On the QT - Part 6

“Revenge is a dish best served cold” - Old Klingon proverb.

OOO000OOO

We’re nearly at the end of this series, but we’ve still got a way to go until the release of Quentin Tarantino’s war epic “Inglorious Basterds” this coming August 21st.

Reviews from the set are telling us that no effort is being spared for this movie and with the man himself already confirming that he’s halfway through the script for a prequel, he isn’t sparing any effort at all.

Luckily for us, Mr Tarantino didn’t spare us the effort when he came up with a character known only as The Bride with Uma Thurman on the set of “Pulp Fiction”. For a simple revenge story, they thought up everything that could possibly be needed to tell it, and then a whole boat load more.

Released in 2003 as “Kill Bill - Vol 1″, it is one and probably the only film that springs to mind to promise a sequel before it was even released itself.

The story revolves around an assassin with the code name Black Mumba. We know her as Uma Thurman, or The Bride. The Bride has left the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, when she found out she was pregnant to give her baby a better life. The remaining Deadly Viper’s and their leader Bill, don’t take kindly to people walking out on them, especially when she did it under the assumption that she had been killed while on a mission.

The Deadly Vipers (DVAS) consist of:

1. Vernita Green - code name Copper Head (Vivica A Fox)
2. O-Ren Ishii - code name Cotton Mouth (Lucy Liu)
3. Elle Driver - code name California Mountain Snake (Daryl Hannah)
4. Budd (Bill’s brother) - code name Sidewinder (Michael Madsen)
5. Bill - code name Snake Charmer (David Carradine)

This film jumped, ready or not, straight back into the style that film fans had fallen in love with. Jumping around the film’s time line and telling the entire story out of sequence while making complete sense. Well as much sense as a QT movie can make.

The opening credits don’t get much chance to introduce themselves as we see The Bride, in black and white, splattered in blood and battered on a floor. We hear the voice of Bill but only see the out of breath and scared looking Bride. With the click of a gun hammer, she becomes wide eyed and tries to tell him something, but it’s too late.

He puts a bullet in her head before she can tell him and her, what probably would have saved her.

Cut to four years later and The Bride is still alive, but in a coma and minus the baby she was carrying at her interrupted wedding.

Anyway, you’ve surely seen the movie, but for those of you who haven’t here’s the deal.

The Bride was beating to within an inch of her life, betrayed by the very people she trusted with it. Her mentor, lover and leader put a bullet in her brain and put her in a coma for four years. She lost her baby in the process and was repeatedly raped in hospital.

She’s out for revenge - plain and simple.

Or at least it should be.

She makes a list of the people she has to kill to gain revenge with Bill being the last on her list. For as the opening line of this review, and the film suggests - you need to bide your time.

Now, instead of just giving us 20 minutes of violence towards each victim on the list, Quentin subjects us to back stories on the key players.

The back story to O-Ren Ishii and how she became the boss of bosses in the world of the Yakuza is told in brilliantly animated Manga type animation. Which is then backed up with a live action scene of her decapitating a boss who questions her heritage with a samurai sword in front of the other bosses. She’s not to be fucked with.

We also get the story of Hattori Hanzo and the legendary swords of death that he makes. Or used to make as he swore a blood oath never to make again. That is until The Bride shows up, mentions Bill’s name and BANG - he’s back in business making Hattori Hanzo swords.

To some this may seem like a trivial bit of gratuitous story, but it’s essential to the second film when Hanzo swords are not only mentioned in nearly every scene, but become the focus and cause of attacks on the remainder of the DVAS.

This film is a visual and audio assault that doesn’t let up until the last frame that gives us the perfect cliff hanger to lead us to part two.

The music is nearly all original from The RZA - who I think was a member of the Wu Tang Clan? And with performances from Japanese band The 5,6,7,8′s in there, they supply some of the most original and crazy music I’ve ever heard. Quentin heard them being played in a record store while scouting for locations in Japan and demanded they be featured on the soundtrack. They waived some licence fees in exchange for parts in the movie.

The references to kung fu films of old are rampant. David Carradine himself along with Sonny Chiba (Hattori Hanzo) were huge kung fu stars in their day.

The fight sequences, each and every one was choreographed by Tarantino himself. Which, when you see the sequence with Uma and the Crazy 88′s you’ll just have to admire at his genius or wonder if he needs to get out more.

I have to say if you had told me that I would ever have seen Uma Thurman weilding a samurai sword and leading to action films while doing so, I would have laughed in your face. She more than pulls it off though, kudos to her and boo to me and anyone else for doubting her. She went through months of training and it shows, while being completely natural and at home in the role at the same time. That’s me not trying to sound cliché about it, but she does.

The violence is all there and the blood that spews from every severed limp and head drenches anyone still standing close enough. It’s gratuitous and over the top and completely in keeping with the films that inspired the film in the first place.

In my opinion this film showed Quentin’s progression as a film maker in so many areas. Story telling, direction, character development, cinematography, lighting and everything else that just makes it a treat to watch every time I put it into my DVD player.

I waited until the double boxset of both volumes came out before buying or watching either for the first time, and I’m glad I did.

I was so blown away by the first one that I microwaved more popcorn and put the second volume in without a second’s hesitation.

I wasn’t disappointed with that either … …