However, it would be difficult for her to get close enough to kill him earlier, as he would not buy any excuse why she just came visiting. But when Budd actually invites her over, she gets a chance to get back at him, and in the same while take the credit for killing the Bride and retrieving her Hanzo sword for Bill.
Kill Bill: Volume 2 is the 2004 followup film to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1.
- Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Written by Quentin Tarantino.
Bill[edit]
Once upon a time in China, some believe around the year one double-ought three, head priest of the White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei, was walking down the road – contemplating whatever it is that a man of Pai Mei's nearly infinite powers would contemplate - which is another way of saying 'who knows?' - when a Shaolin monk appeared on the road, traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths, Pai Mei, in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod was not returned. Now, was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei? Or did he just fail to see the generous social gesture? The motives of the monk remain unknown. What is known were the consequences. The next morning Pai Mei appeared at the Shaolin Temple and demanded of the Temple's head abbot that he offer Pai Mei his neck to repay the insult. The Abbot at first tried to console Pai Mei, only to find Pai Mei was … inconsolable. So began the massacre of the Shaolin Temple and all sixty of the monks inside at the fists of the White Lotus. And so began the legend of Pai Mei's five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.
Once upon a time in China, some believe around the year one double-ought three, head priest of the White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei, was walking down the road – contemplating whatever it is that a man of Pai Mei's nearly infinite powers would contemplate - which is another way of saying 'who knows?' - when a Shaolin monk appeared on the road, traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths, Pai Mei, in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod was not returned.
Now, was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei? Or did he just fail to see the generous social gesture? The motives of the monk remain unknown. What is known were the consequences.
The next morning Pai Mei appeared at the Shaolin Temple and demanded of the Temple's head abbot that he offer Pai Mei his neck to repay the insult. The Abbot at first tried to console Pai Mei, only to find Pai Mei was … inconsolable.
So began the massacre of the Shaolin Temple and all sixty of the monks inside at the fists of the White Lotus. And so began the legend of Pai Mei's five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.
- Is that not the perfect visual image of life and death? A fish flapping on the carpet, and a fish not flapping on the carpet.
- I suppose the traditional way to conclude this is we cross Hanzo swords. Well, it just so happens this hacienda comes with its very own private beach. And this private beach just so happens to look particularly beautiful bathed in moonlight. And there just so happens to be a full moon out tonight. So, swordfighter, if you want to sword fight, that's where I suggest. But if you wanna be old school about it, and you know I'm all about old school, then we can wait till dawn, and slice each other up at sunrise, like a couple of real-life, honest-to-goodness samurais.
- I'm a killer! I'm a murdering bastard, you know that. And there are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard.
The Bride/Beatrix Kiddo[edit]
Looked dead, didn't I? Well, I wasn't, but it wasn't for lack of trying I can tell you that. Actually, Bill's last bullet put me in a coma, a coma I was to lie in for four years. When I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements referred to as a roaring rampage of revenge. I roared and I rampaged and I got bloody satisfaction. I've killed a hell of a lot of people to get to this point. But I have only one more. The last one, the one I'm driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination, I am gonna kill Bill.
- Looked dead, didn't I? Well, I wasn't, but it wasn't for lack of trying I can tell you that. Actually, Bill's last bullet put me in a coma, a coma I was to lie in for four years. When I woke up, I went on what the movie advertisements referred to as a roaring rampage of revenge. I roared and I rampaged and I got bloody satisfaction. I've killed a hell of a lot of people to get to this point. But I have only one more. The last one, the one I'm driving to right now. The only one left. And when I arrive at my destination, I am gonna kill Bill.
- My Pussy Wagon died on me.
Elle Driver[edit]
You know, before I picked that little fella up, I looked it up on the internet. Fascinating creature, the black mamba. Listen to this. 'In Africa, the saying goes in the bush an elephant can kill you, a leopard can kill you, and a black mamba can kill you. But only with the mamba—and this is true in Africa since the dawn of time—is death sure. Hence its handle: Death Incarnate.' Pretty cool, huh? 'Its neurotoxic venom is one of nature's most effective poisons, acting on the nervous system, causing paralysis. The venom of a black mamba can kill a human in four hours if, say, bitten on the ankle or the thumb. However, a bite to the face or torso can bring death from paralysis within 20 minutes.' Now, you should listen to this, 'cause this concerns you. 'The amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bite can be gargantuan.' You know, I've always liked that word, gargantuan, and I so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence. 'If not treated quickly with anti-venom, 10 to 15 milligrams can be fatal to human beings. However, the black mamba can deliver as much as 100 to 400 milligrams of venom from a single bite.'
- [lighting up a cigarette after Budd got bitten by a black mamba and is lying down] I'm sorry Budd, that was rude of me, wasn't it? Budd, I'd like you to meet my friend, the black mamba. Black mamba, this is Budd. You know, before I picked that little fella up, I looked it up on the internet. Fascinating creature, the black mamba. Listen to this. [pulls out a notepad from her suit] 'In Africa, the saying goes in the bush an elephant can kill you, a leopard can kill you, and a black mamba can kill you. But only with the mamba—and this is true in Africa since the dawn of time—is death sure. Hence its handle: Death Incarnate.' Pretty cool, huh? [flips to the next page of the notepad] 'Its neurotoxic venom is one of nature's most effective poisons, acting on the nervous system, causing paralysis. The venom of a black mamba can kill a human in four hours if, say, bitten on the ankle or the thumb. However, a bite to the face or torso can bring death from paralysis within 20 minutes.' Now, you should listen to this, 'cause this concerns you. 'The amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bite can be gargantuan.' You know, I've always liked that word, gargantuan, and I so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence. 'If not treated quickly with anti-venom, 10 to 15 milligrams can be fatal to human beings. However, the black mamba can deliver as much as 100 to 400 milligrams of venom from a single bite.' [puts out her cigarette and addresses Budd] Now in these last agonizing minutes of life you have left, let me answer the question you asked earlier more thoroughly. Right at this moment, the biggest 'R' I feel is Regret. Regret that maybe the greatest warrior I have ever known, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin', scrub, alky piece of shit like you. That woman deserved better.
- [on the phone with Bill] Let me put it this way: if you ever start feeling sentimental, go to Barstow, California. When you get here, walk into a florist and buy a bunch of flowers. Then you take those flowers to Huntington cemetery on Fuller and Guadalupe, look for the headstone marked Paula Schultz, then lay them on the grave. Because you will be standing at the final resting place of Beatrix Kiddo.
Dialogue[edit]
Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red 'S', that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, he's unsure of himself, he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race. Sort of like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plympton.
- Bill: Do you find me sadistic? You know, Kiddo, I'd like to believe that you're aware enough, even now, to know that there's nothing sadistic in my actions. This moment, this is me at my most … masochistic.
- The Bride: Bill, it's your bab–
- [Bill shoots The Bride]
- Budd: You're telling me she cut her way through eighty-eight bodyguards before she got to O-Ren?
- Bill: Nah, there weren't really eighty-eight of them. They just called themselves 'The Crazy 88'.
- Budd: How come?
- Bill: I don't know, I guess they thought it sounded cool. Anyhow, they all fell under her Hanzo sword.
- Budd: She's got a Hanzo sword?
- Bill: He made one for her.
- Budd: Didn't he swear a blood oath to never make another sword?
- Bill: It would appear he has broken it.
- Budd: Them Japs sure know how to hold a grudge, don't they? [laughs] Or maybe … you just tend to bring that out in people. […]
- Bill: I know this is a ridiculous question before I ask it, but you haven't by chance kept up with your sword play?
- Budd:[shakes his head] I...umm... I pawned that years ago.
- Bill: You hocked a Hattori Hanzo sword!
- Budd: Yeah.
- Bill: It was priceless.
- Budd:[chuckles] Well not in El Paso, it ain't. In El Paso, I got me $250 for it. I'm a bouncer in a titty bar, Bill. If she wants to fight with me, all she has to do is come down to the club and start some shit and we'll be in a fight.
- Bill: I know we haven't spoken in some time, and the last time we spoke wasn't the most pleasant. But you've got to get over being mad at me and start becoming afraid of
Beatrix, because she is coming, and she's coming to kill you. And unless you accept my assistance, I have no doubt she will succeed. - Budd: [stares hard at Bill] I don't dodge guilt, and I don't jew out of paying my comeuppance.
- Bill: Can't we just forget the past?
- Budd: That woman deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die. [considers] But then again, so does she. So I guess we'll just see … won't we?
- Elle Driver: [into phone] Bill?
- Budd: [into phone] Wrong brother, you hateful bitch.
- Elle Driver: Budd?
- Budd: Bingo!
- Elle Driver: And to what do I owe this dubious pleasure?
- Budd: I just caught me the cowgirl that ain't never been caught.
- Elle Driver: Did you kill her?
- Budd: Well, not yet I ain't. I shot her full of rock salt. She's so gentle right now, I could perform a coup de grâce with a rock. Anyhow, guess what I'm holding in my hand right now.
- Elle Driver: What?
- Budd: A brand spanking new Hattori Hanzo sword. And I'm here to tell you, Elle, that's what I call sharp.
- Elle Driver: How much?
- Budd: Oh, that's hard to say, being that it's priceless and all.
- Elle Driver: What's the terms?
- Budd: You get your bony ass down here first thing in the morning, with a million dollars in folding cash, and I'll give you the greatest sword ever made by a man. How do you like the sound of that?
- Elle Driver: Sounds like we got a deal. One condition.
- Budd: What?
- Elle Driver: She must suffer to her last breath.
- Budd: [laughs] Well, that, Elle darling, I can pretty much damn well guarantee.
- Elle Driver: Then I'll see you in the morning … millionaire.
- Bill: [coming down the stairs after talking to Pai Mei] He'll accept you as his student.
- The Bride: What happened to you?
- Bill: [who has a bruise] Nothing.
- The Bride: Get in a fight?
- Bill: Friendly contest.
- The Bride: Why did he accept me?
- Bill: Because he's a very, very, very old man, and like all rotten bastards, when they become old, they get lonely. Which has no effect on their dispositions, but it does teach them the value of company.
- [He throws her the baggage]
- Bill: Well, just seeing those steps again makes me ache. You're gonna have a lot of fun carrying buckets of water up and down that fucker.
- The Bride: When will I see you again?
- Bill: That's the name of my favorite soul song of the seventies.
- The Bride: What?
- Bill: Nothing. When he tells me you're done.
- The Bride: When do you think that might be?
- Bill: That, my dearest, depends entirely on you. Now, remember: no sarcasm, no backtalk. At least not for the first year or so. You're gonna have to let him warm up to you. He hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women, so in your case … it might take a little while. Adiós.
- The Bride: Master …
- Pai Mei: Your Mandarin is lousy. It causes my ears great discomfort. You bray like an ass! You are not to speak unless spoken to. Is it too much to hope … you understand Cantonese?
- The Bride: I speak Japanese very well …
- Pai Mei: I didn't ask if you speak Japanese … I asked if you understand Cantonese?
- The Bride: A little.
- Pai Mei: You are here to learn the mysteries of Kung Fu, not linguistics. If you can't understand me, I will communicate with you like I would a dog! When I yell, when I point, when I beat you with my stick! [strokes his beard] Bill is your master, is he not?
- The Bride: Yes, he is.
- Pai Mei: Your master tells me … you're not entirely unschooled. What training do you possess?
- The Bride: I am proficient in Tiger-Crane Style, and I am more than proficient in the exquisite art of the Samurai sword.
- Pai Mei: Hmph! The exquisite art of the Samurai sword. Don't make me laugh! Your so-called exquisite art is only fit for … Japanese fatheads! [laughs] Your anger amuses me. Do you believe you are my match?
- The Bride: No.
- Pai Mei: Are you aware I kill at will?
- The Bride: Yes.
- Pai Mei: Is it your wish to die?
- The Bride: No!
- Pai Mei: [laughs] Then you must be stupid … so stupid! Rise, and let me look at your ridiculous face. Rise. So, my pathetic friend … is there anything that you can do well? What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? Oh yes, you speak Japanese. [yells]I despise the goddamn Japs!
- Budd: So, which 'R' you filled with?
- Elle Driver: What?
- Budd: They say the number one killer of old people is retirement. People got a job to do, they tend to live a little bit longer so they can do it. I've always figured that warriors and their enemies share the same relationship. So, now that you're not gonna have to face your enemy no more on the battlefield, which 'R' you filled with? Relief … or regret?
- Elle Driver: A little bit of both.
- Budd: Horseshit. I'm sure you do feel a little bit of both. But I know damn well that you feel one more than you feel the other. And the question was, which one is it?
- Elle Driver: [pause] Regret.
- [Beatrix finds a Hattori Hanzo sword in set of Budd's golf club. She grabs it and partially unsheathes it.]
- The Bride: To my brother, Budd, the only man I ever loved. Bill.
- [Elle unsheathes The Bride's sword and is shocked to see her with a Hattori Hanzo sword.]
- Elle Driver: What's that?
- The Bride: Budd's Hanzo sword.
- Elle Driver: He said, he pawned it.
- The Bride: Guess that makes him a liar now, don't it. Elle?
- Elle Driver: Bea.
- The Bride: There's something I'm curious about, just between us girls. What did you say to Pai Mei to make him snatch out your eye?
- [A flashback reveals Elle getting her left eye plucked out by Pai Mei as her punishment for her insolence in insulting him. She is seen screaming and covering her empty left eye socket.]
- Elle Driver: I called him a miserable, old fool.
- The Bride: Ooh, bad idea.
- Elle Driver: You know what I did? I killed that miserable, old fool.
- [The Bride is shocked as another flashback occurred with Pai Mei choking on the fish heads containing poison in them.]
- Elle Driver: How do you like the fish heads you miserable, old fool? [Narrating] I poisoned his fish heads.
- Pai Mei:(in Cantonese) Elle, you treacherous dog, I gave you my word.
- Elle Driver: And I told him, 'To me the word of an old fool like you is worth less than nothing.'
- [Pai Mei dies, the flashback ends and Elle laughs evilly.]
- Elle Driver: That's right! I killed your master. And now I'm going to kill you too -- with your own sword, no less. Which, in the very immediate future, will become...my sword.
- The Bride: Bitch. You don't have a future.
- Esteban Vihaio: Being a fool for a woman such as yourself … is only the right thing to do. What were we talking about?
- The Bride: Bill. Where's Bill?
- Esteban Vihaio: Where's Bill? Yeah, hm … Bill is on the Villa Quatro, on the road to Salina. I will draw you a map. Bill is like a son to me. Do you know why I help you?
- The Bride: No.
- Esteban Vihaio: Because he would want me to.
- The Bride: Now, that I don't believe.
- Esteban Vihaio: Ah! How else is he going to see you again?
- Bill: Mommy is still angry at Daddy.
- B.B.: Why?
- Bill: Well, sweetie, I love Mommy, but I did to Mommy what you did to Emilio.
- B.B.: You stomped on Mommy?
- Bill: Worse. I shot Mommy. Not pretend shoot, like we were just doing. I shot her for real.
- B.B.: Why? Did you want to see what would happen?
- Bill: No, I knew what would happen to Mommy if I shot her. What I didn't know is, when I shot Mommy, what would happen to me.
- B.B.: What happened?
- Bill: I was very sad. And that was when I learned, some things, once you do, they can never be undone.
- Bill: I was just admiring your sword. Quite a piece of work. Speaking of which, how is Hanzo-san?
- The Bride: He's good.
- Bill: Has his sushi gotten any better?
- [The Bride shakes her head]
- Bill: You know, I couldn't believe it. You got him to make you a sword.
- The Bride: It was easy. I just dropped your name, Bill.
- Bill: [chuckles] That'd do it.
- Bill: Now, when it comes to you, and us, I have a few unanswered questions. So, before this tale of bloody revenge reaches its climax, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want you to tell me the truth. However, therein lies the dilemma. Because, when it comes to the subject of me, I believe you are truly and utterly incapable of telling the truth – especially to me, and least of all to yourself. And, when it comes to the subject of me, I am truly and utterly incapable of believing anything you say.
- The Bride: How do you suppose we solve this dilemma?
- Bill: Well! It just so happens I have a solution.
- [He shoots The Bride with a dart filled with Truth Serum]
- Bill: As you know, I'm quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my favorite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book. Not particularly well drawn. But the mythology … the mythology is not only great, it's unique.
- The Bride: [who still has a dart in her leg] How long does this shit take to go into effect?!
- Bill: About two minutes, just long enough for me to finish my point. Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is there's the superhero and there's the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he's Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn't become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he's Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red 'S', that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that's the costume. That's the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, he's unsure of himself, he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race. Sort of like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plympton.
- The Bride: Aso. The point emerges.
- Bill: You would've worn the costume of Arlene Plympton. But you were born Beatrix Kiddo. And every morning when you woke up, you'd still be Beatrix Kiddo. Oh, you can take the needle out.
- The Bride: [does so] Are you calling me a superhero?
- Bill: I'm calling you a killer! A natural born killer. You always have been, and you always will be. Moving to El Paso, working in a used record store, going to the movies with Tommy, clipping coupons. That's you … trying to disguise yourself as a worker bee. That's you trying to blend in with the hive. But you're not a worker bee. You're a renegade killer bee. And no matter how much beer you drank or barbecue you ate or how fat your ass got, nothing in the world would ever change that.
- The Bride: You and I have unfinished business.
- Bill: Baby, you ain't kidding.
- Bill: Pai Mei taught you the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique?
- The Bride: Of course he did.
- Bill: Why didn't you tell me?
- The Bride: I don't know … because I'm a bad person.
- Bill: No. You're not a bad person. You're a terrific person. You're my favorite person. But every once in a while, you can be a real cunt.
- [The Bride laughs]
- Bill: How do I look?
- The Bride: You look ready.
- [Gets up, turns, takes five steps and falls dead]
Taglines[edit]
- Revenge is a dish best served cold.
- The bride is back for the final cut
- Kill is love.
- Back with a vengeance.
- The whole thrilling tale is revealed.
About Kill Bill: Volume 2[edit]
All of the director's musical, film and comic-book loves are on display; he gives much play to the grungy martial-arts melodrama Five Fingers of Death, evoking its use of Quincy Jones's Ironside theme and plucking several of its plot devices. As befits that kind of density, there are more entrances, back stories and origins in Vol. 2 than in the first hundred issues of The Amazing Spider-Man,Leone'sMan With No Name trilogy and all the Shogun Assassin movies combined.
But unlike the 100-meter-high hurdles of Vol. 1,Vol. 2 feels like a cross-country run, with hills and long stretches of flatland, as it settles into its casual, carnage-laden pace. It has the wily, extended cadences of Leone's movies, with the first 15 or so minutes filmed in loamy, luscious black-and-white and set in what could only be called exploitation-pictureTexas. (What the master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro does with shadow, the director of photography Robert Richardson does with light, painting even the interiors with warm, bright flares. His harsh but loving glow permeates this adventure and, like Mr. Storaro's, his signature is instantly recognizable.) ~ Evlis Mitchell
But unlike the 100-meter-high hurdles of Vol. 1,Vol. 2 feels like a cross-country run, with hills and long stretches of flatland, as it settles into its casual, carnage-laden pace. It has the wily, extended cadences of Leone's movies, with the first 15 or so minutes filmed in loamy, luscious black-and-white and set in what could only be called exploitation-pictureTexas. (What the master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro does with shadow, the director of photography Robert Richardson does with light, painting even the interiors with warm, bright flares. His harsh but loving glow permeates this adventure and, like Mr. Storaro's, his signature is instantly recognizable.) ~ Evlis Mitchell
Maybe it is progress of a sort—moral if not cinematic—that in KB2 Tarantino largely eschews the hyper-violence that characterized its predecessor. But rather than replace it with, say, cleverdialogue, imaginativeplotting, or meaningful Character development, he's substituted the cinematic equivalent of dead air. He intends this to be a nod to the stately, deliberate style of Leone, but it's unaccompanied by any of the elements that made that style great—the use of landscape (both facial and geological), the musical crescendos (Tarantino borrows some Morricone tunes in KB2, but seems afraid of using them in anything other than a minor key), the rhythmic interaction of lengthy buildup followed by momentary violence. (Quentin prefers lengthy buildup followed by lengthy violence; it's not the same thing.) Leone was by nature a mythologizer; Tarantino is by nature a demythologizer. His killer-heroes are not silent, stoic types. They're video store clerks with guns, babblers on every subject from Madonna to French cheeseburgers. ~ Chistopher Orr
- Once again, with an insouciant blaze of energy and style, Tarantino has seen off the imitators, detractors and condescenders. True, the Kill Bill films do not have the dialogue riffs of his earlier work co-scripted with Roger Avary, apart from one small verbal arabesque here about Superman and Clark Kent. But as any screenplay handbook will tell you, writing for motion pictures is not about penning lines of dialogue; it is about fashioning a narrative and constructing an event. Kill Bill just seems to bypass the rational filters which impede the respectable films and attacks the endorphin centres of the brain.
- Peter Bradshaw, 'Kill Bill: Vol 2', The Guardian, (23 April 2004).
- O: Do you think of Bill as a sympathetic character?
Once he shoots The Bride, it immediately changes his life. He has to look at his actions, and he realizes for the first time in his life that he has to make a moral decision about something he's already done, but it's too late to change. Destiny miraculously gives him the chance. He just takes care of the child and waits for her to come back to him. I think he knows that she's going to come back pretty fucking pissed off, and she's going to lunge at him. But he can accept that, because of the warrior's code and everything. Though she deserved it, he owes her. I think his hope is that she will come back and take the child away from him and go on to have the happy life that she had hoped to have just before he shot her in the head. But he's not going to give that to her.
There's a thing about the story of Theseus. He and his friend are going around being pirates for a while. Theseus is the guy in the story of the minotaur, who became King of Athens. While he was screwing around with his buddy in his ship, he comes upon the Amazons, and he falls desperately in love with the King of the Amazons. She's a woman, but she's the King of the Amazons. But she can only give herself to a man who bests her in hand-to-hand combat. So he has to fight her and make sure that he doesn't hurt her in order to win, because she's trying to kill him. That's sort of the situation with Bill. He's ready to let her win. In fact, he wants her to, but his ethic, he's the animal and she's the man. It's complicated, but that's Quentin. Quentin is so fucking complicated, it's almost silly.
- David Carradine in 'David Carradine' by Nathan Rabin, AVClub, (4/28/04).
- Q: There is a lot of introspection, a lot of character development in VOLUME 2. Tarantino has always described Bill as a pimp of death. But there seems to be more to the man.
- David Carradine, 'KILL BILL VOLUME 2 - US interview with David Carradine', Phase9
- The movie is a distillation of the countless grind house kung-fu movies Tarantino has absorbed, and which he loves beyond all reason. Web sites have already enumerated his inspirations—how a sunset came from this, and a sword from that. He isn't copying, but transcending; there's a kind of urgency in the film, as if he's turning up the heat under his memories.
- The movie opens with a long closeup of The Bride (Uma Thurman) behind the wheel of a car, explaining her mission, which is to kill Bill. There is a lot of explaining in the film; Tarantino writes dialogue with quirky details that suggest the obsessions of his people. That's one of the ways he gives his movies a mythical quality; the characters don't talk in mundane everyday dialogue, but in a kind of elevated geekspeak that lovingly burnishes the details of their legends, methods, beliefs and arcane lore.
- The training with Pai Mei, we learn, prepared The Bride to begin her career with Bill ('jetting around the world making vast sums of money and killing for hire'), and is inserted in this movie at a time and place that makes it function like a classic cliffhanger. In setting up this scene, Tarantino once again pauses for colorful dialogue; The Bride is informed by Bill that Pai Mei hates women, whites and Americans, and much of his legend is described. Such speeches function in Tarantino not as long-winded detours, but as a way of setting up characters and situations with dimensions it would be difficult to establish dramatically.
- The fight with Elle Driver is a virtuoso celebration of fight choreography; although we are aware that all is not as it seems in movie action sequences, Thurman and Hannah must have trained long and hard to even seem to do what they do. Their battle takes place inside Budd's trailer home, which is pretty much demolished in the process, and provides a contrast to the elegant nightclub setting of the fight with O-Ren Ishii; it ends in a squishy way that would be unsettling in another kind of movie, but here all the action is so ironically heightened that we may cringe and laugh at the same time.
- Of the original 'Kill Bill,' I wrote: 'The movie is all storytelling and no story. The motivations have no psychological depth or resonance, but are simply plot markers. The characters consist of their characteristics.' True, but one of the achievements of 'Volume 2' is that the story is filled in, the characters are developed, and they do begin to resonate, especially during the extraordinary final meeting between The Bride and Bill—which consists not of nonstop action but of more hypnotic dialogue and ends in an event that is like a quiet, deadly punch line.
- Roger Ebert, 'Kill Kill: Volume 2', (April 16, 2004).
- Q: What side of Elle do we see in VOLUME 2?
- A: Well, you just get to know her. In VOLUME 1 you only see her in one scene which is in the hospital, and you know she's trying to put The Bride out of her coma and out of her misery, put her to sleep. But in this one you understand a little bit more about her relationship to Bill, how she feels about Budd, how she feels about The Bride. Basically, she doesn't really have very many good feelings for anyone, even the man she supposedly loves. Even her master... I don't want to tell you too much...
- Q: And there is a great rivalry between Elle and The Bride that's played out in a small trailer. It does seem like an unlikely location for the showdown between these Amazon blondes.
- A: It did seem like an unlikely location because originally it wasn't meant to be in a trailer, it was meant to be outside in the desert, and we were going to have this much more classic spaghetti western... a duel where we turn back to back and take paces away from each other, turn around and choose a stance and do the whole thing, but when Quentin decided to place the whole fight inside the trailer, I was a little bit worried at first, I thought he was gonna cut me off because he had spent so much time in China in The House of Blue Leaves and he had run over schedule and wanted to cut it short, but it turned out that he just wanted a complete mess of a bar room brawl, a sort of Godzilla gone wrong, two cats in a tin can kind of situation; and then that's what it turned out to be, and I think ultimately it was probably the funnier and more entertaining decision.
- A: Actually, I do use the word 'gargantuan,' I like the word 'gargantuan,' it's a fun word to say.
![Bill Bill](http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/6200000/kill-bill-kill-bill-6282598-1024-768.jpg)
- Daryl Hannah, 'KILL BILL VOLUME 2 - US interview with Daryl Hannah', Phase9.
- Q: That trailer of Budd's would seem like an unlikely location for a couple of monumental showdowns.
- Michael Madson, 'KILL BILL VOLUME 2 - US Interview With Michael Madson', Phase9.
- The Mexican and American Southwest settings and use of material from Ennio Morricone’s scores rep the obvious ways in which “Vol. 2” derives from Sergio Leone, but equally important is the influence of the Italian master in pushing Tarantino to expand what could have been perfunctory scenes into hugely elaborated set-pieces; latter detailing is what gives “Vol. 2” its special charge for film buffs or anyone who keys into what Tarantino is up to.
- Todd McCarthy, https://variety.com/2004/film/markets-festivals/kill-bill-vol-2-1200534155/ 'Kill Bill Vol. 2'], Variety, (April 5, 2004)
- All of the director's musical, film and comic-book loves are on display; he gives much play to the grungy martial-arts melodrama Five Fingers of Death, evoking its use of Quincy Jones's Ironside theme and plucking several of its plot devices. As befits that kind of density, there are more entrances, back stories and origins in Vol. 2 than in the first hundred issues of The Amazing Spider-Man,Leone'sMan With No Name trilogy and all the Shogun Assassin movies combined.
But unlike the 100-meter-high hurdles of Vol. 1,Vol. 2 feels like a cross-country run, with hills and long stretches of flatland, as it settles into its casual, carnage-laden pace. It has the wily, extended cadences of Leone's movies, with the first 15 or so minutes filmed in loamy, luscious black-and-white and set in what could only be called exploitation-pictureTexas. (What the master cinematographer Vittorio Storaro does with shadow, the director of photography Robert Richardson does with light, painting even the interiors with warm, bright flares. His harsh but loving glow permeates this adventure and, like Mr. Storaro's, his signature is instantly recognizable.) - Vol. 2 works like a multimedia mix tape, and Mr. Tarantino rides the tempo of his films like a D.J., abetted in the wheel-in-a-wheel trickiness by the deft fingers of his editor Sally Menke. When one of the characters in Vol. 2 makes an offhand remark about undisputed truth, Mr. Tarantino's actual forebear is clear: the R&B producer Norman Whitfield.
Mr. Whitfield was the link between Detroit slick (Motown) and funk (Parliament/Funkadelic). While adding a few licks of his own, Mr. Tarantino, like Mr. Whitfield, gets goose flesh from the evil that lurks within.- Elvis Mitchell, 'Vengeance Still Mine, Saieth the Lethal Bride', The New York Times, (April 16, 2004).
- Maybe it is progress of a sort—moral if not cinematic—that in KB2 Tarantino largely eschews the hyper-violence that characterized its predecessor. But rather than replace it with, say, cleverdialogue, imaginativeplotting, or meaningful Character development, he's substituted the cinematic equivalent of dead air. He intends this to be a nod to the stately, deliberate style of Leone, but it's unaccompanied by any of the elements that made that style great—the use of landscape (both facial and geological), the musical crescendos (Tarantino borrows some Morricone tunes in KB2, but seems afraid of using them in anything other than a minor key), the rhythmic interaction of lengthy buildup followed by momentary violence. (Quentin prefers lengthy buildup followed by lengthy violence; it's not the same thing.) Leone was by nature a mythologizer; Tarantino is by nature a demythologizer. His killer-heroes are not silent, stoic types. They're video store clerks with guns, babblers on every subject from Madonna to French cheeseburgers.
- Chistoher Orr, 'The Movie Review: 'Kill Bill Vol. 2', The Atlantic, (Aug 10, 2004).
- The audience has expanded. We have more women this time than we had on Volume 1. There was less violence in this one, and that came out in the publicity and the reviews, which drove more women into the theater. And the movie really stands by itself; you don't have to see Volume 1 to enjoy Volume 2.
- Rick Sands in 'Sweet Revenge: 'Kill Bill: Vol. 2' Is Financial Hit' by Shannon Waxman, The New York Times, (April 19, 2004).
- Vol. 2 makes a compelling case for a more serious interpretation of Tarantino’s talent, and the film justifies the otherwise vapid (and very cool) Vol. 1, which should never have existed as a separate film. The commercial logistics of a four-hour movie aside, Kill Bill would have worked best as a single entity, the second half imbuing the first with a certain weight. Indeed, Tarantino’s lip fetish is itself enough to empower Vol. 2 with far more powerful scenes than Vol. 1: when a tied-up Beatrix must wrap her lips around a flashlight, the degrading image is worth more than any moment in the first volume. Here Tarantino employs the same technique as in Reservoir Dogs, where he subtly focused on his characters’ ears before slicing one off in the end. It’s a cruel trick, but a crafty one—and proof that Tarantino plays more than lip service to the art of film.
- Zachary M. Seward, 'Film Review: Kill Bill, Vol. 2', The Crimson, (April 23, 2004).
- Q: Uma, how was it to shoot the coffin scene, as a claustrophobic person myself it seemed very scary to watch?
- Uma Thurman, 'KILL BILL VOLUME 2 - Q&A with Uma Thurman' by Neils Hesse, Phase9.
- We try to appeal to her maternal instincts, and suggest that the ending, in which Beatrix is reunited with her four-year-old daughter, makes the film a kind of love story, a family romance. Did she like that about it? 'Yeah, I think it takes a tremendous turn where the character is thrown back into life, because if that hadn't happened she might as well have given herself a five-point exploding palm and died.
- Uma Thurman, 'Uma Thurman: Pulp friction' by Leslie Felperin, The Independent, (16 April 2004).
- Uma Thurman doesn’t get nailed to a cross in Kill Bill Vol. 2, but writer-director Quentin Tarantino runs her battered character, called the Bride, through a gauntlet that is gory enough to make Mel Gibson flinch. No matter. You’ll thrill to the action, savor the tasty dialogue and laugh like bloody hell. Tarantino has done more than continue the revenge tale he started in Vol. 1 — the Bride wants payback after being left for dead in her wedding dress by Bill (David Carradine) and four other killers in his Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, of which she was once queen bee. Vol. 2 ties the events of Vol. 1 together, just like The Return of the King did for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. You watch and think, “I get it now.” Tarantino has made the hottest mix tape in the history of cinema. Like a master DJ, he samples every lowdown, B-movie genre that formed him, from kung fu and samurai flicks to anime and spaghetti westerns, then filters it through his imagination to create something totally Tarantino: a blast of pure movie oxygen.
- Peter Travers, 'Kill Bill Vol. 2', Rolling Stone, (April 6, 2004).
Cast[edit]
- Uma Thurman – Beatrix Kiddo/The Bride
- David Carradine – Bill
- Gordon Liu – Pai Mei
- Michael Madsen – Budd
- Daryl Hannah – Elle Driver
External links[edit]
Encyclopedic article on Kill Bill: Volume 2 at Wikipedia
- Kill Bill: Volume 2 quotes at the Internet Movie Database
- Kill Bill: Volume 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
Kill Bill: Volume 1·Kill Bill: Volume 2s |
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Kill_Bill:_Volume_2&oldid=2645044'
(Redirected from Budd (Kill Bill))
Kill Bill: Volume 1 | |
---|---|
Directed by | Quentin Tarantino |
Produced by | Lawrence Bender |
Written by | Quentin Tarantino |
Starring | |
Music by | The RZA |
Cinematography | Robert Richardson |
Edited by | Sally Menke |
Distributed by | Miramax |
| |
111 minutes | |
Country | United States[1] |
Language | English Japanese French |
Budget | $30 million[2] |
Box office | $180.9 million[2] |
Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) and their leader, Bill (David Carradine), after they try to kill her and her unborn child. Her journey takes her to Tokyo, where she battles the yakuza.
Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as an homage to grindhouse cinema, including martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation films, and spaghetti Westerns. It features a Japanese-style animation sequence by Production I.G. It is the first of two Kill Bill films made in a single production; the films were originally set for a single release, but the film, with a runtime of over four hours, was divided in two. Volume 1 became Tarantino's highest-grossing film up to that point, earning over $180 million at the box office. Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released the next year, on April 16, 2004.
- 7Release
- 8Critical reception
Plot[edit]
A woman in a wedding dress, the Bride, lies wounded in a chapel in El Paso, Texas, having been attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She tells their leader, Bill, that she is pregnant with his baby before he shoots her in the head.
Four years later, having survived the attack, the Bride goes to the home of Vernita Green, planning to kill her. Both women were members of the assassination squad, which has since disbanded; Vernita now leads a normal suburban family life. They engage in a knife fight, but are interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter, Nikki. The Bride agrees to meet Vernita at night to settle the matter, but when Vernita tries to surprise the Bride with a pistol hidden in a box of cereal, the Bride dodges the shot and throws a knife into Vernita's chest, killing her.
Four years earlier, police investigate the massacre at the wedding chapel. The sheriff discovers that the Bride is alive but comatose. In the hospital, Deadly Viper Elle Driver prepares to assassinate the Bride via lethal injection, but Bill aborts the mission at the last moment, considering it dishonorable to kill the Bride when she cannot defend herself.
The Bride awakens from her four-year coma and is horrified to find that she is no longer pregnant. She kills a man who tries to rape her and a hospital worker who has been selling her body while she was comatose. She takes the hospital worker's truck and teaches herself to walk again.
Resolving to kill Bill and all four members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, the Bride picks her first target: O-Ren Ishii, now the leader of the Tokyo Yakuza. O-Ren's parents were murdered by the Yakuza when she was a child; she took vengeance on the Yakuza boss and replaced him after training as an elite assassin. The Bride travels to Okinawa, Japan, to obtain a sword from legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō, who has sworn never to forge a sword again. After learning that her target is Bill, his former student, he relents and crafts his finest sword for her.
At a Tokyo restaurant, the House of Blue Leaves, the Bride defeats O-Ren's elite squad of fighters, the Crazy 88, and her bodyguard, schoolgirl Gogo Yubari. She and O-Ren duel in the restaurant's Japanese garden; the Bride gains the upper hand and slices the top of her head off with a sword stroke. She tortures Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's assistant, for information about Bill, and leaves her alive as a threat. Bill asks Sofie if the Bride knows that her daughter is alive.
Cast[edit]
- Uma Thurman as the Bride (code name Black Mamba), a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, described as 'the deadliest woman in the world'. She seeks revenge on the Deadly Vipers after they try to kill her and her unborn child in a wedding chapel. Her real name is not revealed until Kill Bill: Volume 2.
- Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii (code name Cottonmouth), a former Deadly Viper who has become the leader of the Japanese Yakuza. She and the Bride once had a close friendship. She is the Bride's first target.
- David Carradine as Bill (code name Snake Charmer), the former leader of the Deadly Vipers, the Bride's former lover, and the father of her daughter. He is the final target of the Bride's revenge. He is an unseen character until Volume 2.
- Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green (code name Copperhead), a former Deadly Viper and now a mother and homemaker, living under the name Jeannie Bell. She is the Bride's second target.
- Michael Madsen as Budd (code name Sidewinder), a former Deadly Viper, now working as a bouncer and living in a trailer. He is the Bride's third target.
- Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver (code name California Mountain Snake), a former Deadly Viper and the Bride's fourth target.
- Julie Dreyfus as Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's lawyer, confidant, and second lieutenant. She is also a former protégée of Bill's, and was present at the wedding chapel massacre.
- Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo, master swordsmith who, although long retired, agrees to craft a sword just for the Bride.
- Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari, O-Ren's sadistic Japanese schoolgirl bodyguard.
- Gordon Liu as Johnny Mo, head of O-Ren's personal army, the Crazy 88. Liu would appear in Volume 2 as Martial Arts Master Pai Mei.
- Michael Parks as Earl McGraw, a Texas Ranger who investigates the wedding chapel massacre. Parks originated McGraw in the Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk till Dawn, in which Tarantino starred. He would go on to reprise the role in both segments of the Rodriguez/Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. Parks also appeared in Volume 2 as a separate character, Esteban Vihaio.
- Michael Bowen as Buck, an orderly at the hospital who has been raping the Bride while she lay comatose.
- Jun Kunimura as Boss Tanaka, a yakuza whom O-Ren executes after he ridicules her ethnicity and gender.
- Kenji Ohba as Shiro, Hattori Hanzo's employee.
- James Parks as Edgar McGraw, a Texas Ranger and son of Earl McGraw.
- Jonathan Loughran as Buck's trucker client, killed by the Bride after he attempts to rape her.
- Yuki Kazamatsuri as the Proprietress of the House of Blue Leaves.
- Sakichi Sato as 'Charlie Brown', a House of Blue Leaves employee who is mocked by the Crazy 88, as he wears a kimono similar to the shirt worn by the Peanuts character.
- Ambrosia Kelley as Nikki Bell, Vernita's four-year-old daughter. She witnesses the Bride killing her mother, and the Bride suggests that she seek revenge when she gets older, if she still 'feels raw about it'.
- The 5.6.7.8's (Sachiko Fuji, Yoshiko Yamaguchi and Ronnie Yoshiko Fujiyama) as themselves, performing at the House of Blue Leaves.
Development[edit]
Writer-director Quentin Tarantino and actress Uma Thurman conceived the Bride character and her revenge path during the production of Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction; the film credits the story to 'Q & U'.[3] Tarantino spent a year and a half writing the script while he was living in New York City in 2000-2001, spending time with Thurman and her newborn daughter Maya.[3][4] To reunite with a more mature actress, furthermore a mother, influenced the way he wrote the Bride character; Tarantino did not come to the realization that the Bride's child could still be alive until the last four-five months of the writing process.[3] He originally wrote Bill to be played by Warren Beatty, but as the character developed and the role required greater screen time and martial arts training, he rewrote it for David Carradine.[5]
An early draft included a chapter set after the confrontation with Vernita in which the Bride has a gunfight with Gogo Yubari's vengeful sister Yuki. The scene was cut for time and budget reasons. Tarantino said: 'I'm dealing with a three and a half-hour movie. Yuki's revenge is going to be the first to go. I'm going to kill myself shooting it, it's going to cost $1 million and it's going to be the first thing to go, so I can't do it.'[3] Another draft featured a scene in which the Bride's 'Pussy Wagon' is blown up by Elle Driver.[3]
Production[edit]
Reproduction of the katana used by Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill
When Thurman became pregnant as shooting was ready to begin, Tarantino delayed the production, saying: 'If Josef Von Sternberg is getting ready to make Morocco and Marlene Dietrich gets pregnant, he waits for Dietrich!'[5] Although the scenes are presented out of chronological order, the film was shot in sequence.[3] Choreographer Woo-Ping Yuen, whose previous credits include The Matrix, was the film's martial arts advisor.[6] The anime sequence, covering O-Ren Ishii's backstory, was directed by Kazuto Nakazawa and produced by Production I.G, which had produced films including Ghost in the Shell and Blood: The Last Vampire.[7] The combined production lasted 155 days and had a budget of $55 million.[8]
According to Tarantino, the most difficult part of making the film was 'trying to take myself to a different place as a filmmaker and throw my hat in the ring with other great action directors', as opposed to the dialogue scenes he was known for.[3] The House of Blue Leaves sequence, in which the Bride battles dozens of yakuza soldiers, took eight weeks to film, six weeks over schedule. Tarantino wanted to create 'one of the greatest, most exciting sequences in the history of cinema'.[6] The crew eschewed computer-generated imagery in favor of traditional practical effects used in 1970s Chinese cinema, particularly by director Chang Cheh, including the use of fire extinguishers and condoms to create spurts and explosions of blood. Tarantino told his crew: 'Let's pretend we're little kids and we're making a Super 8 movie in our back yard, and you don't have all this shit. How would you achieve this effect? Ingenuity is important here!'[6]
Near the end of filming, Thurman was injured in a crash while filming the scene in which she drives to Bill. According to Thurman, she was uncomfortable driving the car and asked a stunt driver to do it; Tarantino assured her that the car and road were safe. She lost control of the car and hit a tree, suffering a concussion and damage to her knees. Thurman requested the crash footage, but Miramax would only release it, in Thurman's words, if she signed a document 'releasing them of any consequences of [Thurman's] future pain and suffering'. Tarantino was apologetic, but he and Thurman were acrimonious for years afterwards; she said after the accident she 'went from being a creative contributor and performer to being like a broken tool'. Miramax released the footage in 2018 after Thurman went to police following the accusations of sexual abuse by producer Harvey Weinstein.[9][10]
Kill Bill was planned and produced as a single film.[8] After shooting ended and editing began, Harvey Weinstein, known for pressuring filmmakers to shorten their films, suggested that Tarantino split the film in two.[8] This meant Tarantino did not have to cut scenes, such as the anime sequence. Tarantino told IGN: 'I'm talking about scenes that are some of the best scenes in the movie, but in this hurdling pace where you're trying to tell only one story, that would have been the stuff that would have had to go. But to me, that's kind of what the movie was, are these little detours and these little grace notes.'[3] The decision to split the film was announced in July 2003.[8]
Influences[edit]
Kill Bill was inspired by 'grindhouse' cinema, a term for films that played in cheap US theaters in the 1970s, including martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation films, and spaghetti westerns.[11] It pays homage to the Shaw Brothers Studio, known for its martial arts films, with the inclusion of the ShawScope logo in its opening titles[12] and the 'crashing zoom', a fast zoom usually ending in a close-up commonly used in Shaw Brothers films.[12]
When the Bride encounters a member of the Deadly Vipers, a flashing red screen with superimposed flashback footage appears in homage to the 1965 spaghetti western Death Rides A Horse, whose hero witnesses the massacre of his family. The theme from Death Rides A Horse, composed by Ennio Morricone, plays when the Bride confronts O-Ren Ishii.[13]
The Bride's yellow tracksuit, helmet and motorcycle resemble the ones used by Bruce Lee in the 1972 kung fu film Game of Death.[13] The animated sequence homages violent anime films such as Golgo 13: The Professional (1983) and Wicked City (1987).[14] It was also inspired by the Indian filmAalavandhan (2001), another live-action film which features an animated murder sequence.[15][16]
The Guardian wrote that Kill Bill shares its plot with the 1973 Japanese film Lady Snowblood, in which a woman kills off the gang who murdered her family, and observed that 'Lady Snowblood uses stills and illustration for parts of the narrative that were too expensive to film, just as Kill Bill uses Japanese-style animation to break up the narrative'.[11] The plot also resembles the 1968 French film The Bride Wore Black, in which a bride seeks revenge on five gang members and strikes them off a list as she kills them.[17]
Music[edit]
As with Tarantino's previous films, Kill Bill features an eclectic soundtrack genres including country music and Spaghetti Western scores by Ennio Morricone. Bernard Herrmann's theme from the film Twisted Nerve is whistled by the menacing Elle Driver in the hospital scene. A brief, 15-second excerpt from the opening of the Ironside theme music by Quincy Jones is used as the Bride's revenge motif, which flares up with a red-tinged flashback whenever she is in the company of her next target.[18] Instrumental tracks from Japanese guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei figure prominently, and after the success of Kill Bill they were frequently used in American TV commercials and at sporting events. As the Bride enters 'The House of Blue Leaves', go-go group the 5,6,7,8's perform 'I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield,' 'I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)' and 'Woo Hoo'. The connection to Lady Snowblood is further established by the use of 'The Flower of Carnage' the closing theme from that film. James Last's 'The Lonely Shepherd' by pan flute virtuoso Gheorghe Zamfir plays over the closing credits. The theme from The Green Hornet plays when the Bride is flying to and arriving in Japan.[citation needed]
Release[edit]
Theatrical release[edit]
The State Theater (Ann Arbor, MI) shows a double feature of Kill Bill Volume 1 and Volume 2
Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released in theaters on October 10, 2003. It was the first Tarantino film in six years, following Jackie Brown in 1997.[19] In the United States and Canada, Volume 1 was released in 3,102 theaters and grossed $22 million on its opening weekend.[2] Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, said Volume 1's opening weekend gross was significant for a 'very genre specific and very violent' film that in the United States was restricted to theatergoers 17 years old and up.[20] It ranked first at the box office, beating School of Rock (in its second weekend) and Intolerable Cruelty (in its first). Volume 1 had the widest theatrical release[20] and highest-grossing opening weekend of a Tarantino film to date; Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction (1994) had each grossed $9.3 million on their opening weekends.[19] According to the studio, exit polls showed that 90% of the audience was interested in seeing the second Kill Bill after seeing the first.[21]
Outside the United States and Canada, Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released in 20 territories. The film outperformed its main competitor Intolerable Cruelty in Norway, Denmark and Finland, though it ranked second in Italy. Volume 1 had a record opening in Japan, though expectations were higher due to the film being partially set there and because of its homages to Japanese martial arts cinema. It had 'a muted entry' in the United Kingdom and Germany due to its 18 certificate, but 'experienced acceptable drops' after its opening weekend in the two territories. By November 2, 2003, it had made $31 million in the 20 territories.[22] It grossed a total of $70 million in the United States and Canada and $110.9 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $180.9 million.[2]
Home release[edit]
In the United States, Volume 1 was released on DVD and VHS on April 13, 2004, the week Volume 2 was released in theaters. In a December 2005 interview, Tarantino addressed the lack of a special edition DVD for Kill Bill by stating 'I've been holding off because I've been working on it for so long that I just wanted a year off from Kill Bill and then I'll do the big supplementary DVD package.'[23] After one week of release, the film's DVD sales had surpassed its $70 million US box office gross.[24]
The United States does not have a DVD boxed set of Kill Bill, though box sets of the two separate volumes are available in other countries, such as France, Japan and the United Kingdom. Upon the DVD release of Volume 2 in the US, however, Best Buy did offer an exclusive box set slipcase to house the two individual releases together.[25]Volume 1, along with Volume 2, was released in High Definition on Blu-ray on September 9, 2008 in the United States. As of March 2012, Volume 1 sold 141,456 Blu-ray units in the US, grossing $1,477,791.[26]
Critical reception[edit]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Kill Bill: Volume 1 has a score of 85% based on reviews from 233 critics; the average rating is 7.7/10. Its consensus reads: 'Kill Bill is admittedly little more than a stylish revenge thriller – albeit one that benefits from a wildly inventive surfeit of style.'[27] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has an average score of 69 based on 43 reviews, indicating 'generally favorable reviews'.[28]
A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, 'While being so relentlessly exposed to a filmmaker's idiosyncratic turn-ons can be tedious and off-putting, the undeniable passion that drives Kill Bill is fascinating, even, strange to say it, endearing. Mr. Tarantino is an irrepressible showoff, recklessly flaunting his formal skills as a choreographer of high-concept violence, but he is also an unabashed cinephile, and the sincerity of his enthusiasm gives this messy, uneven spectacle an odd, feverish integrity.'[29]
Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times called Kill Bill: Volume 1 'a blood-soaked valentine to movies' and wrote: 'It's apparent that Tarantino is striving for more than an off-the-rack mash note or a pastiche of golden oldies. It is, rather, his homage to movies shot in celluloid and wide, wide, wide, wide screen—an ode to the time right before movies were radically secularized.' She recognized Tarantino's technical talent but thought Kill Bill: Volume 1's appeal was too limited to popular culture references, calling the film's story 'the least interesting part of the whole equation.'[30]
![Kill bill budd Kill bill budd](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125555452/154996753.jpg)
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 4 stars out of 4, writing: 'Kill Bill, Volume 1 shows Quentin Tarantino so effortlessly and brilliantly in command of his technique that he reminds me of a virtuoso violinist racing through 'Flight of the Bumble Bee' – or maybe an accordion prodigy setting a speed record for 'Lady of Spain'. I mean that as a sincere compliment. The movie is not about anything at all except the skill and humor of its making. It's kind of brilliant.'[31]
Cultural historian Maud Lavin states that the Bride's embodiment of revenge taps into viewers' personal fantasies of committing violence. For audiences, particularly women viewers, the character provides a complex site for identification with one's own aggression.[32]
Accolades[edit]
Uma Thurman received a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination in 2004. She was also nominated in 2004 for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, in addition with four other BAFTA nominations. Kill: Bill Volume 1 was placed in Empire Magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Films of All Time at number 325 and the Bride was also ranked number 66 in Empire magazine's '100 Greatest Movie Characters'.[33]
Awards | |||
---|---|---|---|
Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Outcome |
57th British Academy Film Awards | |||
Best Actress | Uma Thurman | Nominated | |
Best Editing | Sally Menke | Nominated | |
Best Film Music | RZA | Nominated | |
Best Sound | Michael Minkler, Myron Nettinga, Wylie Stateman, and Mark Ulano | Nominated | |
Best Visual Effects | Tommy Tom, Kia Kwan, Tam Wai, Kit Leung, Jaco Wong, and Hin Leung | Nominated | |
9th Empire Awards | |||
Best Film | Kill Bill: Volume 1 | Nominated | |
Best Actress | Uma Thurman | Won | |
Best Director | Quentin Tarantino | Won | |
Sony Ericsson Scene of the Year | The House of the Blue Leaves | Nominated | |
61st Golden Globe Awards | Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama | Uma Thurman | Nominated |
2004 MTV Movie Awards | Best Female Performance | Uma Thurman | Won |
Best Villain | Lucy Liu | Won | |
Best Fight | Uma Thurman vs. Chiaki Kuriyama | Won | |
2003 Satellite Awards | |||
Best Art Direction/Production Design | Kill Bill: Volume 1 | Nominated | |
Best Original Screenplay | Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman | Nominated | |
Best Sound | Kill Bill: Volume 1 | Nominated | |
Best Visual Effects | Kill Bill: Volume 1 | Nominated | |
30th Saturn Awards | |||
Best Action/Adventure Film | Kill Bill: Volume 1 | Won | |
Best Actress | Uma Thurman | Won | |
Best Supporting Actor | Sonny Chiba | Nominated | |
Best Supporting Actress | Lucy Liu | Nominated | |
Best Director | Quentin Tarantino | Nominated | |
Best Screenplay | Quentin Tarantino | Nominated | |
Genre Face of the Future | Chiaki Kuriyama | Nominated |
In popular culture[edit]
Kill Buljo is a 2007 Norwegian parody of Kill Bill set in Finnmark, Norway, and portrays Jompa Tormann's hunt for Tampa and Papa Buljo. The film satirizes stereotypes of Norway's Sami population. According to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Tarantino approved of the parody.[34]
The Pussy Wagon vehicle from Kill Bill: Volume 1 made a cameo in the music video for Lady Gaga's song 'Telephone' at Tarantino's behest.[35]
Sequel[edit]
Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released in April 2004. It picks up where Volume 1 left off and continues the Bride's quest to finish the hit list that she has composed of all of the people who have wronged her, including ex-boyfriend Bill (David Carradine), who tried to have her killed four years ago during her wedding to another man.
Volume 2 also received critical acclaim and was also a commercial success.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Kill Bill -- Vol. 1'. American Film Institute. Retrieved December 4, 2016.
- ^ abcd'Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)'. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
- ^ abcdefghOtto, Jeff. 'Interview: Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman'. IGN. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ^'Quentin Tarantino - Screenwriter, Director, Producer - Biography'. Biography. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
- ^ ab'BBC – Films – interview – Quentin Tarantino'. www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ^ abc'Quentin Tarantino on Kill Bill Vol. 1 – Film4'. www.film4.com. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ^'Production I.G : WORK LIST : 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1' (Animation Sequence)'. Production I.G. 2003. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
- ^ abcdSnyder, Gabriel (July 15, 2003). 'Double 'Kill' bill'. Variety.
- ^Dowd, Maureen (February 3, 2018). 'This Is Why Uma Thurman Is Angry'. The New York Times.
- ^http://deadline.com/2018/02/quentin-tarantino-uma-thurman-harvey-weinstein-kill-bill-car-crash-new-york-times-1202278988/
- ^ abRose, Steve (April 6, 2004). 'Found: where Tarantino gets his ideas'. The Guardian. Retrieved September 25, 2006.
- ^ abBordwell, David (October 2009). 'Another Shaw Production: Anamorphic Adventures in Hong Kong'. David Bordwell's Website On Cinema. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
- ^ ab'Quentin Tarantino: Definitive Guide To Homages, Influences And References'. WhatCulture.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ^Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2015). The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation. Stone Bridge Press. p. 629. ISBN978-1-61172-909-2.
- ^Stice, Joel (April 17, 2014). '20 Things You Might Not Know About 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2''. Uproxx. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
- ^Jha, Subhash K (July 15, 2012). 'Quentin Tarantino inspired by Abhay'. Mid Day. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
- ^'Quentin Tarantino: Definitive Guide To Homages, Influences And References'. WhatCulture.com. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
- ^Other reviews by Rafael Ruiz (October 23, 2003). 'Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (2003)'. Soundtrack. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^ abDowney, Ryan J. (October 13, 2003). ''Kill Bill' Slays Box-Office Competition'. MTV. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
- ^ abOgunnaike, Lola (October 13, 2003). 'Gory 'Kill Bill' Tops Weekend Box Office'. The New York Times.
- ^Cooper, Andrew (October 12, 2003). 'Tarantino makes a box office killing'. USA Today.
- ^Groves, Don (November 2, 2003). ''Kill Bill,' 'Cruelty' seesaw across globe'. Variety.
- ^'Tarantino Brings Kill Bills Together'. ContactMusic.com. December 21, 2005. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
- ^'DVDs can push big-money films into profitability'. USA Today. April 22, 2004.
- ^'Best DVD Packaging of 2004'. DVD Talk. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
- ^'Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) - Video Sales'. The Numbers. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
- ^'Kill Bill: Volume 1'. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ^'Kill Bill: Vol. 1'. Metacritic. Retrieved June 29, 2011.
- ^Scott, A. O. (October 10, 2003). 'Film Review; Blood Bath & Beyond'. The New York Times. (Metacritic Score: 70)
- ^Dargis, Manohla (October 10, 2003). 'Kill Bill Vol. 1'. Los Angeles Times. (Metacritic Score: 70)
- ^Ebert, Roger (October 10, 2003). 'Kill Bill, Vol. 1'. RogerEbert.com. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
- ^Lavin, Maud (2010). 'Push Comes to Shove: New Images of Aggressive Women', p. 123. MIT Press, Cambridge. ISBN978-0-262-12309-9.
- ^'The 100 Greatest Movie Characters| 66. The Bride | Empire'. www.empireonline.com. December 5, 2006. Retrieved May 29, 2012.
- ^'Tekstarkiv'. Dagbladet.no. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009. Retrieved July 14, 2009.
- ^Gregory, Jason (March 12, 2010). 'Lady Gaga: 'Pussy Wagon In Telephone Video Was Quentin Tarantino's Idea''. Gigwise. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Kill Bill: Volume 1 |
- Kill Bill: Volume 1 on IMDb
- Kill Bill: Volume 1 at AllMovie
- Kill Bill: Volume 1 at Box Office Mojo
- Kill Bill: Volume 1 at Rotten Tomatoes
- Kill Bill Chapter 3: The Origin of O-Ren (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
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