Kill Bill Volume 1 - Mixmaster Quentin

Mar

4

Kill Bill Volume 1 - Mixmaster Quentin

≡ Category: Action, Comedy, Martial Arts, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Action/ Martial Arts/ Comedy
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Year: 2003

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

Here’s my biggest problem with Kill Bill Volume 1. It doesn’t work as drama because Quentin is too busy geeking out.

Why should that be a problem? After all, Quentin Tarantino has been archly quoting from his favorite movie genres as long as he’s been a director. It’s never gotten in his way before. But there’s a big difference between a movie like Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill Volume 1.

In those earlier movies, Tarantino somehow managed to have his cake and eat it, too. His movies were extremely stylized, both in terms of dialog and misc en scene. And yet, all of this riffing on his favorite genres never completely overwhelmed character and story. In Pulp Fiction, you were horrified when Uma Thurman overdosed on heroin. In Reservoir Dogs, when the policeman was being tortured, you really felt for the guy. Those movies managed to simultaneously operate on two levels. In Kill Bill Volume 1, the balance is off.

Tarantino piles on so many layers of style that the drama collapses under the weight. I don’t question that Tarantino understands Spaghetti Westerns or Eurotrash thrillers or Samurai movies or Golden Age of Hong Kong action flicks or Shaw Brothers movies or any of the other genres he references. It’s just that he overindulges, showing zero restraint.

To be fair, sometimes this lack of restraint pays off. In the House of Blue Leaves sequence which climaxes the film, the endless lopping off of limbs and arterial spray is stylistically appropriate and quite funny. (To fully appreciate the joke, it’s necessary to obtain the Japanese Uncut version of Kill Bill Volume 1. The American version segues to black and white footage during the bloodiest action. This was Tarantino’s way of mollifying the censors while archly commenting on the same, attempting to change a limitation on his artistic freedom into a virtue.)

However, too often, Tarantino will flog a scene to death with prattle which is intended to call attention to and subvert the cinematic conventions he’s referencing. One example is a Yakuza board meeting in which the ancestry of O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) is questioned. Tarantino’s authorial voice becomes way too obvious, obliterating the character of O-Ren Ishii. Sometimes his jokes fall flat, too. I’m thinking especially of the “silly rabbit” line.

Tarantino also miscalculates on how many times he can trot out Ennio Morricone spaghetti western themes. It becomes distracting. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one genius example of Quentin’s use of music. It comes during the House of Blue Leaves sequence. As practical music, he has a Japanese girl band, the 5.6.7.8s, playing. Not many people know this, but the Ventures, a surf rock group popular in the 60s, continued their career in Japan after the 60s and were immensely popular. This had a huge influence on popular music in Japan up to the present, which includes the 5.6.7.8s. The songs the 5.6.7.8s play are perfect for Tarantino’s conception. They’re cheeky and mocking but they’re also authentic to the mileau and don’t break the mood of the piece. In fact, they enhance it. I only wish Tarantino had been as subtle for the rest of the movie.

I guess Tarantino figured that the simple revenge saga he came up with as a clotheline for his raiding of various genres was sturdy enough to withstand any amount of fooling around. He was wrong.

Tarantino’s overindulgence of his inner geek sabotages some good performances, not least from Uma Thurman, who plays our hero, The Bride. She’s never less than convincing as an assassin or as a mother grieving for her unborn child, but her emoting can’t find any traction in the nonstop genre mixtape Tarantino has put together. Vivica A. Fox is a blast in the small role as Vernita Green. Her switch from suburban mom to trash talking badass is hot stuff. Chiaki Kuriyama, so memorable in Battle Royale, is a standout as a depraved bodyguard in a Japanese schoolgirl outfit. Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu are their usual dependable selves. In fact, all of the Japanese and Chinese actors are terrific. They manage to find just the right balance between social realism and caricature that Tarantino’s conception calls for. This is not a terribly big surprise since the cinematic traditions of both countries are steeped in this balance. The biggest disappointment in the cast is Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii. Even though she barely cracks a smile, it’s too obvious that she’s in on the joke. As bizarre as it sounds, the sort of ridiculous revenge saga and genre raiding that Tarantino is doing demands extremely subtle acting to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Okay. Well, how about the action? Tarantino actually directs several types of action in Kill Bill Volume 1. The first action sequence is in the Golden Age of Hong Kong style (1985-1995), and Tarantino actually pulls it off as well as you could possibly expect, given that he was working with actresses who aren’t martial artists, namely Vivica A. Fox and Uma Thurman. The films Tarantino was referencing, like the Tiger On The Beat flicks, typically used real martial artists who had a background in Shaw Brothers martial arts flicks, so the action director had the luxury of shooting sequences from medium distance with a minimum of cutting, so you could enjoy the fluid movements of the performers. Also, at that time, there were zero regulations around stuntwork in Hong Kong, so outrageously dangerous stunts were the norm. In contrast, Tarantino uses lots of cutting and closeups, but he gets the energy and flavor right.

Tarantino does even better in a sequence involving Uma Thurman and Chiaki Kuriyama. In this one, The Bride faces off against O-Ren Ishii’s bodyguard. It’s samurai sword against mace and chain. I’m not sure how many of the ideas belonged to martial arts consultant Yuen Wo-Ping and how many should be credited to Quentin Tarantino, but this sequence would fit in with some of the finest work of Hong Kong’s Golden Age. That’s high praise indeed. The characters are reflected in their fighting strategies, which you can follow every step of the way. The action is just brutal, in that Golden Age of Hong Kong style. For me, this was the high point of the film.

The swordfighting throughout the rest of the House of Blue Leaves sequence is a matter of quantity over quality. It’s certainly nothing to be ashamed of, especially considering that Uma Thurman is not a martial artist. The swordplay compares favorably to that in such classics as Lady Snowblood, for example, but is not as witty as the Lone Wolf and Cub flicks. In terms of modern day swordfighting, the sequence from So Close, choreographed by Corey Yuen, also kick’s Quentin’s ass. But the sword fighting in Kill Bill is still not bad. One thing I did like about the sequence was Quentin’s feverish quoting of the bloodiest moments from the Lone Wolf & Cub series. Lopped off limbs, decaptitations, bodies split in two, severed stumps spraying arterial gore — it’s a regular Fantagoria festival.

In the end, Kill Bill Volume 1 doesn’t really gell as a coherent work of art, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. Individual bits are superb. Just don’t expect a masterpiece and you won’t be disappointed.