Great Moments From Cinema - 31

Here Comes The Bride
Movie: Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 (Miramax, A Band Apart & Super Cool ManChu; 2003-2004)
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino
Major Cast: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, Gordon Liu and David Carradine

Film Synopsis: Thurman (‘The Bride’) has sworn revenge against ‘Bill’ (Carradine), who massacred her wedding party and left her for dead.

My Favorite Moment: Sonny Chiba giving Thurman the sword which he has made

Why I Like It: What a rush. After a QT film you actually feel as if you’ve truly seen a movie. This one is homage to all the Kung-Fu, Samurai and Spaghetti Western movies of the 60’s and 70’s as well as modern day Animes. Enhanced with dialogue, QT style, and with a killer soundtrack, it is one of the best films of this millennium.

Thurman used to be ‘Bill’s’ best assassin and his lover as well. On discovering that she’s pregnant, she runs away from this life of crime and months later is found in a small town, about to get married. ‘Bill’s’ who is broken-hearted, in his own words ‘over reacts’ and with Liu, Fox, Hannah and Madsen, kills everyone in the wedding party and leaves Thurman for dead. However, she survives and 5 years later sets out to kill ‘Bill’s’ and the others. Her first stop is Japan where she seeks a man ‘Hattori Hanzo’, played by Chiba, who is renowned for making priceless swords. It is a terrific scene as Thurman plays a perky blonde tourist who has stopped at ‘Hanzo’s’ restaurant shack. She speaks broken Japanese and he makes an effort to talk in English. When she tells him what she seeks, his jovial tone changes and effortlessly there is a transition in the conversation to flawless Japanese as she pleads with him to make her a sword. He has retired and does not wish to make a weapon of destruction. She tells him why she has to have it and he agrees. He even refuses to mentioned ‘Bill’s’ name (who was his student at one time) and writes it on the frosted window pane. In a fantastic sequence to convey her hatred, Thurman deletes the name, finds she missed a spot and makes sure that it is completely erased. A month later, Chiba hands her the sword in a samurai ceremony with these chilling words, “I'm done doing what I swore an oath to God 28 years ago to never do again. I've created, ‘something that kills people.’ And in that purpose I was a success. I've done this, because philosophically I'm sympathetic to your aim. I can tell you with no ego, this is my finest sword. If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut.”

Split into 2 volumes, the movies are filled with great fight sequences ranging from the brutal slash fest where Thurman kills an entire mafia gang to the poetic sword battle with Liu in a Japanese garden under snowfall. There are 3 great dialogue exchanges between her and the brilliant Carradine who in first one tells her the legend of ‘Pai Mei’, played by Gordon Liu in an inspired casting decision. The second conversation is just before the wedding massacre where ‘Bill’s’ says that ‘he can’t be nice but he’ll try to be sweet’ and the final dialogue exchange where ‘Bill’ points out that Thurman was born an assassin just as ‘Clark Kent’ was born as ‘Superman’. Despite the all the chopping and the blood, the sword fights are more artistic rather than gory and even in the end when she does kill ‘Bill', it is by breaking his heart…again.