Kill Bill

[liralen]

I do wonder if there will now be a generation that thinks of David Carradine as Bill, not as Young Grasshopper. I do think it is an improvement on his image. *grin*

I loved 'em. I was expecting to. Ever since Dusk to Dawn, I've liked the Tarentino movies I've seen, and they've all been really violent. I'm now not all that sure why Kill Bill 1 had so much buzz about the sheer amount of gore. But that may be that I've seen and loved the same kinds of movies he does. After a few dozen Hong Kong flicks, a few samurai movies, the great ones, even, having an army of mooks die bloody and terrible deaths seems just another step in the old stories being told. It's like all those martial arts movies and manga and my whole comicbook collection all rolled together into one huge, bloody, extremely goal-oriented, violent, and death-laden mass laced with questions and answers about honor, love, and faith. I loved it.

I'll also say, emphatically, that it's not for anyone that doesn't like to see the consequences of violent actions.

I do now see why folks thought one had little plot. It's just so much the vengeance theme and That's It that it's pretty single-minded. But so pretty, especially the whole fight sequence in the garden in snow. Yum.

I really got into part 2, especially the last several sequences, for the obvious reasons to those who have seen it. It jives with my experience.

And part 2 would have made far less sense if there hadn't been 1 before it. For me, at least, 1 really set things up beautifully for 2, and the two really are just one story. I loved that the Cantonese sifu was so terrible at speaking Mandarin. Small points, but so many of them added up for me in both movies that they were well worth my $2 and then some. *grin*

Comments

Most excellent

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Yoko and I can't help it. If the last 10 minutes of Vol. 2 happen to be on, we have to stop everything we're doing and watch. I'm sure there's a pavlovian explanation for this involving Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater, but that doesn't help. We're spellbound. Entranced. Trapped.

It's a damn fine movie.

Re: Most excellent

[liralen.livejournal.com]

It is...

Re: Most excellent

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I think, also, that some of it is just the whole kid thing... and the feeling that it was totally true. That being pregnant suddenly meant that I had to make all the decisions for two. I think I ate healthier, was far more cautious, and did things simply for the sake of the baby that I would never have done otherwise. To have her decision to "run" hinge on that feeling that I'd felt, myself, in every fiber of my being made so much sense that it brought real completion to the whole story for me.

While a film may be a fiction, it can also depict the truth, and that, I think, is what grips me so tightly in that movie.

[byzantine-ruins.livejournal.com]

I'm much more likely to see this now having read your positive review.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin*

Just remember, though, that I find something positive in *everything*. And there have been numerous times when you and I have disagreed, nigh violently, on what has merit in the past.

Still... I have a funny feeling that the iron threads of the consequences of ones actions that really bind this whole thing together will appeal to you. And I hadn't heard of that in any of the reviews I saw up to this point.

[tagryn]

I'll always remember Liralen once being described as the "Patron Saint of Positive Reinforcement" or something close to that. I think that works. 8)

As far as folks who complain about violence in Tarantino's movies, I'm reminded of one of the scenes from the movie "Airport" where the commentator says "They bought their ticket, they knew what they were getting into." (have a .wav of that up here ). If that's not your cup of tea, don't go.

Much as I loved "Pulp Fiction", and DtD is a guilty pleasure, my favorite Tarantino moment is actually not in a movie of his, but a cameo he made in an otherwise forgettable movie called "Sleep With Me" (which oddly enough had very little sexual content, but that's another story). Tarantino played this loud guy at a party who expounds on the underlying homosexual meaning of "Top Gun". There's a transcript of his speech at http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/sleep.shtml , but QT really nailed the whole delivery in a way that just doesn't come through via text.

[byzantine-ruins.livejournal.com]

I will remember our disagreements always.

Honestly, it had seemed like kind of a gratuitous, campy chop-em-up. If it's a real revenge melodrama, and not just a combat sequence with a revenge motivation, I'm so there.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

my only real problem with it came during part I when i suddenly thought to myself, "man, quentin doesn't like women much".

btw, the silhouette fight scene near the end of part I is a total homage to the credits for "samurai fiction: part I", which stars the guitarist who did that fabulous rocking guitar riff that got used in the trailers.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Oooo! Cool.

I've heard that the first film had lots and lots of homages to all kinds of films. I'm just not saavy enough to get them all...

It's interesting... after seeing Reservior Dogs and Pulp Fiction and Dusk Til Dawn, my initial reaction, after reading your "man, quentin doesn't like women much" was "it's not like he likes men any more..." But, yeah. I could see where you'd get that, though.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

in the first film, there's a certain luridness to the sexual torture of women that happens... in particular, o-ren's backstory (the animated part). both men and women are tortured, but only women are sexually tortured. i mean, in general, it's not like the genre is real fond of women, historically.

the second film un-did a lot of my sense of uncomfortableness about it, actually, as the story shifts from her revenge to her responses as a mother.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Mmm... that makes more sense when you point out the specifics of it, and, yeah... I see what you mean, now.

And, yeah, the second film really came out as more complex and, in an odd sense... real, when it brought in the whole motherhood tie and the changes that wrought in all senses.