If you have ever seen "True Romance", you'll know that Quentin Tarantino is a huge fan of kung fu movies. But specifically, Tarantino is a huge fan of the man, the myth, the legend: Sonny Chiba. This knowledge is something that comes in extremely helpful when you watch Kill Bill: Volume 1.
One of the hardest things to do in life is to outdo yourself. Many musicians put an album, or a song, that becomes their greatest and from there they may have a good career, but they're just never able to top that one song, that one moment. I believe in progression. I believe in getting better because if you're getting worse or just staying the same, then you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. As an actor, arguably, Harrison Ford actually peeked during his Indiana Jones role and everything from there has been downhill. Mel Gibson peeked in Lethal Weapon. And so on.
I feel the biggest struggle of this film is for Quentin Tarantino to outdo "Pulp Fiction", (hands down his most popular and well known film to date) and to do so without making it look like he's trying to outdo "Pulp Fiction".
Kill Bill: Volume 1 starts with Uma Thurman's character, simply known as the Bride, out to kill a character played by Vivica A. Fox, Vernita Green (code name: Copperhead) The Bride and Copperhead have a great showdown in Copperhead's living room, only for her daughter to come home and it all stops. They try to reschedule, but instead, Copperhead tries to open fire through a cereal box. The Bride isn't having it, and throws a knife right through her heart. The little girl comes out and the Bride says, "When you get older, if you still feel raw about this, I'll be waiting".
From here, the movie could get confusing- but it doesn't- and it gives away the plot, but I don't feel badly about that.
The story is that four years ago, on her wedding day, the Bride (who was pregnant), her baby, her husband and the rest of the wedding party- ten in total- were killed. The only thing is, the Bride managed to survive in a coma. So now she is out for revenge against the group of five who did this to her: O-Ren Ishii aka Cottonmouth (played by Lucy Liu), Vernita Green aka Copperhead (played by Vivica A. Fox, and we just saw her die), Elle Driver aka California Mountain Snake (played by Daryl Hannah), Budd aka Sidewinder (played by Michael Madsen) and, of course, Bill.
Right after we see the Bride kill Copperhead, she goes to her truck (which we later learn she stole. That's a whole other part I won't tell you about), crosses the name off the list, and above it, already crossed off is O-Ren Ishii. Yes, the Bride has a "Death List # 5". Who knew?
After everything from four years ago up until now is basically told, the story goes into O-Ren Ishii, and this part of the movie-- Volume 1-- is as much her story as it is the Bride's. O-Ren's story is told using animation which isn't quite anime, but it's pretty close. The Bride seeks out O-Ren and first goes to Okinawa, Japan. Here, she meets Hattori Hanzo, who kind of becomes her mentor and makes a special sword just for her. (He is played by Sonny Chiba. That's just awesome) In the time it takes him to make the sword (four months), the screen just flashes "four months later", it doesn't give you that training sequence with music ala "the Karate Kid" and that's one thing I like about this movie-- it skips through the crap and gets right to the point.
In the end of Volume 1, the Bride slices off the top of O-Ren's head, killing her, after a huge battle inside a restaurant. The fact that Quentin Tarantino likes kung fu movies really comes out here. There's even a performance by the 5678's, a Japanese rock'n'roll band.
Now, there's this girl Sofie, who is O-Ren's assistant. The Bride leaves Sofie alive, without many limbs, and tells her to tell Bill of all that has happened and of all that she knows. She also used her for information. The movie ends with Bill asking Sofie if the Bride knew that her daughter was still alive.
Here's my thoughts... The Bride went and killed Copperhead (in real time, not in movie time) after she killed O-Ren, thus after all of this with Sofie must have happened. So when the Bride said to Copperhead that she had a little girl once, she obviously still thought that her daughter is dead. Hence, she is still under that impression, yes, but how quickly that could change in the second Volume.
As of right now, I'm liking this movie a lot better than "Pulp Fiction". Don't ask me why, but I just do. Maybe it's for all of the reasons stated above, plus just everything else included in the movie. This definitely has the possibilities of being better than "Pulp Fiction" on two conditions. First, the ending (i.e. Volume 2) really has to make you go "Wow" and leave the theater thinking that it was just the best thing you've ever seen. And secondly, I wouldn't mind knowing why Bill and his possee took out the Bride, the groom, and well, the whole wedding party. If they answer that question, I'll be happy. If they leave it as "killing for the sake of killing" and "killing for the sake of revenge", I'll be a little bit disappointed. Yes, I understand the Bride wants revenge. But I want to know why this is all happening to begin with.
