Movie Minx

Starring: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Darryl Hannah
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Plot: Part two of the Kill Bill series, where The Bride continues her revenge against her former Viper Squad colleagues who tried to murder her. She’s written her hit-list and is carefully working her way through it, with leader Bill saved for the end.

But is it any good?

First some background is necessary, because Quentin Tarantino is an auteur, and it’s bad manners to look at auteur films without a little context.

Tarantino has a massive cult following, and has had since his breakthrough hit Reservoir Dogs in the early ’90s. With an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay for Pulp Fiction a few years later (plus a Palme D’Or at Cannes), and its massive success at the flicks, he entered the mainstream - although his movies, with their violence and a certain fucked-upness, are certainly not for everyone. He then followed Pulp Fiction with Jackie Brown which, while not exactly a flop, certainly wasn’t great.

Several dull years followed without a real Tarantino movie until he broke the drought with the two Kill Bill movies, released just a few months apart. Miramax’s decision to slice one very long movie in two was slightly controversial at the time; people felt they were trying to take advantage of the fans’ willingness to open their wallets for anything with Tarantino’s name at the top.

And while Tarantino may be an auteur, the films’ star Uma Thurman certainly did her bit. The Bride was partly her idea, and even with two young kids and a failed marriage to Ethan Hawke recently behind her, she carries both films brilliantly. After enduring months of gruelling training for the role, the 30-something pulls it all off with a bang.

Right, there we are. And before I start reviewing this film in earnest, let me just say that 1) I think having two Kill Bill movies was a good idea, 2) Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors. Pulp Fiction came out when I was 16 and is now embedded in my memory for all time. I also loved his short film in the Four Rooms sequence. And his soundtracks always kick ass.

Okay, so Kill Bill: Vol 2. For those who haven’t seen Vol 1, or in fact this movie, I’ll try and tiptoe round the plot without giving away anything too important. In Vol 1, the Bride had made it partway down her hit-list and killed O-Ren Ishi in Japan (a quick-tempered Lucy Liu) and Vernita Green in her suburban home. But the first film was more about setting the scene: we feel the Bride’s hurt and anger, as her former colleagues show up at her wedding and slaughter everyone. We see her tears as she wakes from a coma after four years to feel her belly and see that her unborn child is gone. Then we witness her determination as she makes herself walk again and prepares to hunt down her enemies and kill them. There are some stunning fighting scenes, some anime and black-and-white flashbacks. As a martial arts/action flick with more than a twist of Tarantino, it works brilliantly. (He said that these films were his tribute to the martial art and Japanese anime films he loves so much.)

But Vol 2 is more emotionally satisfying than the first, because it delves a bit deeper and gives us the background details lacking in Vol 1. In this movie we see the special bond that the Bride and Bill once shared. We learn how the Bride became the fighting master(ess) that she now is, and we learn more about the “twist” revealed right at the end of Vol 1. So while the scenes may not be so epic - the Bride does not take on hundreds of Japanese Underworld fighters on at once this time - they are just as intense. She has to deal with a lethal snake, being buried underground, and emotional threats, which are far worse than anything else she has to go through. Tarantino reveals his narrative talents once more here, jumping back and forth in time without distracting or confusing his audience.

I don’t think it is giving anything big away to say the Bride kills Bill at the end. It is the circumstances of the killing that come as a surprise, and the emotional weight of the film which makes us wonder, like the Bride, if revenge is really all it’s cracked up to be.

My rating: 9/10

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