Summary
The Bride was murdered by Bill on her wedding day, or so he thought. Now, the former assassin has woken from her coma and is out for revenge against the Deadly Viper Assasination Squad who ruined her life and then, finally, she is going to kill Bill.
Here We Go Again
Having loved the first volume of Tarantino’s epic revenge story and considering how it ended, with one of the bloodiest and largest martial arts exhibitions ever to be projected on the silver screen, I was bracing myself for the epic action film I knew I was about to see when vol 2 released a year later.
I think everyone was a bit surprised with the film we actually got.
The Film
If “Kill Bill vol 1” is about the dealing of death “Kill Bill vol 2” is about the spectre of death and how people react to it. In fact, I believe that in many ways the two are intended to be watched as one single treatise on death and its eventual appearance in our lives.
In this film, The Bride only really kills 1, maybe 2, people. This was a big letdown to many who were expecting a big all out war at the end as she breaks into Bill’s heavily fortified safe house surrounded by the elitest of the elite. That scene never happens. There is no big fight scene at all.
Instead we get a bunch of talky scenes about who loves who, who people really are underneath it all, and how everyone feels about The Bride, Bill, and the choices they have made. There is an interesting training sequence for The Bride under the watchful and masterful hand of Pai Mei but I think even that is really about The Bride facing her own death, which is why it is paired with her literally being buried alive.
Now, if you know anything about me, you know that this makes it one of my favorite Tarantino films.
If you haven’t seen “Kill Bill,” go watch it. I’m about to spoil the whole thing (including Vol 1).
***SPOILERS***
Death and how we face it is one thematic thread of this film that gets talked about and displayed the most. Everything about these characters is a sort of stand in for ways of viewing death. We have Bill (David Carradine, “Death Race 2000”), who knows death, is comfortable with death, deals in death, and eventually accepts his own with more grace than anyone else in the film. There’s the Bride (Uma Thurman, “Pulp Fiction”), who tries to leave her life of death dealing behind, only to find out that there is a price to shaking hands with death. She fights it, recovers from it even, but the death that she dealt has a price and that price is that she has to Kill Bill. There’s Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox,”Independence Day”) in “Vol 1” who is a sort of commentary on the cyclical nature of violence and revenge as The Bride kills her in front of her daughter, potentially setting off the revenge and death cycle again. We have O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu, “Charlie’s Angels”) who relies on military might to ensure security and long life. Bud (Michael Madsen, “Reservoir Dogs”) faced with the prospect of his death waxes philosophical about who really deserves to die, The Bride or himself, and leaves it up to fate to decide as it works through their actions but who is eventually betrayed because he is deemed unworthy to even face death at her hands because he is such a waste of a person. Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah, “Splash”) has spent her life preparing for her encounter with death but her apparent lack of discipline leaves her screaming and writhing on the floor when it comes because she never really came to terms with accepting the prospect of her own demise.
Finally, we have Bebe, The Bride’s daughter. She holds out hope for The Bride that somehow, this death may end. Perhaps the cycle can break with her.
A thread of the film that gets far less coverage is identity. The main speech on this subject comes from Bill toward the end of the film but, again, it is built on in almost every scene. We have scenes which shape The Bride’s identity at every turn and the main reason the events of the film take place at all is because someone wants to make her see her true identity. This movie is about the war for The Bride’s soul and who gets to set her identity; is it Bill or the Bride?
Verdict
It is hard to choose between these films, which one is my favorite but if pressed, I prefer Vol 2. When I was younger it was Vol 1. Maybe in another 5 years it’ll switch back again. This is a 5 Star film by a master of storytelling and I see little reason why anyone shouldn’t watch it. This one is less violent (though it is violent), has great character development in it, and I would argue, you don’t even have to watch the first film to understand what is happening or any of the themes.
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