Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Plot synopsis:
Before the credits we learn that the film is about the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which has five members. A quotation gives the flavour: "Revenge is a dish best served cold". In monochrome, a gasping, blood-covered bride (Uma Thurman) looks up from a chapel floor. A hand wipes her face using a handkerchief with the name Bill in the corner, while a male voice explains that what he is about to do is not a sadistic act, but a masochistic one. Just before he shoots her in the head, the Bride tells Bill (David Carradine) that the baby she carries is his. A gunshot is heard and the opening credits begin, backed by the song "Bang Bang".Chapter 1: #2. Pasadena.The Bride drives up in a yellow and red pickup truck, outside a suburban home and strolls to the front door. As she rings, a flashback shows the Bride crashing to the floor and looking up to see the face of one of her attackers, Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox). As soon as the door is open, the Bride's fist crashes into Vernita's face. A savage fight follows, first with fists, then with knives. The fight pauses when a school bus draws up outside and a little girl walks through the door. The antagonists hide their knives and pretend nothing is amiss despite the wreckage around them. They both reassure the child, Nikki (Ambrosia Kelley). The Bride mentions that she used to have a child who would be the same age as Nikki (four). Vernita sends the girl to her room. At this point Vernita is introduced as a member of the Deadly Vipers, codename Copperhead. The Bride is also a member, codename Black Mamba. The Bride makes clear that she is here for revenge but promises not to kill Vernita in front of her child. They plan a fight later, but while Vernita is preparing cereal for her child she fires a concealed gun at the Bride. She misses and the Bride kills her with a thrown knife.The child walks in, a witness to her mother's death. The Bride apologises but explains that her mother had it coming to her. She tells Nikki that if, when she grows up, she can't get past the killing, she should come find the Bride. "I'll be waiting," the Bride promises. She returns to the pickup, which is emblazoned with the words Pussy Wagon, crosses Vernita's name from a list headed "Death List Five," and drives away.Chapter 2: The Blood Splattered BrideFour years earlier in an El Paso wedding chapel, police are investigating a mass murder. The sheriff (Michael Parks) drives up and is told that there has been an execution-style massacre leaving nine bodies, including the bride, the groom, the preacher and his wife, the guests, and even the piano player. The sheriff strolls around commenting on the massacre, stops near the bride, and remarks on how good-looking she was. He immediately recognizes the name she was using, Arlene Machiavelli, as an alias. As he kneels to look more closely at her, she suddenly (perhaps unintentionally) spits in his face. We see her rushed to a hospital, where she lies in a deep coma.A smartly dressed blonde woman walks through the hospital, whistling a tune. She finds a changing room and emerges dressed as a nurse with a red-cross patch over one eye and carrying a tray with a syringe. A title identifies her as Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) of the Deadly Vipers, codename California Mountain Snake. She stands over the comatose Bride and says that her gift is to allow her to die in her sleep. As she prepares to inject the contents of the syringe into the Bride's IV line, her mobile phone rings. It is Bill, who orders her to abort the mission in view of the Bride's survival of their previous efforts to assassinate her, and because it would lower them. Elle is furious, but does as ordered and leaves.Four years later, the Bride is still lying in a coma. A mosquito bites her and she sits up with a shriek. In a flashback she sees a gun pointing at her and a bullet approaching in slow motion. She begins to feel her body, first noticing the metallic sound of her skull and then feeling the absence of the baby in her womb. She shrieks again and sobs pitifully. When she hears approaching footsteps, she lies back and pretends to be still in a coma. An orderly (Michael Bowen) enters, accompanied by a large trucker (Jonathan Loughran). The orderly explains that, for $75, this attractive woman is available for whatever the trucker wants. The man pays up and is told that he can do anything as long as he doesn't leave any marks. The orderly leaves and the man climbs on top of the Bride. As he starts to kiss her she bites down on his lower lip and severs it in a profusion of blood. He's left unconscious or dead.The Bride tries to get out of bed but collapses as her legs will not support her. When she hears the orderly returning she picks up a knife and crawls behind the door. He enters and stands aghast at the carnage and the empty bed. She slashes his heel and he falls to the floor. Then, slamming the door into his head, she demands to know where Bill is. She reads the name Buck on the orderly's name tag, which triggers memories of his earlier assaults on her. She gives him a couple more violent blows with the door, perhaps killing him, then searches him for his car keys. The key fob says "Pussy Wagon" in distinctive pink script. Propelling herself to the basement car park in a wheelchair, the Bride is able to identify Buck's yellow pickup because it says "Pussy Wagon" on the back. She hauls herself in and starts the long process of getting her legs moving again.A shot of the rest of the Deadly Vipers gang introduces O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), codename Cottonmouth, now head of the Tokyo yakuza.Chapter 3: The Origins of O-Ren IshiiIn anime format, the film follows O-Ren's development from the age of nine, when she witnessed the murder of her parents. Her father, an American military officer, had tried to fight off several yakuza henchman, but was killed. The yakuza leader, a sleazy old man, Matsumoto, also brutally murders O-Ren's Japanese mother. The last of Matsumoto's men lights a fire in the room, letting the house burn to the ground. O-Ren survives and avenges the murders at age 11 in blood-spouting style, taking advantage of Matsumoto's pedophilia. She grows up to be a world-class assassin.Meanwhile 13 hours have passed and the Bride has regained use of her legs, so she sets out on her revenge trail. We see her flying to Okinawa.Chapter 4: The Man from OkinawaThe Bride enters a Japanese sushi bar and there is a longish scene with the jovial bar-keeper and some slapstick action with his assistant. Things get serious when she tells the bar-keeper that she is looking for him, Hattori Hanzo (Shin'ichi Chiba). She explains that she needs some "Japanese steel" to kill vermin. He shows her to his attic where he keeps an array of the katanas (swords) he has made. When she tries one out he says that they are not for sale and he has sworn not to make any more "instruments of death". She explains that her "vermin" is a former pupil of his and he correctly guesses that she means Bill. He agrees to make her a sword, which will take a month. He suggests the Bride spend that time training.A month later we see Hanzo examining the new sword, which he believes is his finest work. He hands it to her in a small and solemn ceremony where he admits he broke his personal pact not to make any more swords but has done so because he supports the Bride's mission.Chapter 5: Showdown at the House of Blue LeavesThe film returns to O-Ren and shows her as newly elected Head of the Council of all the yakuza bosses. When one objects to her election on the grounds of her mixed-race origin (she is Chinese/Japanese-American), she immediately beheads him and warns the others never to disparage her heritage in any way or they'll suffer the same fate. We are introduced to O-Ren's lieutenants: her French-Japanese lawyer Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus), another of Bill's protégées; her teenage bodyguard Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama), a vicious killer sporting a plaid-skirted school uniform; and Johnny Mo (Chia-Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu), the head of her strongarm men, the Crazy 88.The Bride flies into Tokyo and appears in yellow leathers and helmet riding a yellow motorbike while O-Ren and her motorcade are heading for a restaurant. The Bride spots Sofie in her car and there is a flashback to Sofie calmly taking a call on her mobile while the Bride and her party were being slaughtered. O-Ren and her immediate subordinates arrive at the restaurant and are ushered upstairs to a private dining room by the obsequious owners. At the bar, the Bride sits quietly and watches.O-Ren and her party are enjoying themselves when O-Ren senses something threatening. She throws a small dart with a red tassel through the paper wall to lodge in a beam in the hallway outside, startling the Bride, who is lurking near the private room. O-Ren sends Gogo to look around, but the Bride has braced herself against the ceiling and Gogo doesn't see her. The Bride enters the toilet and while stripping off her leathers, hears "Auld Lang Syne," the distinctive ring-tone of Sofie's mobile.With Sofie in tow, the Bride loudly announces her presence from the restaurant floor, which brings O-Ren and her party rushing out onto the balcony. While they watch she slashes off one of Sofie's arms and pandemonium ensues as the diners and staff flee.O-Ren sends her lieutenants down singly or in groups to kill the Bride, but all end up being cut apart. The final defender is Gogo, who opposes the Bride's sword with a ball and chain in a vicious fight, ending when the Bride kills Gogo by embedding a broken, nail-studded table leg in her temple. Before O-Ren and the Bride can engage, the roar of motorbikes is heard and the Crazy 88 pour in. The ensuing battle of one against many is long, balletic and bloody but finally only one of the 88 remains -- the youngest -- and the Bride sends him off with a spanking. She announces to the defeated Crazy 88 that they may leave, but they must leave behind their severed limbs, which belong to her now. She also orders Sofie to stay.Outside in the snow, the Bride and O-Ren fight it out in a long and evenly-matched sword-fight. At the start of the fight, O-Ren casts doubt on the provenance of the Bride's sword. The Bride wins by slicing off the top of O-Ren's head; before she dies, O-Ren apologizes for an earlier insult and remarks that the sword must really be a Hanzo. Later, the Bride crosses O-Ren's name from her list.The Bride loads Sofie into a car and drives to a point where she can roll her down a snowy slope to a hospital. The Bride has tortured Sofie, cutting off her other arm for information on the whereabouts of the other Vipers and Bill. As the Bride draws up her "Death List Five," we see Sofie, talking to someone whose face is not seen but who is clearly Bill. She tells Bill that under threat of having more limbs cut off, she has told the Bride everything she knows. She explains that the Bride kept her alive just so she could tell Bill in person all that happened and warn him that soon all of them would be dead. Bill's final words are "Is she aware that her daughter is still alive?"To be continued....

Tags: comedy, mystery, neo noir, murder, boring, allegory, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, action, romantic, tragedy, revenge, entertaining

Review:
Having seen Tarantino's 3 previous films, going into the cinema, my expectations for 'Kill Bill' were already over the roof.
I had quite simply never seen anything even remotely like it.In 'Kill Bill', the revenge plot serves only as a larger story arc, thus allowing Tarantino to play with as many different genres as he likes, and boy - what a mix he dishes out!
Some of the shots are simply incredible; the score is, for the most part, vintage Tarantino selections- and the RZA does a very good job at filling the blanks; Uma Thurman is a great female lead, for sheer presence (and decent acting chops).
Kill Bill Vol. 1 is yet another quality film of Tarantino's short, but distinguished list.Kill Bill involves a nameless woman (Uma Thurman) who is slowing seeking revenge on her former hit squad the Viper Squad and her boss Bill (David Caradine.) Her former hit squad wronged her by gunning down her closest friends and family during her wedding and putting her into a coma while being pregnant.
As the story progresses (through this film and the sequel), you find out who she really, why Bill wanted her dead and the fate of her daughter.The movie is really a combination of Tarantino's love for the 70's over-dramatized Kung-Fu movie era and story of revenge with rich dialog.
What really makes this movie is Tarantino ability to make bad to mediocre actors seem like good ones, a smart and hilarious dialog and a good storyline.
The movie also features a couple of classic Tarantino showdowns, including an unforgettable one with the Japanese infamous crime lord, O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Lui.) Once again, Tarantino puts his imagination at work again in his story telling by using some of his old techniques like jumping timelines and some new ones like adding Japanese animation for character backgrounds.I wouldn't really recommend this film to someone who is really not from the Pulp Fiction era.
This film is really just homage to flicks that frequently appear on Sunday Samurai Showcase, revenge and Tarantino's continuous fascination with Uma Thurman.
Even when fighting against more than 50 Crazy 8's, it replicated admirably the incredibly one-sided fights from some of the best martial arts movies made 30 years ago.All in all, a great and original film!
Probably Tarantino's most universal movie to date, with a little less character dependency than most of his films and a more linear approach than usual, Kill Bill Volume 1 is a great place to start for anyone new to his movies.
I don't mean to imply this is a shallow film (far from it), i simply found it easier on the mind than Tarantino's other movies.Uma Thurman, left for dead by her ex-boyfriend (Bill) doesn't die and begins her quest for vengeance, by hunting down Bill's gang members in a search for Bill.
Armed with a Samurai sword and a deadly blend of martial arts skills, Uma delivers action, violence and passion as she plays out the character with beautiful precision.Need i say, this is excellently directed, brilliantly scripted and cast, and should be in everyone's Tarantino collection.10/10 Second only to Pulp Fiction.
It has been six years since we have seen a movie from one of the world's most talked about directors, Quentin Tarantino, but the wait for me, has been worth the while.
Tarantino can now add the martial arts masterpiece 'Kill Bill' to his resume, a film that left me speechless after I had seen it.
But, what else should we expect from a movie freak, like Quentin Tarantino?An entire wedding party is slaughtered during a dress rehearsal in a rural chapel: the pregnant woman in the blood-splattered wedding dress is Black Mamba, better known as 'The Bride'.
But without the violence, KB would have not been the movie it was.This time Tarantino has not focussed on the dialogue in this movie, when it came to writing its script, more he wanted to show what the characters he had created, and why they were in the position they were in.
I also feel that Tarantino is in some way trying to show his appreciation to Pulp Fiction, the movie that made him successful, via KB.
Her demise was highly entertaining to say the least, again reminiscent of Pulp Fiction.All the scenes with fighting in KB are a highlight for me, especially the sword fighting, as they are so fun and intense, with the last hour of the movie purely exhausting, with the final showdown between 'TB' and Cottonmouth & co.
The middle section of film was also great, as it tells the majority of the KB Vol. 1 story, although parts are pretty disturbing.Kill Bill is another film by Quentin Tarantino, where I have to say it was 'exceptionally well made'.
After changing the popular film landscape in the 1990's with the classics "Reservoir Dogs","Pulp Fiction",and to a much lesser extent,"Jackie Brown",Tarantino spent a half a decade in hibernation,accompanied by little more than a television set,a movie projector,and collection of Johnny Cash records and a bong.
But now he is back after a six year hiatus with "Kill Bill",a thrill ride with the grand style of his earlier films and a brilliant tribute to those Shaw Brothers martial arts flicks of the 1970's and the action heroes of that same decade with includs Charles Bronson,Telly Savalas,Burt Reynolds,Clint Eastwood,Fred Williamson,Steve McQueen,Jim Brown and James Coburn.
And by the way,what Quentin Tarantino movie wouldn't be correct without his main man Samuel L.
Overall it is the best idea ever the other two films I've seen with animated sequences are Lola Rennt a German movie & Karam an Indian movie and both of them are my all time most favourite films as well as Kill Bill.2.
I thought it was going to be simple because Bill was the main target but it turned out to be more difficult.The main reason why it is one of my favourite is because I'm a huge fan of revenge movies and Kill Bill gives a very deep insight of the topic e.g. Like the Old Klingon Proverb on the screen before the film which is "Revenge is a dish best served cold" & when Hattori Hanzo said that "Revenge is never a straight line.
The movie its story comes totally secondary, as Tarantino used this movie as an experimental tool to mix several, mostly Asian cinema, styles together and blend it into one big visual experience of violence and unusual over-the-top looking sequences.
Most notably of course in the animated segment (that is great by the way) but also in almost every action/fight sequence in the movie and its violence.
It therefor really isn't Tarantino's best but it's definitely his most experimental and most visually orientated, style-full, splendid movie.Unusual, over-the-top but strangely intriguing, entertaining and overall brilliant.
Many many many people have caught on to what Tarantino has done over and over again since 1992, and many many many people really don't appreciate it.Keep this in mind if you decide to subject yourself to this horrible excuse for a film: the person who supposedly wrote pulp fiction actually wrote this.
What this movie does have: a blond-haired, blue eyed girl that wears this totally cool motorcycle suit and, like, totally kills 200 people, single-handedly, with one sword, Awesome!!!!!
There is no trace of the intricate story building of Pulp Fiction, nor of the empathy for the characters sometimes found in Jackie Brown.All we get here is an endless orgy of über-cool nasty people in designer clothing cutting off feet on highly stylized stage sets, with fountaineous gushes of blood the high-point of the fun.The action scenes are tired, bleak copies only.
I haven't seen such an over-hyped piece of garbage since Titanic.I'm sure this movie has its fan base but for hollywood to market it as a flashy chick martial arts flick is just wrong..
So many similarities between this QT movie and Sergio Leone's action films (once upon a time in the west; the good, the bad and the ugly).
I like film to convey points of plot and character and mood and attitude through imagery and action...
yes, they are well done, but I found myself wanting to go home and watch all of a Leone western, or a early-70's Japanese pop-Samurai film, or "Battle Royale," or one of my favorite HK action flicks, rather than Tarantino's far-too-short pastiches of same.
The film mingles martial arts , Hong Kong movies , Spaghetti Western , action movies with Japanese Manga or anime .Uma Thurman is wonderful and overblown .
David Carradine makes an invisible intervention , his acting stays for the second part .Interesting and stirring screenplay , according to Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman the idea for doing "Kill Bill" began during the filming of Pulp Fiction (1994) , the two began talking about the kinds of movies that they would like to do and Quentin said he would like to do a 70's style kung-fu flick .
I have seen all the movies I mentioned, and each surpasses Kill Bill in violence, story, choreography, or all three, people are heaping undue praise on QT.
This movie was directed by that guy who likes to kill things.
There was a lot of blood and gore in these movies, but they had a story - something "Kill Bill" is totally lacking.I was rather appalled to see this movie so many people are mad about - and to see that it's nothing else but a meaningless bunch of fight scenes, full of blood and bad taste.Has Tarantino finally lost his mind?
Tarantino seems so much hypnotized by style, that unless you're not a movie-freak, there is no way in which you can't keep on noticing references after references of a superficially exploited collection of stylish movements (mangas, comic strips, Samurai movies, pop culture, watered down atmospheres specific to such or such director, etc.)This time, his only apparent goal is how to overwhelm the viewer under a shower of violence and ox-blood No storyline whatsoever, no purpose, no way to identify ourselves with any of the characters, except for Bill's, the only one who seems to have some sort of emotions, and who incidentally is a psychopath (any contradiction here?)After viewing it, mostly in fast forward mode during those endless figures of sword combats, I asked myself what kind of irreconcilable trauma poor Quent must have suffered in his youth  And again, the targets of his spurs of most sadistic creativity are either women, gays, colored people, or figures of authority (I let you decide which belongs to which in his 3 previous movies).
only good action's not sufficient.but you have to be realistic and see what kill bill is: a remake of scenes from old action films and a minimal, bound together by a ridiculous plot, made up in 15 minutes.
Tarantino set out to create a homage to those martial arts movies he watched as a clerk in a video store.
Or is everybody thinking that one can't give an bad review to a film that has been directed by someone who has created so well received cult movies as "Reservoir dogs" or "Pulp Fiction" or who has been involved in "From dusk 'til dawn"?
Sometimes, I think that an aggressive teenager who likes some gore and splatter horror movies and some fight movies in the key of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude van Damme rather that Ti Lung or David Chiang had the idea of such a movie, but not a adult who knows the whole genre and has an IQ of 160.To really evaluate this film you might have seen the original Asian movies that inspired Quentin Tarantino.
This kind of filming was an art for itself, while "Kill Bill" is just a superficial gore movie with a lot of dead people, fight scenes and wanna-be cool dialogues.Give those Asian films a chance and forget about this silly opera of violence from a director who has done a few nice movies in the past and lives from its reputation....
But somehow, since it's Tarantino, and since it's Uma Thurman, people are willing to rate it high.In my eyes it's got nothing good in it at all.
One, I usually love Tarantino--his directing, writing, the films he's produced, etc.--and two, the reason I didn't like Kill Bill Volume 1 had nothing to do with not liking the fight scenes or violence/gore.
I love that stuff and that's the only part of the film that I found even mildly entertaining.Instead, the problem with Kill Bill Volume 1 is that it is extremely boring, almost completely lacks suspense, has awful pacing, and makes a number of self-indulgent stylistic missteps.
There is a sense of venturing into the unknown, where anything could happen.However, after this, Tarantino chooses to cling too tightly to his beloved device of non-sequential story construction, and the bulk of the film concerns Uma Thurman's attempt to take down a character whom we already know she has killed.
In Kill Bill, the violence was almost boring.In an effort to be "retro hip", Tarantino includes a number of elements that blend with the film as seamlessly as President Bush in an Iraqi mosque.
I have seen some Japanese action movies, which was all just violence, blood, screams with an entirely peculiar story.
I've seen and mostly enjoyed QT's other films, so I can't begin to describe how disappointed I was--this is self-indulgent, overhyped crap, with no redeeming features.As a friend said, "Despite what you may have read, it's not a tribute to kung fu movies, it's not clever, hip or slick - it's tedious, pointless and empty drivel." I unfortunately could not agree more.
You can, of course, paint them all in blood, but isn't it rather tasteless to make the whole film just a one bloody mess?Sorry, Tarantino, but Uma vs.
I expected to see a lot of milking of seventies cinema, television and music and I think Tarantino milked the whole decade dry, or what was left of it after his earlier movies, in this first part of Kill Bill.
But these irritations aside I loved Uma Thurman in this movie and it's great to see her carry a lead and hack away like she means it.
The way in which Tarantino practically clubs us over the head with the fact that we don't know Thurman's character's name, for instance, seems particularly amateurish when compared with David Fincher's handling of the same sort of device in Fight Club where, if it weren't for the scene where Helen Bonham Carter's character brings it up, you could watch the movie multiple times and probably not notice that you never learn the main character's name.
Both reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are classics of the highest order and rightfully Tarantino was recognised as a good director for these films.
A action/crime/thriller about a women named "the Bride"(Uma Thurman) who was at one time a part of a group of world class female assassins until the leader of the group "bill"(David Carradine) and the other assassins turn on her.They beat her up so bad she goes into a coma 4 1/2 years later she awakens from the coma and seeks the people who tried to kill her and her unborn child so she can kill them.Give me a break this is a very very stupid movie the story is ridiculous a total peace of vile crap.The gore in this movie is like no other movie I have ever seen they must have spent 2 million dollars on fake blood.It was almost sickening to watch the violence in this movie it makes "fargo" look like "the lion king".Uma Thurman's acting was absolutely dreadful.The screenplay was very bad also Quentin Tarantino tried to get clever with the directing but didn't quiet pull it off in my opinion.Best actor/actress-Lucy LiuTerrible,Vile,Disgusting,Movie-Jake HydenI rated this 2 out of 102/10.
I was looking forward to seeing "Kill Bill: Vol. 1," as I had enjoyed "Pulp Fiction" and I had heard good things about the movie.
Now, having seen the movie, I can look back see that the violence was merely a cover for the lack of plot and the lack of just about everything else.I'll start off by relating the good characteristics of this film (of which, however, there are very few).
It is, as we all know, over the top violent, but I was yawning through much of the violence when I wasn't looking away.Recommended for: --people who will pay to watch Quentin (or Uma) read the phone book --kung fu, etc movie fans --other folks on a bored rainy day, nothing else showing, if you won't mind the violenceIt is laughable and an insult to Quentin's brilliant earlier work that this has landed itself in the top #100+ movies.
Note: I haven't seen vol.2 yet.I'm definitely not an admirer of Tarantino's works but I'm always trying to see all major Hollywood movies and expected something better than that gory disaster.
Three times I fell asleep trying to watch this film but boring rehashed fight scenes labeled as a movie kept me from making the credits.
This film is poor in how again and again, the main character escapes not based on her spirit but because she is special and favored by the filmmaker thus automatically given passage to the next scene of the movie because of a fluke or good luck.I feel Quentin Tarantino cut a side character out of the story and centered the script on someone based off of favoritism.
If this film didn't have names like Quentin Tarantino directing and Uma Thurman starring, they wouldn't have even been able to find a distributor for a movie this bad.
On the other hand, if you are a fan of martial arts movies, you should love Kill Bill..
the opening fight with Uma killing some black women is so bad,it will go down in history as how not to open a movie.