Kill Bill vol 1

written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

starring Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu

Bloody, emotional and very surreal. By combining these ingredients, Quentin Tarantino has created a very intense yet comedic film. Even though it is an 18, (and not many of those are found in our video player!!) it is not a film that prevents you from sleeping at night.

It is a story about a professional female assassin looking for revenge. She has a deeply felt need and great determination to kill the people that have hurt her - her partners in the assassin world.

In occasional flashbacks throughout the film, the way in The Bride has been hurt and the reasons for her hatred become clear. Only slowly do you start to feel compassion for ‘the Bride’ and a temptation to think that the need to kill is justified. Uma Thurman captures these emotions of hate and pain perfectly. She expresses immense anger, often intertwined with sadness and grief.

In the first scene we find ourselves at the place of the shooting and abuse that causes the character, known as the Bride, her anger - the altar where she was to be wed. A close-up shot of her beaten and bloodied face and the noise of voices in the background give the scene quite an eerie feel. Then the story jumps straight into the present where the Bride is on her way to kill her second victim. There is a profound and painful moment here as the Bride says to the child, who has just seen her mother being shot, that she is ready and waiting whenever the girl wants revenge.

Cutting back to the Bride in hospital, the story is filled out as we learn about the four year coma the bride slipped into after the original shooting. Waking from it and immediately vowing revenge, she takes herself to a retired Samurai sword-maker with an excellent reputation. He agrees to make her a sword, the best he’s ever made in order to fulfil her mission – to kill Bill.

Some amazing fight scenes follow. The Crazy 88 gang take on the Bride, lose and get chopped to pieces. Finally, the Bride comes face to face with ‘Cottonmouth’ (Lucy Liu).

For me, the film isn’t gruesome in the sense of blood and guts, although there is plenty of that. The Bride’s relationship with her victims is one of love and hate. It’s like she feels the need to kill them for what they have done to her, even though the friendship they once had is obviously still there. The need for vengeance is stronger.
I enjoyed this film a lot. The mixture of comedy and violence is strange but unique and keeps your attention throughout. Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu act both categories convincingly and brilliantly.

There is so much in this film and this review only really catches a glimpse. I definitely recommend you watch it (providing you’re old enough!). It has an ending that will make you want to go and see the next film immediately!