Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003)

Release Date: October 10, 2003


What's It About: The unnamed Bride wakes up from a 4-year coma and a miscarriage to exact revenge on the man who put her there, whilst dealing with his team of elite assassins, of whom she is a part.


The Good: Over the top sword and martial arts action in the best ways possible. Kill Bill holds nothing back and there's plenty of blood and severed body parts. There is a great fight scene when the Bride takes on her primary adversary O-Ren Ishii's own team of warriors in a massive bloodbath set in a bar. The film is a general love letter to the grindhouse films of the 1970s, particularly martial arts and spaghetti western films. The film has plenty of style and is filled with the Quentin Tarantino touch. The anime scene depicting O-Ren's backstory is the high point of the film.


The Bad: Being a gorefest, it's extremely and unrealistically violent. The film also features numerous and obscure audio and visual references to other media that common viewers may not understand. The acting is also weak, but this may be intentional to mimic the acting styles of the films Kill Bill is paying tribute to.


Best Performance: Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari. This quiet sociopath has no qualms mercilessly killing anyone who gets in her way. As she speaks very little, much of her performance is told through her expressions and her actions. She brings a subtle psychopathy to her performance, perhaps channeling a similar character she played in the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale.


Should I Watch It: Kill Bill is over the top, full of style and artistic flair. It's a little different to the mainstream film, even back then, but this has made it a cult staple. The whistle theme and the revenge theme turn up in many later films and tv shows, entering the pop culture stream. It's very fun to watch and offers some solid characters and themes that would never turn up in a PG13 blockbuster.


Post-Credits Scene: No


Similar Films: Hanna (2011), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Lady Snowblood (1973)


Trailer: