Kill Bill Vol. 1 is the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino. The movie stars Uma Therman as ‘The Bride/a.k.a Black Mamba’ whenever her real name is used it is bleeped over, Kill Bill also includes Lucy Liu ‘O-ren Ishii’, a half Japanese half Chinese american girl. The film starts off in America but later moves onto Japan. A lot of the film is in Japanese. There is a lot of violence in the film and most of the blood is over exagerated.
The movie begins 4 years in the past where The bride is breathing heavily on the floor of a chapel in a blood stained wedding gown, thus reinforcing her name The Bride. You see someone holding a gun and assume it is Bill. He shoots her in the head and creates a foundation for slow moving plot of Kill Bill Vol. 1. Like a lot of Tarantino films, the movie isn’t in chronological order. The next chapter is 4 years later where she tracks down an old counter part who’m assissted in Therman’s assassination. She has moved on from being a Deadly viper since she has a home, is married and has a daughter, but the Bride is out for revenge and kills her. It goes back to when she is in a Coma and is visited by Elle Driver, another Deadly Viper. SHe attempts to kill the Bride but the Mission is aborted by a phone call from Bill, just in time. She later wakes up seeing her baby is gone and meets up with a docter named Buck who’m has raped her and people buy coma patients to have sexual intercourse with. She kills the man, then buck and takes his car. The story builds up more when the plot moves onto the origins of O-ren Ishii. O-ren was an American Chinese Japanese girl whose family is killed by the Yakuza, she seeks revenge and becomes one of the worlds deadliest assassin. Soon she is innitiated as the Leader of the Yakuza and takes part in the attempted murder of Uma Therman.
The acting is superb but it lacks a story line, it can be seen as REVENGE, it builds up to Vol 2 which finishes off the Kill Bill Series. In Volume 1 the Bride doesn’t accomplish as much as Volume 2, but was necessary to build the entire story. It is one of the best Tarantino films and is quite enjoyable. Some scenes can offend the easily unoffended with its blood, head choppings and removal of limbs but is also enjoyable. The film has some dark humour, i don’t think it was on purpose but i found certain parts funny. For example when she fights Vernita and the school bus arives. Watch the movie, you’ll see what i mean.
The movie is engaging even though it is mainly in Japanese and moves slowly. The soundtrack is well thought through and Quentin Tarantino is a genius. Recommended for all except children.