Yesterday night and today i watched both parts of the Kill Bill movie – since i consider the two movies (or volumes) one – and i decided to write about it. I hardly ever watch movies, and even then mostly only such that i have some earlier experience of – like reading the book it’s based on, as in the case of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or something like that. Kill Bill is an exception, because i have known nothing about it, just my brother brought home the two dvds he bought to watch it while he’s here. He had said that i would like it because there are lots of japanese things in it. He was not mistaken.
Though the reason i liked it was not only because the japanese talks and such, but rather the whole atmosphere of the movie is such that really catches me. Tarantino used very good (for want of a better term) methods to avoid the movie turning into just a sometimes strange bloodbath. He created a very refined satiric feel even in the bloodiest fight scenes (such as the one with the 88 somethings), so that instead of welcoming the dinner back on the floor you rather laugh just as you’d laugh on a Happy Tree friends piece. And this, mixed with really deep thoughts and talks and cuts, is what makes the movie worthy of watching. As you sit in front of the screen, and see fighting scenes that could match into a shonen anime (eg Naruto) – and indeed, there is a really well done, extremely catching real anime scene in the movie, when we learn about O-Ren Ishii’s past – you sense that something’s amiss, that something’s not all right in there: how could that man jump a whole storey up?, how could she fight further after being struck in the chest twice with a heavy mace? and so on… and still, while such “mistakes” in other movies would cause it go down to category C or even lower, they raise the feeling ot this one even higher. On the other hand, the second part of the movie has lot less fight scenes – if i count right, only three, including the one in the backflash – but they are not missed much. There are no surprises for us, just for the characters, there is no pain for us, maybe only our midriff would hurt of laughing, and the ending is well done, naturally. Just as expected. I meant it, there are no surprises. And that’s not something negative either.