“Do you find me sadistic?”
This is the first dialogue in the movie. Quentin Tarantino seems to mock us all with the same question, as his fourth movie KILL BILL – Vol. 1 is thrown open to us mere mortals! With earlier presentations Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown being undoubted path breakers, suffused with a surfeit of action, the anticipation for this one has been restless, to say the least.
First, let me get the caveat out of the way. This movie is meant for adults only – strictly for mature audiences. There! I’m feeling better now…
Secondly, don’t get put off by the fact that I’ve marked “revealed in detail” at the header. Trust me, it doesn’t matter.
Startling starts :
The first thing that strikes the clueless viewer is the shockingly unconventional and rebelliously irreverent treatment that Big T has given the film.
The display of credits at the start possesses the panache and style of a movie made in the sixties! The director has intentionally put it across as if this movie was some kind of B-grade documentary hurriedly put together at some experimental workshop.
Further, the movie looks, simply put, rough cut, as if the reels were snatched out of the editor’s table midway through his business. The screen reads, in tacky font, “Part One” and beneath it is a handwritten ‘2’ within a circle. It’s amazing, not amusing.
In a show of supreme confidence and studied irreverence, Tarantino seems to be telling us “Forget all these, check out the content!” I agree, it doesn’t matter.
Look around you :
Before you delve right in, gaze at this:
Quintessential Quentin made this as a mammoth opus stretching beyond 3 hours. Miramax thought it was prudent business sense to slice it down the middle, and hence was born Vol. 1. The second part will come slicing down your middle a few months from now. Just a snippet. Read on, for, it doesn’t matter.
Revenge is a dish best served cold :
That kind of sums up the storyline. If you are looking for a story never told before, perish the thought. To twist an old proverb a bit, “Hell hath no fury as a woman wronged!”
You ask me, then what’s so great about a movie that says the same story that’s been parroted since time immemorial, all the way to “Khoon bhari maang”?! Read on, brother; for, patience is a virtue!
Uma Thurman plays ‘The Bride’, a character whose name is noisily beeped down twice during the first 20 minutes, then never revealed. So, this pregnant bride is almost done to death on her wedding day by a marauding team of assassins (of which, we are told, she was a former member). She lives, steeped in a coma for four long years. A high adrenaline awakening later, she launches on a bristling spree of vengeance and vendetta, pursuing her assaulters to grisly death, leading up to the leader Bill. Hence the title.
The bride zips off to Japan, and gets a custom-made samurai sword from a middle-aged master (brilliant performance). Possessing abominable talent and after single-minded training – and possessing the right weapons – the bride is ready, so to say.
First targeted (but shown last) is O-ren Ishii (played chillingly by Lucy Liu). This Japanese-Chinese-American cocktail rules the Tokyo underworld, aided by enough henchmen to form a platoon. Her personal bodyguard is one Gogo, a 17-year-old deceptively girlish deranged killer who somehow sometimes looks like a sullen boy.
Next in line is another former member (codenamed 'Copperhead') back home; one who’s ‘reformed’(?) and seen mothering a 4-year-old. Thankfully, not just alert senses, but even supreme strength and mortal blows are credited to the two females.
No, I still haven’t revealed all. The last dialogue in the movie comes as a revelation, and will make you sit up.
Viewed alone, Vol. 1 may seem incomplete. There is no reason given; no past revealed; no sub-story narrated. Except perhaps for the story of O-ren’s childhood shown in Japanese animation.
Perhaps Vol. 2 would tie up all the missing links, tell the untold tales. Perhaps Big T would let you assume those. After all, novelty in the story is never claimed here. Frankly, it doesn’t matter.
Gore galore :
This one is not for the meek at heart. Footage of severed limbs, heads sliced off, blood spraying, deathly blows, the works – enough to destroy the appetite of any warm-blooded, law-abiding citizen.
The way the ‘lady’ decimates the unsuspecting male nurses at the hospital makes you cringe in your seats. She literally skins one to death with her teeth, and repeatedly bangs the door on the other’s head, to good measure. A sure fire way to insomnia!
Somehow, things seem to have turned a full circle! Perhaps Tarantino just wanted to pay Bollywood in its own coin. Quizzically, he seems to have drawn inspiration from Kamal Hassan, the filmmaker don of South India! Before you cry “WHAT!”, consider blood literally jetting out of bodies, a la Hey Ram; and an entire violence sequence shown in animation, mirroring Abhay (Aalavandhaan in Tamil).
Was that intentional? Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter.
Tarantino treats :
Without doubt, the high points in the movie include the catchy and enveloping background score signalling the beginning of each fight sequence.
In the hospital’s car park, our heroine shuts herself up in a car and demonstrates what looks like the harshest display of will power, beginning with telling herself “Wiggle your big toe”! Scenes like these shake you up good and proper.
Even when the Bride and Copperhead just measure each other up, midway through their duel, the impact is astounding. They are not actually fighting, but their intentions are betrayed by the eyes, conveyed through eye-contact, making the duo move back and forth, wary of each other, attack and defence anticipated and countered through eyes alone.
One of the best scenes of the movie is when the child returns from school, and the women – weapons concealed, panting, blood-splattered, arteries taken over by adrenaline – attempting to make small talk to the girl.
This movie brings the relegated art of Samurais back to the limelight. Right from the reverence shown to exceptional exponents, all the way to the treatment of the sword! Bliss, really!
The song “Bang bang” amidst the opening scenes is almost spoken to minimal music, and leaves the involved viewer pretty well shivering.
Topical high points, like the punk band ‘The 5.6.7.8’s’ performing, catch your attention all but briefly. One life is never enough? One viewing is never enough? It doesn’t matter.
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