Running time: 111 minutes
Starring: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, Sonny Chiba, Chiaki Kuriyama, Julie Dreyfus, Gordon Liu
Rating 9 out of 10
The wait is over. Six years after the modestly successful Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino returns to the big screen with his fourth feature. His fifth film will be released in February 2004, as Kill Bill is to be distributed in two parts. The speculation about the picture has been intense, with the big question being whether or not the boy wonder has fulfilled his promise and become a fully-fledged auteur genius. The simple answer is yes, and like his masterpiece Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill is a film that will undoubtedly stand up to several repeat viewings.
This may well be Tarantino's most personal film yet: not because the outlandish plot reflects anything in his own life, but because all the years he spent as a video clerk championing martial arts movies have clearly paid off. There is plenty here for the film geek to love: layer upon layer of spaghetti westerns, kung fu flicks and a soundtrack that re-enforces Tarantino as the master of the art of choosing the right music. It's also an extraordinarily violent film. But it doesn't matter whether you have that film nerd streak or not: this is a hugely accessible piece of cinema.
Uma Thurman stars as The Bride, a skilled assassin who has been left for dead by the other members of her group, in particular Bill (we only see fleeting glimpses of David Carradine). Five years later she wakes from a coma and determines to avenge her attempted assassination. First on her list is Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox), who is bloodily dispensed of in her new suburban home. Then it's time to head East.
Stopping off in Okinawa to obtain a new sword from legendary master Hattori Hanzo (veteran martial arts superstar Sonny Chiba), she proceeds to Tokyo to track down O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), a gang boss so fearsome she has the assorted Yakuza clans in the palm of her hand. Impervious to defeat, The Bride plans a one-woman tactical assault on Ishii's den, slaughtering seemingly hundreds of her hitmen before the main event itself.
While the plot is simplistic, the execution is often breath-taking. Tarantino's trademark humour is in evidence, and the flashback chapters will be familiar from his earlier works. The snappy street dialogue, so memorable in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction is replaced by a more stark, almost serious, script, but there are certainly many memorable lines destined to go down in movie history.
Boldly borrowing from every source imaginable, the film is simply beautiful on the eye. Tarantino uses manga to tell an important plot point halfway through the film, and the colours, framing and mise-en-scene throughout are simply unlike any other director working in film today. The final twenty minute battle sequence will be one of the year's most talked about cinematic moments, and the choreography of the fight scenes (especially the hand-to-hand and sword fighting scenes) is hugely impressive.
The overall effect is so dazzling that when you leave the cinema it will take you a few minutes to re-adjust. This is far from a simple box of tricks and will leave you much more excited about seeing the next in the series than that the usual summer blockbuster sequel.
This may well be Tarantino's most personal film yet: not because the outlandish plot reflects anything in his own life, but because all the years he spent as a video clerk championing martial arts movies have clearly paid off. There is plenty here for the film geek to love: layer upon layer of spaghetti westerns, kung fu flicks and a soundtrack that re-enforces Tarantino as the master of the art of choosing the right music. It's also an extraordinarily violent film. But it doesn't matter whether you have that film nerd streak or not: this is a hugely accessible piece of cinema.
Uma Thurman stars as The Bride, a skilled assassin who has been left for dead by the other members of her group, in particular Bill (we only see fleeting glimpses of David Carradine). Five years later she wakes from a coma and determines to avenge her attempted assassination. First on her list is Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox), who is bloodily dispensed of in her new suburban home. Then it's time to head East.
Stopping off in Okinawa to obtain a new sword from legendary master Hattori Hanzo (veteran martial arts superstar Sonny Chiba), she proceeds to Tokyo to track down O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), a gang boss so fearsome she has the assorted Yakuza clans in the palm of her hand. Impervious to defeat, The Bride plans a one-woman tactical assault on Ishii's den, slaughtering seemingly hundreds of her hitmen before the main event itself.
While the plot is simplistic, the execution is often breath-taking. Tarantino's trademark humour is in evidence, and the flashback chapters will be familiar from his earlier works. The snappy street dialogue, so memorable in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction is replaced by a more stark, almost serious, script, but there are certainly many memorable lines destined to go down in movie history.
Boldly borrowing from every source imaginable, the film is simply beautiful on the eye. Tarantino uses manga to tell an important plot point halfway through the film, and the colours, framing and mise-en-scene throughout are simply unlike any other director working in film today. The final twenty minute battle sequence will be one of the year's most talked about cinematic moments, and the choreography of the fight scenes (especially the hand-to-hand and sword fighting scenes) is hugely impressive.
The overall effect is so dazzling that when you leave the cinema it will take you a few minutes to re-adjust. This is far from a simple box of tricks and will leave you much more excited about seeing the next in the series than that the usual summer blockbuster sequel.
