst for revenge. I say "The bride", as her name is not revealed to the viewer in this movie. It's odd hearing her name bleeped out when it is mentioned by characters. My attempt at lip reading made me think that her name was "Patricia".
Presented in chapters, the movie has The Bride seek all those that would have killed her, in order to return the favour to them...but this time more successfully. As per the title of the movie, "Bill" is the one that The Bride must ultimately confront.
Another way that the movie is a fragmented collage is demonstrated when an Asian sounding man takes on the narrating duties for a short stint. Who on Earth is he? Mixing up the temporal sequence/information like this is one way that Tarantino get the viewer to ask questions like mine (that character sounds like he says "Engrish" at one point in time and "English" just a few seconds later). The order of the movie's chapters isn't even chronological...when The Bride has visited the first thug the viewer sees, we later see her cross that name off her list...but another name has already been crossed off her list...and we did not see that confrontation with The Bride. Also intriguingly, one hears The Bride using the phrase "does one"...a peculiarly English (toffee) figure of of speech. The Bride also flits between referencing Shakespeare and Star Trek...from eyebrow culture (as Kath & Kim would say) to lowbrow culture.
Patently playful, Tarantino indulges in a backstory for one of the thugs that The Bride is pursuing. That backstory makes use of the cartoon form to inform the viewer, instead of live action flashback. Other times The Bride seems to have access to her would-be killers' personal histories which she should not have (perhaps). It seems to me that Tarantino also has The Bride walk past an actual poster of Uma Thurman at a Tokyo airport! I'm assuming that Uma actually did paid work for that poster before the movie was ever conceived.
Since this movie is "volume 1", it's not spoiler to say that by the end of this movie, The Bride has crossed some names off her list. The end credits are also interesting to read too. There's an "RIP Charles Bronson" as well as the more mysterious "Dustbusting David Geoghegan". Huh? Perhaps most interestingly, the actor Sonny Chiba (who plays Hattori Hanzo in the movie) is later credited with being the movie's Samurai sword adviser. Maybe I'm a bit reticent, but I suspect that the credit stating that the character of "The Bride" was created by Q & U refers to Quentin and Uma...but I haven't bothered verify that.
Some puzzles for me: when The Bride wakes from her coma, she looks at the lines on her palm...what's the signficance of that? There's also something weird going on when the perspective on a sniper shot seems to change.
If you're watching this movie on video, maybe check out what The Bride has written on the soles of her shoes! It's near the end of the movie, where there is a glass floor in a restaurant.