You hate it or love it..but Kill Bill vol 1 is completely different from whatever movie you have seen all your life. Its a QT stamped original..that is a homage to so many B grade movies. I loved the feel of the movie..the comic feel to the gore fest..and most of all the music. Prem, I wish you could have written more about the music, which like other QT movies are sheer magic. The songs, all of them are fantastic and set the tone for the entire movie. Here is one director who makes movies around the sound track and not viceversa as any other director would do. Eagerly awaiting the conclusion to the KB saga.
Prem is a fool -- the more he writes ( read copies) -- or tries to come up with original thoughts -- the more ridiculous he sounds. Good comics relief. He was all in all in cricket and now he is The Authority in movies. Wow!
This guy has copied parts or perhaps most of it from other reviews. For e.g he has copied from the Time review for Matrix Reloaded. If you need proof contact me or see the Time Mag US edition which carried the review for MR.
First of all, it is not Kung-Fu. Japanese don't do Chinese Kung-Fu. The Samurai Swordsmanship is generally called Kenjitsu. When O-Ren Ishii cut off Tanaka's head in a single swipe, she used a art called Iaijutsu, the art of drawing a sword and cutting with it in a single stroke.
That said, it was a amazing samurai movie. People unfamiliar with samurai swords may not understand Black Mamba's need to get a specialized sword. However for a specialist, only a personalized sword with exact specification would do. A lesser sword would just break away, as that Yakuza kid realized.
However, two things in this movie were really illogical.
Which airline would be crazy enough to allow Samurai swords as carry-on luggage??? In confined areas, they are more dangerous than a gun.
When O-Ren Ishii is killed, her head flies off and falls on the snow. Next moment it is back on her shoulder where she comments on the sword. Editing mistake???
RE:It's Kenjitsu...
by Scar Tissue on Oct 20, 2003 10:28 PM
well...not her entire head falls off, only a slice off the top (including the hair). Which is why when she is finally falling dead you see her brain exposed!
By the way, did you figure out how did Bride know that 4 years had passed since she fell in coma. She was just ataring at her hands and mumbling four years. (And yeah there was no calendar in the room).
RE:It's Kenjitsu...
by Camerado on Oct 30, 2003 01:32 AM
Lucy Liu's head isn't chopped off....it's only the scalp. So that isn't a flaw....but as for carrying a sword on a plane, that's a different issue. I'm myself not too clear on that.
Well said!
by beatzo on Dec 12, 2003 09:50 PM
The answers to your qns:
<i>Which airline ...</i>
Like Tarantino has mentioned in some interviews, the world of Kill Bill is more like an alternate movie world. Our rules don't apply here...so you don't have the crazy 88 just blazing the bride away with 88 guns when they see her challenging O-ren. :-) The Bushido code and the Japanese way of honour has attained prominence in this world - all the swordfights and a "silly caucasian girl playing with samurai swords" is not implausible. You have a world where an airline company called Air-O actually provide resting places for one's personal swords ( check out the scene at the end, they look real cool)
<i>her head flies off and falls on the snow </i> Others have replied to this.O-ren's scalp and the upper hair gets chopped off her head, and you can see the brain exposed as she gives her death-speech ( "that was really a hattori hanzo sword")
One interesting quip tarantino made was - Mia wallace from Pulp fiction ( thurman's character) might actually be playing the role of the Bride...there is a scene in PF which mentions a group not much unlike the DiVAS. So the world of Kill Bill can be a movie world inside another movie world (PF)
RE:It's Kenjitsu...
by isac on Oct 25, 2003 02:54 PM
its the top of her head that is sliced above the fore head. not her full head, if u observe it carefully...
I have been a regular reader of Rediff.com on various subjects, esp. cricket and movies. A big fan of one of your special correspondent Prem, especially his succinct reviews of cricket. I will be discussing movies here especially the bias against Sunny Deol in most or almost all of the reviews seen so far.
I remember cleary your review of Gadar vs. Lagaan, which was quite clearly in favor of the latter, but the former flopped in India in terms of mass appeal and box office results. Then came Indian vs. Asoka and once again Rediff was in the forefront like Tarzan (with there hands beating on the chest), beating the drums in favor of Asoka. What happened? Asoka bit the dust and Indian went onto become a major hit.
Let us discuss some finer points now. Especially the performance of Sunny in Khel. It was all around a balanced and fine performance, however Prem still wanted Sunny to act mellow. Compare this with the reviews given to Uma Thurman in Kill Bill (where a woman who has learnt sword fighting in 1 month) smashes 88 Samurai's. Enough said. I think we are all mature enough to understand where Rediff is coming from. It is basically against Sunny. Jai hind.
I've been a big fan of Quentin Tarantino and have seen each of his movies atleast 10 times, and every time i see it i love it. He's got a unique style like no other. I've not read your articles on cricket, but i appreciate the way you've covered the whole movie and all of it is true. Just say KillBill yesterday in LA. A word to the previous comment on this message board. I'm a big cricket fan too, but i believe in shutting my mouth on topics i have no clue about. that way you dont look like a fool in front of everyone.
Why does this review read so familiar? I just checked via my NY Times subscription. Prem Panicker seems to have been greatly inspired by that review. Even his choice of words (pastiche, etc..) were reminiscient of the other review. Funny! What a coincidence if he was not influenced.
