VOLUME 1
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Coincidence? Maybe. But I think it�s something the writers put in there to basically copy the genius of Tarantino. If you think about it, he is genius, a kinetic one. In an interview the seemingly ADD director said, �I like to [screw] with the audience.� That is exactly what I see him doing with all of his movies. Especially with his new �Kill Bill Vol. 1�.
We begin when four assassins raid the wedding of �The Bride� (Uma Thurman). They kill everyone in sight, but only think that The Bride is dead. In truth, she�s only in a long-term coma. Waking after four years, the Bride gathers together the information, figures out the perpetrators and devises a 5-person list of people she must kill. 5: O-Ren Ishii, 4: Vernita Green, 3: Budd, 2: Elle Driver, and of course 1: Bill. One by one, she finds each and simply kills them. By the end of �Vol. 1� she�s about halfway finished.
Don�t think that this review gives anything away. The inevitability of the plot is so blatant that the title tells what will eventually happen. The suspense is in not knowing how it will happen. This is basically a great director at the top of his game when it comes to the art of direction and writing: filmmaking in general. It�s the simplistic brilliance of every frame and angle, every choreographed slice and punch that make this film so awesome. There is a shot in the film where the camera does not cut away to a different angle for almost two minutes...traveling through a maze-like building, following Uma Thurman into a dressing room where it finally stops. It�s pure magic.
Speaking of choreographed slices and punches, this movie likely has the best fight scenes of any karate film. It is also likely to have the most blood of any karate film. This is more of a splatter film than most horror films, but it�s supposed look unreal. That�s what�s funny about it. Cutting back and forth from black and white to color (and even a couple of sequences in astonishing anime), the film is an eyeful. I think one major reason for this is that if Tarantino had kept the entire film in live-action color, the beloved members of the MPAA would have deemed it too violent and given it an NC-17 rating. In any sense, the filmmaking and editing as a whole is a canvas of colors that only add to the intensity.
�An action film unlike any other.� That pretty much describes �Kill Bill�. It lurks in the shadows of each character and then kicks then off the plank and into an ocean of violence. �Volume 1� is a bloody good time, and I can�t wait for �Volume 2�. ****