Do you find me sadistic? (Kill Bill Vol. 1 (DVD))

Member Name: samgriff

Product:	Kill Bill Vol. 1 (DVD)
Date:	12/10/05 (229 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Tarantino's best

Disadvantages: Violence, fighting might not be liked

So, this is my first ever review that I have done for dooyoo. I can sense everyone’s anticipation and their thoughts, is she any good, can she write? Well I will let you all decide for yourselves, here I go…

I have chosen to review Kill Bill volume one as it is probably the only film that I have seen more than a dozen times. When I heard that Quentin Tarantino was bringing out another film, I just knew that I had to watch it. It also didn’t help that my sister saw this film before me and was telling me it was brilliant, which made me very jealous indeed! I love all of his other work, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction (which is probably my close second best film by Tarantino). So I’m a big Tarantino fan and when I saw this film I was a huge Kill Bill fan.

Kill Bill Volume One is the first part of a two part story about revenge, betrayal and love. It starts off wonderfully with a clear shot of Uma Thurman looking pretty much worse for wear. She is all bloody and has loads of cuts on her face and is pretty much beaten to a pulp. This entire scene focuses on Thurman while you hear a man’s voice speaking to her about not being sadistic, yeah right. Then you hear him get his gun out, she blurts out ‘It’s your…’ then he shoots her in the head. What a great start to the film.

The next scene starts off in Pasadena, California where Uma Thurman brings her strange looking truck to a stop outside a home. She rings the doorbell at the house, Vivica. A Fox answers the door and the next thing we know the two of them are fighting. Now by the looks of the fighting they are both professionals. In this scene we find out that Thurman had a little girl which we are guessing was killed and also we don’t know her name as when she says it, it is bleeped out. The film is devastatingly intriguing from this very first opening scene until the brilliant twist at the end of the film.

As you watch the film you learn that The ‘Bride’, as Uma is called in the film, has a list of people that she must kill. The reason is that she was once part of the DiVAS, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and when she decided she wanted to leave and get married, the other squad members killed everyone at the ceremony and attempted to kill her. She isn’t quite dead but she goes into a coma for four years. When she wakes up and realises what happened, she decides to get a little payback on the people that did this to her.

As I watched this film I found myself comparing it to his other films and I came to the conclusion that this is definitely his best. He fuses together so many different styles of movies with ease and magnificence. You can even sense his wacky style of directing from his distinct chapter separation in the film to his sequences where it is filmed in one shot. There is not much CGI in this, which I’m guessing is because Tarantino is a massive fan of old style Kung Foo. The fighting scenes are expertly choreographed by the legendary Yuen Wo Ping who choreographed the fighting scenes in movies such as The Matrix Trilogy and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I love how in the famous Crazy 88 scene, the film suddenly changes from colour to black and white during the fighting. Maybe this is to cut out seeing all the blood flying about from Uma cutting off people’s heads!

This is a fantastic action movie that I think almost anyone will love. It simply exudes coolness and will have many movie geeks salivating in their seats. I simply put it, loved this movie and I love how Tarantino has included many references to his many favourite films and movie genres. Visually, it is wonderful and I think that it was directed perfectly. The special effects are used perfectly and look fantastic. We see everything from close range bullets to axes flying into people’s heads. It sounds a bit gross so I wouldn’t watch it if you get a bit squeamish. The gross factor is wonderfully demonstrated in one scene when you see Uma bite off someone’s tongue, eugh. One of my favourite scenes is the chapter entitled The Origins of O-ren Ishii. This entire chapter is in Japanese cartoon format with Uma as a voice over telling the story. This might sound like your kind of thing but it’s an extremely inventive way of telling the story which I totally love.

The revenge plot of this film is great, simple but wonderful. It has viewers wondering what’s going to happen next and why some things are happening, as many of the questions put forward in this film are not provided until Volume Two. I think the revenge aspect of a film has been done before but not nearly as masterful as Tarantino. This film looks and feels fresh and completely original which I think is very important in a film. There are many twists and turns in the story and every second that goes by there seems to be another revelation or another pivotal element to the plot. The film never gets boring and there is never a moment when I wanted to skip a scene and when I forced my mom to watch it, even she kept awake for the whole two hours, amazing!

Before I mention the acting in this film I would like to have a special mention for the music in the film. The music is superb and seems to blend perfectly with the scenes in the film and compliment each other. My favourite scene would have to be when The Bride and O-Ren are preparing to fight each other. The music for the song ‘Don’t let me be misunderstood’ comes on and I think it just sounds so funky and together with the scene it makes a truly memorable fighting scene. Kill Bill also features music such as Nancy Sinatra and the 5, 6, 7, 8’s with their wonderful song ‘Woo Hoo’. All of the music can be found on the Kill Bill Volume One soundtrack: warning, explicit lyrics.

Ok so now I will actually get onto the acting in the film. Well, what can I say, it was absolutely fantastic!!! The cast was chosen perfectly. I love Uma Thurman as the crazy but loveable psycho revenge hound. Lucy Lui is great as the proud of her heritage leader of the Tokyo criminal world. Sonny Chiba provides a short yet funny portrayal of the legendary sword maker. My only fault with this film is that we don’t see much of Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen and we don’t actually see anything of David Carradine, we hear only his voice. However I can forgive Tarantino as it does add a certain air of mystery to these central characters which is definitely made up in Volume Two.

The Cast
Uma Thurman The Bride
Lucy Liu O-Ren Ishii
Vivica A. Fox Vernita Green
Daryl Hannah Elle Driver
David Carradine Bill
Michael Madsen Budd
Julie Dreyfus Sofie Fatale
Chiaki Kuriyama Gogo Yubari
Sonny Chiba Hattori Hanzo
Chia Hui Liu Johnny Mo

The DVD is great and provides a clean, crisp and digitally great sounding film. It certainly is better in DVD than it is in video format, well who really buys videos anymore? The film is great however the extras on the disc don’t fare so well. All there are is a making of featurette, a few trailers for Kill Bill 1 and 2 and a performance from the group the 5, 6, 7, 8’s. Ok so the featurette is ok and worth watching as some parts of it are quite funny and it provides an insight into what happened during the filming of Kill Bill.

My overall opinion

This is such a wonderful film and I have watched it quite a few times. The amazing thing is that no matter how many times I watch it, it never becomes boring or annoying like I have found with other films. Many people find this film annoying as it doesn’t really provide many answers, and many have argued that it doesn’t have a very good plot. Now my reply to that is, love the film for what it is and then watch the second. This film is purely action based and is for fans of the fighting genre and Tarantino’s specialised talent. The second Volume is the film that provides many answers that are put forward in this one. People love the second one best but I love the first best. The acting, story and the direction are the key ingredients for a masterpiece of a film which in my opinion is what Tarantino has pulled off with Kill Bill Volume One.

Thank you for reading my first review and believe me it won’t be my last!

Summary: A wonderful film which i have seen too many times