Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino | 111 minutes | action, drama, thriller, adventure, crime | Actors: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Juli Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Sonny Chiba, Chia Hui Liu, Michael Parks, Michael Bowen, Jun Kunimura, Kenji Ohba, Yuki Kazamatsuri

Writer, director and actor Quentin Tarantino became known worldwide in 1992 when his written and directed ‘Reservoir Dogs’ was appreciated by both the public and the press. This great start gave him the financial means to film his other scripts (“Pulp Fiction” and “Jackie Brown”). Other directors also became interested in Tarantino’s work, with the result that ‘True Romance’ (Tony Scott), ‘Natural Born Killers’ (Oliver Stone) and ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ (Robert Rodriguez) were released. ‘Jackie Brown’ was Quentin Tarantino’s last project in 1997. Now we are six years later and expectations are very high for the comeback that all fans have had to wait for so long. That comeback “The 4th Film By Quentin Tarantino” is called ‘Kill Bill: Vol.1’.

Uma Thurman plays the lead actress named “The Bride”. She does have a real name, but it is not mentioned further. In fact, the two times she says her name, a censoring beep is placed over it.

‘Kill Bill: Vol.1’ cannot be compared to previous work by Tarantino. Of course there are the recognizable elements that come back in every film: a lot of action, a lot of violence, a lot of blood and a carefully composed soundtrack, but we expected this. The film is a mishmash of the genres Quentin loves.

The action is extraordinarily beautiful. The choreography is very well put together and the fight scenes are original, beautifully portrayed and at times comical. Sword fighting predominates throughout the film. No special effects were allowed to portray these action-packed scenes, even the blood effects had to be done the old-fashioned way: blood-filled condoms bursting open. Because of this you never get the idea that you are watching a computer game, the disadvantage is that there is an improbable amount of blood.

The spaghetti western and the anime genre are also discussed. This is how the story of O-Ren (Lucy Liu) is told in anime. The switch from one genre to another or from black and white to color goes almost unnoticed. This is mainly because the different elements in the story allow it.

Originally, it was actually made as one movie. A four-hour movie was really too long and there wasn’t a second Quentin Tarantino wanted to take out of the movie. Thus came the proposal to make two volumes: Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2004). It’s never nice to get a ‘to be continued’ when you’re just getting into the story, but hey, better twice ‘Kill Bill’ than a screwed up ‘Kill Bill’. The film itself is also divided into several chapters. These parts are not chronological and each contain regular flashbacks.

‘Kill Bill’ is an excellent action movie that was well worth the wait.