On the QT - Part 7

And we go straight into the second part of the over the top revenge saga that is the Kill Bill series. With the two films written and shot back to back they should have been one great film divided into two instead of a sequel/prequel made just to cash in. And they were great.

With the characters introduced and the back story put to bed, we can get on with some gratuitous violence that is more justified and made more sense this time round. This is because we know what’s going on when people and places are referenced. There’s one thing I hate about watching movies with people who don’t pay attention.

“Who’s that?”

“Is that the guy from the thing?”

“I don’t get what they’re talking about?”

If this ever happens to you while you’re watching Kill Bill Vol 2 with some goober, slap them in the face with a copy of Vol 1, and all their questions will be answered.

This film opens with a recap of what happened in the first one from The Bride herself. From then on it never slows down. To use cliched poster reviews, it’s a Rip roaring revenge rampage. In the first part we got the back story of Hattori Hanzo and his swords of death, in this part we get the back story of Pai Mei. Pai Mei is a grumpy old martial arts guru who trained each and every one of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, including Bill himself.

Pai Mei is relentless in his punishment for disobedience and disrespect, but rewards hard work and perseverance with the deadly training and skills his students desire.

Just when you’re left wondering why we are being put through this whole ordeal when we should be getting on with killing Bill, we’re reminded that The Bride has been buried alive by Budd, Bill’s brother in the Lonely Grave of Paula Shultz.

Buried alive by Budd as a favour to Elle Driver as part of the million dollar/Hattori Hanzo deal they’ve struck up upon catching the Bride.

The training she received from Pai Mei all those years ago affords her the knowledge, patience and endurance to punch her way out of her casket and the grave itself. Any other film by any other film maker and you’d leave the cinema and demand your money back for feeling cheated. But when she crawls out of the ground, casually strolls across the road to a diner and softly requests a glass of water, you can’t help but will her on even more.

Yes it’s ridiculous, but that’s what we signed up for.

This film realised my two biggest fears in the world. Being buried alive and losing an eye.

The climax of the battle between The Bride and her old colleague Elle Driver comes when Elle’s remaining eye is snatched from her head by the Bride. This is a just punishment in the eyes of the Bride as Elle lost her first eye to Pai Mei when she called him an ignorant old fool during her training with him. The Bride then seeks revenge for her and her late master, and quick as a cat takes the remaining eye.

Stepping out to the desert again among the hysterical screams of Elle, the Bride continues on her quest yet again.

With all the people on her list taken care of, she makes her way to Bill stopping off to visit his surrogate pimp father to find out exactly where he is.

This is a great scene and the actor Michael Parks makes his second appearance in the films as Esteban. His first appearance was as the sheriff that discovered the Bride in the blood splattered church that opened the first film. If I hadn’t been told this I wouldn’t have realised it was the same man. Sure he’s an actor and that’s what he does, but everything from the accent to the slight movement of his eyes and the half blinks of his eyelids makes me suspect that he either submerged himself into the role or he’s just an excellent character actor, end of.

Anyway, with the visit over and done with, the Bride makes her way to Bill. With his front door busted in she points a gun at him.

And her daughter.

Yep. Forget about the daughter? So did I. The last words of the first film came from Bill as he asked the mutilated Sofie Fatale if The Bride knew her daughter was still alive, and that was the perfect cliff hanger. With no mention of said daughter until this moment, it was perfect timing for the audience to be caught off guard. I certainly was.

The emotion floods the Bride and it shows immediately.

Cue a scene introducing the innocence of her daughter as just another little girl and a Father keeping up the facade that their lives were normal, apart from mommy being in a coma that is. After some over due bonding for mother and daughter, the Bride goes back out to confront Bill and do what she ultimately went there for.

What happens next is a 15 minute scene of dialogue back and forth between the title character and the protagonist. He talks about superheroes while she tries to resist the truth serum he shot her with. If you haven’t seen it, it really is that surreal, but if you’re not on board by this point, forget about it.

The reason I say that is because after over 4 hours of fighting, training, back story, heartache, revenge and chasing we should have been treated to the show down to beat all show downs. She’s been to hell and back to beat this son of a bitch down and what happens just left me feeling… well, meh.

Meh is an overstatement of what I felt.

Ok, so maybe by that point the sword fights had been done to over kill. Maybe we knew what was coming and we expected sword fights. Maybe the character of the Bride didn’t want her daughter to wake up and find her Father hacked to mince in their back garden.

Whatever the reason, we were treated to something called The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. This was mentioned so briefly in the first film that I forgot about it entirely. Maybe it was the fact that it sounded like the signature move from a kung fu bad guy in a kung fu pilot that never saw the light of day.

I have to say at this point I switched off. I dunno why completely, but it was just one piece of silliness too far.

The Bride was taught this by her master Pai Mei, but we never knew it until she carried it out and Bill identified the move for us all. What happens to the victim when it’s carried out is that they take their five final steps and their heart explodes.

So The Bride gives him the fingers and he wipes his chin of blood, gets up, walks his final five steps and collapses in a pile of bones on the ground.

Like I’ve already said I was expecting something a little more spectacular.

This was a great film taking over from another great film and for all it’s flaws and ridiculousness, it was the event that the entire saga was based around that let it down. The Killing of Bill let the whole thing down.

I’m sure it was supposed to be symbolic of something but I wanted a blood bath and samurai swashbuckling extravaganza between former lovers/mentor and protegee, teacher and student.

Whatever, maybe I just missed the point.

The end of the whole adventure sees the reunion of The Bride and her daughter, or as Tarantino labels it The Lioness and her cub. It’s a moving scene of her daughter watching cartoons while she goes from hysterical tears of release, relief and gratification to tears of hysterical laughter that her life can begin again with the daughter she thought she had lost.

It’s a great film and my favourite of the two, but that ending. I’m not going to go on about it. After the long hiatus after the forgettable Jackie Brown, Quentin and Co delivered the goods.

All is well in the jungle.

For now…