Kill Bill Vol. 1 Review (2003)

The disappointing third film "Jackie Brown"

Quentin Tarantino could have retired from directing after Pulp Fiction, he was already a master of his craft and by his second film had hit his peak. When Jackie Brown was released in 1997 it was met with mixed reactions, people were unsure on how to take it.
Jackie Brown had a lot of big name actors, Robert De Niro, Samuel L Jackson and Pam Grier to name just a few, but for me, the story wasn't right, it wasn't a Tarantino story, he had based it on a novel and it just wasn't a decent enough follow up to Pulp Fiction.

Enter Kill Bill Volume 1. Titled as the fourth film by Mr Tarantino it is undoubtedly one of the best films he has to offer. A splice between a murder mystery, a globe trotting adventure and a classic martial arts film, there is not a lot that this film doesn't have to offer.

Uma Thurmn as "The Bride"

Following Tarantino's non-linear narrative, it details the journey of "The Bride" played by the always beautiful Uma Thurman, and her attempts to seek revenge on the titular "Bill" and the other five assassins that attempted to murder her on her wedding day. Due to the storyline being non-linear, the storyline progresses rather strangely, opening with the supposed murder and death of the bride, before progressing onto the battle between the Bride and number 2 on her list Venita Green. The story then goes back to the Bride waking up from her coma and reflecting on the life story of the number 1 on her list, Oren Ishi.

Those gory anime scenes

Tarantino uses an anime style to tell the back story of Oren, which fits perfectly with the martial arts feel of the rest of the film. The excessive amounts of blood and gore in this seen match the anime style well, as we learn that Ishi's family were murdered by members of the Yakuza which drove Oren to turn to a life of crime and become a woman for hire. Lucy Liu works wonderfully against the character of the Bride, being her exact opposite. Whilst the Bride is calm and calculated, methodical in the way that she exacts her revenge Oren Ishi has outbursts of violence so severe that she beheads one of her own council members because he disagree's with a half American female running the Yakuza. She then proceeds to threaten the rest of her council who admittedly never even mentioned her heritage.

The always awesome Sonny Chiba!

Sonny Chiba a famous Japanese martial arts actor makes a great cameo appearance as Hitari Hanzo (a character he actually played many times in the 70's) who helps the bride to make her samurai sword, and this scene also features some of the best dialogue in the whole film, with hilarious encounters between Hanzo and his assistant disagreeing over who should cut fish and who should fetch sake, Tarantino's writing is at its best in moments like these. Other actors from timeless martial arts films are paid homage to here also, with the Bride wearing a yellow jumpsuit not unlike the one that Bruce Lee wore in the film "Game of Death."

The Bride finally makes her way to Tokyo to confront Oren Ishi and cross the number 1 off her list. I won't spoil what happens next but it is notable to mention that the fight scene with the Crazy 88 is fantastically choreographed, it feels like I am actually watching a fight rather than a fight scene, and in fact it had to be shown in black and white because the amount of blood and violence was considered to be too much for an audience to handle and the film would have received and X rating. However this is undoubtedly the best scene of the entire film and I'm not sure I can think of another fight scene that lasts as long as this one.

Crazy 88 fight scene

Something else of notable mention is the music and score used in this film. A mix between some outstanding songs performed by the 5,6,7,8's to the amazing "Lonely Shepherd" by Gheorge  Zamfir, this film really does have some of the best music that I can think of.


It does have to be said that this is not a movie for everyone. Some of the action gets to be a bit too much at times with arms being chopped off and even a scalping at one point of the film. My mother used to hate when I watched this film as she found the violence far too gratuitous, whilst my dad and myself used to lap up the violence, perhaps its because we are both major gore hounds or maybe we both believed it was very fitting of the movie itself.

Either way this is one of Tarantino's best movies and along with Kill Bill Vol. 2 is one of the best martial arts saga's of all time. I will be reviewing Vol.2 but I chose to review the films separately for reasons I will go into with that review.