KILL BILL VOL 1

US, 2003, 111 minutes, Colour.
Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Sonny Chiba, Michael Parks.
Directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Billed as the fourth film by Quentin Tarantino (not exactly accurate as he directed a quarter of the portmanteau film, Four Rooms), it is definitely a Tarantino movie.

Odds are that most over-50s in the audience will focus on the amount and extent of the violence with an estimate of the considerable body count - the martial arts choreography will be seen as enhancing a reprehensible display of visual mayhem and death. Odds are than many of the under-50s who watch the film will be enthralled by its visual flair, the staging of the fights, the composition of scenes, the extraordinary editing and the amazing fights and effects. They will be more inclined to laugh at the comic-book displays of violence and death (as they did with the car shooting scene in Pulp Fiction and the subsequent cleaning of the vehicle). They will see this as so far-fetched that it is entertaining fantasy and that anyone who looks at it 'realistically' is missing the point. While it does have a lot of Tarantino's trademark offbeat, cleverly inconsequential discussions about the mundane realities of life as well as his ironic offhand one-liners, this aspect is not as strong as in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown.

And once again, not only does Tarantino play with time (giving us two volumes with a tantalisingly unexpected piece of information at the end of volume one to have us queuing up for more), his revenge story shifts all over the place as Uma Thurman tracks down her attackers. For those who are not going to see it, in Volume 1she does not kill Bill.

It is always uncomfortable sitting on the fence, which is where I was, amazed at the visual impact of the film, dismayed at the carnage, comic-book though it may be.

1. The impact of the film? Its sequel? In the career of Quentin Tarantino? His interests, style, homage to movies? His love of words, ironic comments, one-liners? Discussions in the middle of action? The status of Kill Bill?

2. The production values, the American sequences, the elaborate wedding, homes, the confrontations? Japan and Okinawa? Tokyo? The importance of the animated sequence – visuals, Japanese style? The musical score?

3. The introduction, the bride in coma, the wedding, the background of Cottonmouth and the animation story of her childhood? The editing? Stunts?

4. The presentation of violence? Brutal or not? Over the top? Real/unreal? Cartoon – graphic novel? Its impact?

5. The influences of Asian cinema, Hong Kong, martial arts cinema? The range of sequences presented – especially the House of Blue Leaves?

6. The structure of the film, the successive chapters?

7. The wedding, elaborate, the slaughter and its visuals?

8. The bride, her character, part of the team of the assassination group? Her pregnancy? Her deciding to pull out? In a coma for four years? The child gone? Her anger, the revenge drive, her goals? To kill Bill and his group? An avenging angel?

9. Bill, the five assassins, her targets? The bride herself as a killer? Her skills?

10. The visit to Hattori Hanzo, the mentor, training, the mission? His help? His assistant?

11. The different confrontations: Cottonmouth, audience knowing her background, deadly, her character? Sofie as her assistant? Sofie at the wedding? The fight with Cottonmouth? Elaborate? Sofie’s torture and death?

12. Gogo Yubari, as a child, appearances and reality, deadly?

13. Elle Driver, strong, hard? The fights with the bride – and the irony that she would appear in the sequel?

14. Vernita Green, her character, her skills? The confrontation with the bride? The fight, her daughter’s return home, the pause?

15. The nature of the fights, the nature of death? The House of Blue Leaves and the choreography? The overwhelming numbers?

16. The experience of the bride, her motivation, Bill never seen? The fights, the brutality, graphic novel – and the Grindhouse sensibility? The pause at the end of the film – and the continuing quest for Bill?