Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) - An example of telling a good story

Review No. : 0012

Title : Kill Bill Vol. 1

Year : 2003

Director : Quentin Tarantino

Country :  United States

World’s Verdict : Rotten Tomatoes – 85%; Metacritic – 69 out of 100; IMDB – 8.1 out of 10.0.
My Verdict : 4.4 out of 5.0.

I remember the first time I watched Kill Bill Vol. 1 and I was totally shocked.  That was more than a decade ago and by that time no mainstream film came near as gory and artistic as Kill Bill Vol. 1.  At that time I thought that it was a very shocking film but was very well crafted and I loved it.  Now, after watching it earlier today I didn’t find the violence horrifying as it was when I first saw it but I love it more than ever.  This is probably the fifth time that I have seen this movie, I thought it’s one of my guilty pleasures, a movie that that is not really good but is highly entertaining.  I can now officially say that it is not a guilty pleasure because it is a legit good movie.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 is the first part of the story of a former female assassin known as “The Bride” (Uma Thurman).  She was about to get married when her former boss/mentor/lover/Bill visits her wedding (actually wedding rehearsal which you will learn in the next volume) with an assassin squad.  Bill and his team kill everyone in the church and totally beat “The Bride” to death and please take note that she is pregnant while they beat her to death.  Before Bill fires his gun to the head of “The Bride”, she told Bill that he is the father of the child she is carrying. 

"The Bride" survives the killing but she is left in coma.  After four years in coma she wakes up in the hospital and realizes that she lost her baby.  She then plans for her killing spree revenge.  One by one she plans to kill each member of the squad that killed her groom and everyone in the church where she was supposed to get married.

The Good
Almost everything in this movie is good and memorable, here are few of those I really like:

• The simple plot with a good structure - this movie is a simple revenge flick but what I like about it is the pacing and structure of the story.  The story is not narrated in a linear fashion instead the story jumps back and forth in a non-chronological way.  It sounds complicated but it’s not and the good thing that comes out of it is that it gives a little mystery and suspense to the story and also helps in slowly building each character’s personality.  The structure of the movie is very well-thought of and this is one of the strengths of the film.

• The combination of reality and fantasy - This film moves you.  You will sympathize with The Bride and you will root for her.  You will fear and be mad at the villains.  In the back of your mind there is a possibility that this story could be true or could happen in real life.  But there is an element of fantasy, not the Lord Of The Rings type of fantasy, but more like an anime type of fantasy.  I’m talking about hot women who are good in martial arts and katanas.  An example is the one-eyed character, Elle (Daryl Hannah), whose mission to kill “The Bride” in the hospital, she disguises herself as a nurse but her uniform looks like a slutty nurse costume, so cartoonish.  Then there’s Gogo a 17-year old girl who is the bodyguard of one of the antagonists, this evil girl wears a school girl uniform, very anime.

• The music and songs - it has music from different types of genres.  You could say that the songs and music are typical Tarantino choices.  The songs and the music add story and thrill to the film.  One of the best music adapted in the film is “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” this is actually a music used in a 2000 yakuza Japanese film (New Battles Without Honor and Humanity) but is now known to be Kill Bill’s music.

• The anime sequence - the story of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), a member of the assassin squad, is told using anime art.  This medium works very well in telling the story of O-Ren and establishes Kill Bill Vol. 1 as an extraordinary movie.

• The costumes - some of the costumes in Kill Bill Vol. 1 are iconic or at least memorable.  One of them is Gogo’s outfit that I mentioned earlier, another is O-Ren Ishii’s white kimono.  But it’s the yellow and black suit that “The Bride” from Kill Bill will always be remembered for.  Yellow and black suit is modern, is edgy, is sexy and it becomes bloody.

The Bad

I saw an interview of Quentin Tarantino in YouTube once.  In this interview he encourages the children to watch the film and the interviewer doesn’t think that kids should watch it because of the violence.  The interview becomes ugly and Tarantino is obviously pissed, because the interviewer is a little bit arrogant.  I did find the interviewer arrogant but at the end of the day I still think that this movie should not be watched by children.

I really, really like this film.  It is not the violence that makes this film good but how the story is told through good narrative structure, music, cinematography and acting.