Kill Bill: Volume I

Okay, this is the increasingly tiresome part of Biblioblog where I gripe about yet another movie that failed to live up to my expectations. Not that I'm a Tarantino fan--Pulp Fiction didn't interest me except for the Bruce Willis segment--but I do like martial arts movies, so I was hoping that, even though the critics forewarned me that the plot and characterization of Kill Bill were weak, I'd at least be treated to some spectacularly choreographed fight scenes. But in this regard it was much inferior to, say, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, or dozens of early Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat movies--although a psychopathic Japanese schoolgirl showcased some cool moves with a ball-and-chain mace. The final showdown between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu was anticlimatic, over in just a few sword strokes, in violation of the time-honored convention of ending martial arts flicks with a long, flashy duel between Hero and Villain. Instead Tarantino spends too much time showing Uma hacking her way through a thicket of henchmen's limbs.

The flippant, ironic dialogue for which Tarantino became famous is also lacking. Some of the Gen-X pop culture references in Pulp Fiction were entertaining, but having Uma and Lucy quote "Silly rabbit--Trix are for kids" before facing off is just plain cheesy.

Most of the violence was too ridiculous to be taken seriously, but I did get uncomfortable during one animated sequence in which Liu's character witnesses the death of her parents and then takes revenge a few years later. This segment, however, was the most successful part of the whole film.

I appreciated T.'s acknowledgement of the connection between Samurai and gunslinger movies, since I like both, say, Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars. One scene is set in El Paso, and he underscores Uma and Lucy's duel with some Ennio Morricone style music.