The Null Device blog: Kill Bill

I finally got around to seeing Kill Bill part 1 tonight. My thoughts:

It was spectacularly violent, as one would expect from Tarantino, The violence had an over-the-top quality about it, much like a Road Runner cartoon, only with blood everywhere. The blood flowed like water from a burst main, and I was expecting pretty much anybody who entered the screen to transition from person to blood-sack. The violence was quite stylishly done, often in the form of exquisitely choreographed martial-arts sequences, whose machinelike neatness would only be tempered by the spurting geysers of red, red krovvy that inevitably ensued.
It was also extremely stylised. The sets and costumes, the props (the Pussy Wagon, for example), the colours (the use of bright yellow, for example), the editing (there was a transition from colour to black and white in the middle which could only have been as a hip reference to a genre of martial-arts films), and of course Tarantino's trademarked banter.
Parts of it, of course, beggared plausibility; from Thurman's character having made a full recovery in the first place to the rather sporting one-at-a-time martial-arts sequences, where thugs would take turns to attack and be dispatched by our heroine, and would carry out elaborate little dances to themselves as they waited for their turn.
The incidental music was great; very atmospheric. I wonder how much of that was done by RZA and how much was borrowed from old film scores (as Tarantino admitted to doing).
The overall impression I got was of extreme coolness; not cool in the subjective this-is-good sense but coolness as an attitude, an objective stylistic feature: dry, wry, too-hip-to-care, and yet with layers of references and even more layers of callow, almost nihilistic ironic detachment.

All in all, I rather enjoyed it. Not the best film I'd ever seen, but a lot better than the overly long and laboured affair that was Jackie Brown.

(Talking point: Kill Bill is to hipsters what The Crow was to goths. Discuss.)

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Tue Nov 18 14:06:14 2003

Indeed. I pretty much enjoyed it too, though it's very much a film geek's film. At least Tarantino is an obsessive film geek, who nevertheless clearly enjoys what he does, and gets most of it right. So, hip, but fun. It'll be interesting to see how Part 2 stacks up.

I must say I winced at the head in the door bit, even though Buck deserved it, and Go-Go Yibari's demise. And the bit where B lopped Sophie's first arm off.

Anyway, it felt more visceral (literally, in the case of Go-Go) than all the CGI porn we've been served up lately.

Posted by: cat | http:// | Tue Nov 18 14:12:53 2003

the black and white part was apparently actually shot in color and was only black and whited for censorship/certification reasons.

i also suggest you check out some good hk swordplay/martial arts movies before considering the kill bill fight scenes "exquisitely choreographed".. they really aren't very good.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Tue Nov 18 14:23:46 2003

Care to recommend some notable examples?

Posted by: kenny | http:// | Tue Nov 18 18:32:10 2003

the sum of the references was less than (or *maybe* equal to :) their sources... meaning, like cat sez, if you want "exquisitely choreographed" stylized violence just watch the originals where QT got his stuff from; the homage doesn't quite transcend the genre.

like when you watch uma thurman try to kick ass you just wish you were watching a bruce lee or jackie chan fight scene (and are reminded how much better they were), the anime sequence left me wondering what mamoru oshii or katsuhiro otomo could have done instead and now i'm wondering if in vol.2 he's gearing up for a hackneyed "tribute" to john woo!

that said, i thought it was okay :D and vol.2 could make it alright... QT i think's failed at raising the action extravaganza bar, but i guess he's succeeded at delivering an enjoyable sample platter.

what makes a QT movie memorable are his underworld characterizations and the "mundane" depictions of violence (hence, shocking) that result from their interaction. in this regard i found kill bill vo

Posted by: kenny | http:// | Tue Nov 18 18:35:26 2003

l.2 decidedly "untarantinoesque," but yeah the soudtrack was still pretty great tho!

Posted by: kenny | http:// | Tue Nov 18 20:33:49 2003

hey fwiw just saw this interview with quention tarantion (and brian helgeland) on gulfstream :D

http://beebo.org/gulfstream/entry/1341.html

and this interview with RZA (aka bobby digital) in the onion av club!

http://theonionavclub.com/3945/feature1.html

Posted by: billy | http:// | Wed Nov 19 16:15:45 2003

what's a hipster?

Posted by: JohnTomato | http://bartcopnation.com/dc/dcboard.php | Thu Nov 20 01:52:00 2003

seeing the lucy liu character, bad as death on a hot skewer, standing in the snow and seeing her katana *wobble* for the love of buddha. the humor was done in vein and done well. the basic physical abilities of the principles just didn't cut it.

pity.

J.T.

Posted by: Ben | http://forum.carderplanet.com | Thu Nov 20 10:33:12 2003

"what's a hipster?"

If you have to ask...

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Fri Nov 21 04:54:14 2003

Billy, a hipster is one of those people from the city who dresses like one of the people from your trailer park because it's fashionable.

Posted by: i love 'em | http:// | Sun Nov 23 11:16:54 2003

jesus - The 5.6.7.8's have been ever present in my daytime thoughts ever since seeing Kill Bill - - their music is amazing

Lock 'N Loll Forevellll!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Ben-Gurion | http://www.rslevinson.com/gaylesissues/features/collect/phelps/b | Mon Nov 24 14:08:06 2003

I bought a hand-printed shirt for $40 at the market the other day, which I sincerely hope will turn me into a 'hipster'. Have to keep growing this mullet though...

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Mon Nov 24 14:34:56 2003

Ben: and make sure you wear a trucker cap everywhere, and/or idiosyncratic/ironic clothing (petrol-station/fast-food-restaurant employee shirt with someone else's name on the patch, T-shirt advertising something odd like a Canadian scout jamboree 15 years ago or something, &c.) Wear a pair of trendy retro sneakers from Chapel St., but get the rest of your clothing from an op shop. Or something.

Hey, it's Hipster Eye for the Regular Guy. Or something like that.

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