Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Story: Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman
Cast: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Sonny Chiba 
Music: The RZA
Time: 111 minutes
Bottom-line: Usual story; stylish portrayal

The concept of revenge has been in existence from time immemorial, and somehow people have always had a fascination for this concept. Giving people a taste of their own medicine, showing them what they did to you…and indeed, when you get even with someone, you feel immense joy. So Quentin Tarantino chooses revenge as his theme for his fourth film Kill Bill: Volume 1. But what makes this story special? Well, the style, of course!

Thurman as The Bride

The film starts with the line, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” A pregnant woman, called ‘The Bride’ (Thurman), lies badly wounded in a chapel. Her lover, an unseen Bill, shoots her in the head, though he knows that she is carrying his baby. The Bride miraculously survives the gunshot, but goes into a coma for four years. When she wakes, she is shocked to discover that she is no longer pregnant. So she decides to take revenge on all the people who did this to her: four members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, and their former leader Bill. The rest of the film shows her encounters with O-Ren Ishii (Liu) and Vernita Green, two of the five members on The Bride’s death list.

Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii

The story is told slightly out of chronological order. If it were shown chronologically, then it would be in the form of the plot summary above. Kill Bill, the full story, had a running time of over four hours, so Tarantino decided to break it into two parts: Volumes 1 and 2. The first part covers The Bride’s encounters with two members on her death list, and the story continues in Volume 2. This part ends with a sudden twist, and also has enough action to make you eagerly want to see Volume 2.

One scene from the animated sequence

The story is pretty much the usual. One hurts or destroys another, the latter wants to get even, blah blah… but with the non-linear narrative and typical Tarantino violence and action, this film proves to be somewhat better than most others. There are many scenes that create psychological suspense, but those scenes are a bit slow. I also find many other unwanted scenes; for example, the scenes that show O-Ren’s flashback are not needed at all. However, what I like about the film is the way it pays homage to Japanese animation and other martial art films. Few scenes are shown in black and white, and the flashback of O-Ren is shown in the form of Japanese animation. The violence could have reduced, but no matter what happens, Tarantino is not going to do that. Yet, in few places, the violence in this film is much more gory and horrible, compared to his other films like Django Unchained and Inglorious Basterds.

The fight between The Bride and the Crazy 88

The fight scenes were exciting to watch, but not really appealing. Seeing one person kill over eighty people was, is, and never will be believable to me. Moreover, having already seen such superhuman fights in various Tamil films, the fight between The Bride and O-Ren’s army (The Crazy 88) was more boring than interesting. However, the couple of solo fights: that between The Bride and O-Ren, and between The Bride and Vernita Green were thrilling. What made the fight with the Crazy 88 interesting was the score and camerawork. Some scenes are shown in black and white, and few scenes of the fight take place in the dark, where only the light of the swords is seen. Plenty of close-ups are also shown during the fights. The score in the film has many musical genres: country music, western etc.

The fight between The Bride and O-Ren

Uma Thruman comes in nearly al the scenes, and her acting is pure awesome. Her acting is so good that you can see the anger in her eyes, and also feel the revenge that she wants to take. Her character is named ‘The Bride’ throughout the film, and even when she says her name in Green’s house, it is censored. Tarantino sort of empowers women in this film. In Tamil films, when you see Rajni or Vijay beat up hundreds of people at once, the fans cheer like hell, but others don’t. Here, when you see a woman do the same, it feels new. Perhaps he wanted woman to feel more powerful after watching this film. Many dialogues are memorable, and few also bring out the anger of The Bride.

To conclude, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 is an action-packed film, boosted by Thurman’s acting. Brutal violence, tons of action, some unique camerawork and powerful dialogues make this another typical Tarantino flick. The fight with the Crazy 88 was sort of boring, but the others were excellent. The story was the same old revenge one, but the way in which it has been portrayed: with Japanese animation, with bits of black and white, and with an electric score make this film different. Kill Bill: Volume 1 may not be great, but it is certainly stylish.

My Rating: 3.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 85%