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If you’re a fan of Quentin Tarantino – like me – it’s rather likely you’ll be making a bee-line to the cinema to see his fourth film, “Kill Bill“. It easy to say that this, like most of his films, is a stylised and violent film, so not for the squeemish.

The story is a simple revenge film. Uma Thurman plays “The Bride”, who has been left for dead after she and her wedding party are massacred by “Bill”. Four years later she wakes from a coma, and sets out on revenge.

The fight scenes – almost all of them involving swords and martial arts – are superb, with some excellent choreography, with moments to rival Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, all be it slightly more graphic. The first time the blood started gushing (and boy, does it gush), the cinema audience laughed in a similar way as with the first jump to the rooftop in CTHD

Tarantino, in my view, does movie-style like no other director. With the characteristic and controversial glamorisation of violence and underworld culture. The choice of music, the camera movement, the action, the poise of the characters, it all adds up to a visual feast that is rarely matched.

My one regret about the film is missing the no doubt hundreds of references to the martial arts films Kill Bill is based on. As the plane lands in Tokyo, as Uma Thurman dons the yellow outfit, as the snow falls around Lucy Liu in the final fight scene, you just know Tarantino is nodding to the masters of martial art movies.

So, if you like Tarantino’s other films, you’ll doubtless love Kill Bill. If you don’t, for whatever reason, you’ll probably not. It really is that easy: I loved it, and am eagerly awaiting Volume 2. It was a huge relief to see the film doesn’t suffer being – perhaps ironically given the content – hacked in two, but I’m sure we’ll soon see a “directors cut”, which – I’m sure – will be worth seeing to savour the full Tarantino vision.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 9th, 2003 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.