A Return to Story Driven Cinema

Rating: 9/10 (16 April 2004)

VOLUME 1 of KILL BILL was really all about the action - a pure revenge film dipping into every '70's action genre one could imagine, and director/writer Tarantino can imagine quite a lot of them. There wasn't much character development, nor a great deal of plot. But that left more room for what it was really about - Tarantino proving his walk was as good as his talk. He had talked about action for years, and with VOLUME 1 he delivered; enough for any five action films, I think.
So it was the return to an earlier Tarantino type of character developed, story driven film that really threw me in VOLUME 2. Now that's not to say there isn't any action. KILL BILL VOLUME 2 has got that covered. But in this one we study all the background, the motives, and the characters themselves. Mostly these elements are given in an old fashioned storytelling style, told from one character to another, in that kind of conversational realism Tarantino has made popular all over again, but which he and few others have really mastered. We are given many little storytelling scenes, about this or that - I'm not going to give anything away here. But it all adds up, at least to me, the way all those little storytelling scenes worked together for the whole in PULP FICTION.
It's this storytelling element that really gives meaning and depth to all the craziness that was unleashed in VOLUME 1. It's clear how much the two films are actually just one story. Without the second, the first is just action fun. Characters doing crazy things to each other without much reason behind it. But with VOLUME 2, we have the scope and the motives and intentions of those actions. We finally get inside these characters, and that, for me, is the best part of the storytelling process. At the end of VOLUME 1, O-Ren Ishii might have been the only character I understood at all. Even The Bride was a bit of a mystery, and we didn't even know her real name. Now, I feel like I know them all. They are distinct, in the way perhaps the Magnificent Seven are, in my mind.
Now I don't want to give the impression this is a slow film. It's quite a bit longer than the first, but the time just flew by and I was surprised when it was over. Wonderful editing and pacing are the keys here, not to mention riveting dialogue, and action that comes out of nowhere like a truck driving into your living room on a quiet evening. Tarantino still has the element of surprise in hand. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the talents he's assembled in cast and crew. The film is just as clever to watch as the dialogue is to hear. Buddy Robert Rodriguez even makes an assist on the music soundtrack.
Tarantino has once again bravely side stepped the industry trends, turned the formula on it's head, and delivered the more thoughtful, deeper elements in the second half of the story. The audience is then rewarded with a superior, unpredictable second installment that may leave those "check-your-brain-at-the-door" fans a bit disappointed, but gives the rest of us, as The Bride puts it, "bloody satisfaction". Well done.