Day: November 2, 2003

Finally got a chance to see “Kill Bill.” Once again QT manages to take an agglomeration of elements from genres and other sources, run them through a blender, and come up with something that is wholly unoriginal while, at the same time, impossible to tear your eyes away from. This time around it’s everything that ever had any influence in the genre of Hong Kong action. Start with a character evocative of “The Bride With White Hair”; milk the two most potent TV influences, David Carridine (as the unseen Bill) and Bruce Lee’s Kato (in everything from Al Hirt’s Green Hornet/Flight of the Bumblebee riff to the assassins who dress in Kato masks–remember, in Japan “The Green Hornet” was known as “The Kato Show”); do a samurai-esque smackdown in black and white to raise the spirit of Kurosawa; thrown in one of Charlie’s Angels for good measure; trot out Kung Fu icon Sonny Chiba as a master swordmaker (“If in your journey, you should encounter God…God will be cut” he says of his greatest weapon); mix in an extended anime sequence; throw in a surprise ending that Kath and I saw coming ten minutes into the movie; shake well and presto, you’ve got “Kill Bill.”

None of which makes it any less riveting. The film flies by, and I would unquestionably have sat through the entire three hours in one shot if given the option. The “it’s raining blood, hallelujah” sequences aren’t for the faint-hearted, and Tarrantino’s occasional lapses in knowledge (“Revenge is a dish best served cold” slightly predates the Klingons, and muscles “atrophy”, not “entropy”) are just annoying. And, frankly, the row of kids sitting behind us who apparently thought they were in their living room until I told them to shut the hëll up, kinda pìššëd me off. Overall, though, if nothing else it’s a must-see for any fan of Hong Kong actioners.

PAD