"Kill Bill Vol. 2," Marriage Mayhem Week (Part 1)
Due to my lack of a review last week, I thought I'd do something special this week to make up for it. So what I'm going to do for this week is I'm going to review two films with a specific commonality, one of them being a sequel to a film I reviewed previously. That commonality is brides, which means it's time to revisit Uma Thurman's "The Bride" in Kill Bill Vol. 2.
When I last left the Kill Bill duology, I described Vol. 1 as vintage Quentin Tarantino playing by his own rules... then breaking those rules. For Vol. 2 however, Tarantino appears to have grounded himself to a certain degree, focusing less on humorous shock value and more on drama and character development. However, that doesn't mean this film is lacking in its Tarantino-isms.
In Vol. 1, Tarantino made multiple creative choices that still leave me scratching my head with my jaw on the floor, asking the universe, "What the f*ck?!" The use of anime to fill in O'Ren Ishii's backstory. The hilariously overdone volcanic eruptions of blood from every wound, including within the anime. The random switch to black and white in the Bride's minion fight with the Crazy 88s, after having already beaten the important members of the gang while the screen was still in color. Ishii taking her shoes off to have a katana fight in the snow, all the while Latin music is suddenly playing in the background. A lot of things are happening that imply that Tarantino is exploring what he can and cannot get away with doing.
In Vol. 2, Tarantino takes certain things down a notch, leaves other things at the notch where they are, and (in my opinion) he's magnified one particular creative choice to the nth degree. That choice I'm referring to is Tarantino's use of time-jumping and non-linear storytelling. Thinking off of the top of my head, Vol. 1 had Chapters 4, 2, 3, 5, and possibly not a Chapter 1, while Vol. 2 has Chapters 6, 8, 9, and I can't remember if it had a 7. And Chapter 8 starts at a time period in the Bride and Bill's relationship that takes place long before the events of Chapter 2, only to end at the time in which Chapter 6 left off. It's hard to explain, and I don't want to try and further explain, otherwise I run the risk of confusing both myself and you (my readers). All I will say is that while I know Tarantino is doing this to mess with his audience, the way he took it up a notch for Vol. 2 had me questioning at certain points whether or not Tarantino knows how to tell time or do math.
Moving onto the notches he leaves as they are, much like the first film, Vol. 2 likes to play with it's fair share of tropes and stereotypes. Vol. 1 told the backstory of a Japanese mob boss through anime (slightly racist depending on one's point of view), and featured a caucasian traveling east (regularly used trope in martial arts films) to acquire training and weaponry from a retired warrior whose old student has gone rogue (pretty sure that's the journey of Luke Skywalker). In Vol. 2, we have a racist, sexist, and ridiculously stereotypical looking kung fu master that thinks teaching an American is a waste of his time, and we have the movement-accompanying whooshing sounds and quick, random closeups to the face that you've seen in every kung fu movie ever. Straight out of the Tarantino playbook, he always likes to pay tribute to a culture while simultaneously making fun of it in each of his movies.
Regarding dialing things down, Vol. 2 had a much more "less is more" approach to its storytelling, which I'm a fan of, whereas Vol. 1 went over the top in a lot of ways (as I've said probably a million times by now). To start with, while Vol. 1 randomly transitioned to black and white for the late majority of a mass ninja fight, Vol. 2 strategically used black and white for bookends. The film starts off with the Bride driving down the road, explaining to the audience where she is in her revenge quest. We finally see what happened in that wedding chapel, then the film goes back to color until returning to black and white for the end credits, bringing the film full-circle.
Another aspect of the film that was moderately grounded compared to its predecessor is the gore. Vol. 2 didn't have any of the blood geysers that were in Vol. 1, which emotionally increased the seriousness of every injury sustained by characters in the film. When Michael Masden's character of Budd shoots the Bride in the chest with a barrels full of rock salt and she gets launched ten feet backward, there's no fountain of blood pouring from her chest. You just see the Bride coughing up blood, struggling to breathe, holding her chest in pain and you as a viewer suddenly realize just how serious things are becoming, wondering if the Bride might not get her revenge after all.
Vol. 1 went over the top with it's comedic shock value so Vol. 2 could make its little details that much bigger in significance. This is especially true with the dialogue (which there is a lot more of than in the last film). Budd's constant mentioning that he sold his Hattori Hanzo sword makes it all the more shocking when the Bride finds it in his closet, and uses it to defend herself against her own sword as its wielded by Daryl Hannah's Elle Driver. The little mentions of Gordon Liu's Pai Mei ripping the eyes out of those who speak out of turn to him cause the wheels in your brain to turn when you realize that's why Elle Driver is missing her eye, and enhances the shock value when the Bride rips out her other eye and stomps on it. Even during the Bride's conversation with Bill near the end of the film in which Bill compares the Bride to Kal-El (Superman), and the identity she wanted to live by in El Paso to that of Clark Kent, the dialogue holds a lot of weight because that's an intelligent way of Tarantino telling the viewer without breaking the fourth wall how he molded the character of the Bride. She's a natural superpower that wants to deny her basic nature.
I'm not entirely sure whether I've said too much or too little in this review, nor am I sure as to why I haven't mentioned the Bride's real name considering a few of the attached YouTube links spoil that information, but I think I'm going to avoid reviewing Tarantino films on this blog moving forward. The Kill Bill duology has just given me a lot of difficulty in being able to express my thoughts about it with proper calculation in what I do and don't give away. I want to be able to explain to you how I feel about this movie with examples from the movie, but it's such a weird series that I don't want to ruin the experience for you of seeing them for yourselves and making up your own minds. So that's what I'll say: See the Kill Bill duology for yourselves, use your minds, and determine whether or not I've done this movie justice or instead wrote another rant about how much of a mindf*ck they are.
When I last left the Kill Bill duology, I described Vol. 1 as vintage Quentin Tarantino playing by his own rules... then breaking those rules. For Vol. 2 however, Tarantino appears to have grounded himself to a certain degree, focusing less on humorous shock value and more on drama and character development. However, that doesn't mean this film is lacking in its Tarantino-isms.
In Vol. 1, Tarantino made multiple creative choices that still leave me scratching my head with my jaw on the floor, asking the universe, "What the f*ck?!" The use of anime to fill in O'Ren Ishii's backstory. The hilariously overdone volcanic eruptions of blood from every wound, including within the anime. The random switch to black and white in the Bride's minion fight with the Crazy 88s, after having already beaten the important members of the gang while the screen was still in color. Ishii taking her shoes off to have a katana fight in the snow, all the while Latin music is suddenly playing in the background. A lot of things are happening that imply that Tarantino is exploring what he can and cannot get away with doing.
In Vol. 2, Tarantino takes certain things down a notch, leaves other things at the notch where they are, and (in my opinion) he's magnified one particular creative choice to the nth degree. That choice I'm referring to is Tarantino's use of time-jumping and non-linear storytelling. Thinking off of the top of my head, Vol. 1 had Chapters 4, 2, 3, 5, and possibly not a Chapter 1, while Vol. 2 has Chapters 6, 8, 9, and I can't remember if it had a 7. And Chapter 8 starts at a time period in the Bride and Bill's relationship that takes place long before the events of Chapter 2, only to end at the time in which Chapter 6 left off. It's hard to explain, and I don't want to try and further explain, otherwise I run the risk of confusing both myself and you (my readers). All I will say is that while I know Tarantino is doing this to mess with his audience, the way he took it up a notch for Vol. 2 had me questioning at certain points whether or not Tarantino knows how to tell time or do math.
Moving onto the notches he leaves as they are, much like the first film, Vol. 2 likes to play with it's fair share of tropes and stereotypes. Vol. 1 told the backstory of a Japanese mob boss through anime (slightly racist depending on one's point of view), and featured a caucasian traveling east (regularly used trope in martial arts films) to acquire training and weaponry from a retired warrior whose old student has gone rogue (pretty sure that's the journey of Luke Skywalker). In Vol. 2, we have a racist, sexist, and ridiculously stereotypical looking kung fu master that thinks teaching an American is a waste of his time, and we have the movement-accompanying whooshing sounds and quick, random closeups to the face that you've seen in every kung fu movie ever. Straight out of the Tarantino playbook, he always likes to pay tribute to a culture while simultaneously making fun of it in each of his movies.
Regarding dialing things down, Vol. 2 had a much more "less is more" approach to its storytelling, which I'm a fan of, whereas Vol. 1 went over the top in a lot of ways (as I've said probably a million times by now). To start with, while Vol. 1 randomly transitioned to black and white for the late majority of a mass ninja fight, Vol. 2 strategically used black and white for bookends. The film starts off with the Bride driving down the road, explaining to the audience where she is in her revenge quest. We finally see what happened in that wedding chapel, then the film goes back to color until returning to black and white for the end credits, bringing the film full-circle.
Another aspect of the film that was moderately grounded compared to its predecessor is the gore. Vol. 2 didn't have any of the blood geysers that were in Vol. 1, which emotionally increased the seriousness of every injury sustained by characters in the film. When Michael Masden's character of Budd shoots the Bride in the chest with a barrels full of rock salt and she gets launched ten feet backward, there's no fountain of blood pouring from her chest. You just see the Bride coughing up blood, struggling to breathe, holding her chest in pain and you as a viewer suddenly realize just how serious things are becoming, wondering if the Bride might not get her revenge after all.
Vol. 1 went over the top with it's comedic shock value so Vol. 2 could make its little details that much bigger in significance. This is especially true with the dialogue (which there is a lot more of than in the last film). Budd's constant mentioning that he sold his Hattori Hanzo sword makes it all the more shocking when the Bride finds it in his closet, and uses it to defend herself against her own sword as its wielded by Daryl Hannah's Elle Driver. The little mentions of Gordon Liu's Pai Mei ripping the eyes out of those who speak out of turn to him cause the wheels in your brain to turn when you realize that's why Elle Driver is missing her eye, and enhances the shock value when the Bride rips out her other eye and stomps on it. Even during the Bride's conversation with Bill near the end of the film in which Bill compares the Bride to Kal-El (Superman), and the identity she wanted to live by in El Paso to that of Clark Kent, the dialogue holds a lot of weight because that's an intelligent way of Tarantino telling the viewer without breaking the fourth wall how he molded the character of the Bride. She's a natural superpower that wants to deny her basic nature.
I'm not entirely sure whether I've said too much or too little in this review, nor am I sure as to why I haven't mentioned the Bride's real name considering a few of the attached YouTube links spoil that information, but I think I'm going to avoid reviewing Tarantino films on this blog moving forward. The Kill Bill duology has just given me a lot of difficulty in being able to express my thoughts about it with proper calculation in what I do and don't give away. I want to be able to explain to you how I feel about this movie with examples from the movie, but it's such a weird series that I don't want to ruin the experience for you of seeing them for yourselves and making up your own minds. So that's what I'll say: See the Kill Bill duology for yourselves, use your minds, and determine whether or not I've done this movie justice or instead wrote another rant about how much of a mindf*ck they are.
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