Rate Kill Bill

[barsoomcore]

And to qualify my opinions, I have lived in Japan, I speak near-fluent Japanese, and I have a blackbelt and years of martial arts experience.

No offense, but how do any of those "qualifications" "qualify" you to judge any movie at all?

I have lived in Japan. I have two black belts in Japanese swordsmanship, one in ZNKF Kendo and one in Katori Shinto Ryu, given to me by the late Yoshio Sugino, one of the close associates of Morihei Ueshiba.

None of which has ANYTHING to do with my ability to judge a movie. Which is why I didn't bring it up. Cause I don't think a "My Schwartz is bigger than yours" argument is going to help things much.

Oh, wait. Darn.

Okay, it was Chinese swordfighting by people holding katanas. That always bugs me, too. But in this case it added to my enjoyment of the whole picture. I mean, dude, seriously. Did you miss the Shaw Brothers logo at the start of the film?

Oh, and if you don't find Ms. Liu attractive that's just fine with me. Absolutely fine with me.

 

[Nightfall]

Bar,

I don't mind if he feels "qualified". I just necessarily agree with his opinions. However that being said, I do respect his review/opinion on Kill Bill more than Kai Lord's. And I think I don't have to explain why.

 

[Tzarevitch]

I'll be honest, I hated the movie. I gave it a 1. This is the first Tarantino move I have seen that I can say I trully couldn't stand. I understand the movie was supposed to be a tribute to/emulation of Hong Kong kung fu movies/1970's revenge movies but it could've been much, much better.

The movie felt to me like I was looking at something produced by a film student: overlong scenes, choppy flow, poor character development, unnecessary animae, unnecessary chapterization etc.. The thing that most irritates me is that Tarantino felt the need to make us pay twice to see the whole story when with better editing and arrangement he could have fit it into one longish production. The only thing breaking this movie up did was insure that I won't waste my money on the second half.

Tzarevitch

 

[Tzarevitch]

I'll be honest, I hated the movie. I gave it a 1. This is the first Tarantino move I have seen that I can say I trully couldn't stand. I understand the movie was supposed to be a tribute to/emulation of Hong Kong kung fu movies/1970's revenge movies but it could've been much, much better.

The movie felt to me like I was looking at something produced by a film student: overlong scenes, choppy flow, poor character development, unnecessary animae, unnecessary chapterization etc.. The thing that most irritates me is that Tarantino felt the need to make us pay twice to see the whole story when with better editing and arrangement he could have fit it into one longish production. The only thing breaking this movie up did was insure that I won't waste my money on the second half.

Tzarevitch

 

[Nightfall]

Well that's your perogative Tz. I personally feel you are wrong. But that's okay. I'm not in the minority about it being a good movie IMHO.

 

[jdavis]

No movie is liked by everyone but I just don't get all this anger at the movie being broken into two parts. Even if they did do it just for the money it wouldn't bother me, why? well movies are all made to make money, that's their purpose that's their goal, it's a business designed to make money, that's why we get sequel after sequel after sequel of movies. O fcourse in this case it looks like for once in Hollywood they didn't do it for the money they did it so Tarantino could do the movie the way he wanted to do it. I wish they would do this more often rather than making directors edit the crap out of their movies, why do you think directors cuts are so popular, because it's how the director wanted it to be before the corporate bigwigs made them edit it down. I'm sure if you didn't like the movie then you don't really care if they made him throw half of his movie away or not, myself I'm glad to get to see all of what he shot. Besides it's not like they are robbing a bank, even where movies are expensive it's still less that it cost to go to TGI Fridays and get a burger, for me it's 4 extra bucks, I'lll skip a freaking big mac that day and go see the movie, maybe my wife will skip buying a pack of cigarettes that day and go with me. It's just not that big a deal per person, I blow more than $4 a week in cokes from vending machines.

 

[kkoie]

Well I gave the movie a perfect 10. I thought it was grand. I loved all the movie references the film contained. You can spend countless viewings just trying to identify all the references to other movies (including the soundtrack).

I thought the fact that the violence was portrayed in an almost cartoonish style to be hilarious. Because it is so relentless, I think that it was a good idea for the movie to be split. Watching that much carnage can be rather exhausting after a while (a problem I personally had with Natural Born Killers).

While some may argue that there really was no story and this is a problem, I disagree. This movie, unlike others, is not about it's story. The story is just a vehicle for whats going on. The story doesn't matter. This movie is all about style. You may not like it, but you have to admit that it practically sprayed blood red style all over the laps of the audience in the theater. Consider the cinematography. The way the camera movied, and the choice of shots. The way he used the viewing from above bit that was used similarly in Taxi Driver and then expanded upon it when the camera hit the bathroom in the House of Blue Leaves by moving down to an eyelevel without cutting. Or the anime sequance. I thought the whole thing was great! I specially loved the shot where you saw the two girls lean over and look into the 'camera' while you viewed the world from inside the bullet ridden head.

Or consider the fight sequence set in the snow, with the snow flakes falling in time to the sword swings. It was practically poetic in style when you saw the two facing each other down and all you could hear was the sound of the water-fixture.

So while the film may have been missing the cracking dialogue of say PulpFiction, it was still gushing with Tarantino style. Only someone like Tarantino would have someone lose their head on screen, and make the audience laugh.

 

[kkoie]

Gogo was played by Japanese actress Chiaki Kuriyama, so of course her Japanese was perfect.

I was actually referring to the half-French/Japanese woman. Her Japanese was really good. Perhaps she was raised in Japan or at least spent many years there.

I read somewhere that Tarantino met her in Japan at some film festival and apparently called her up for the part when he was doing the movie. I guess she has lived in japan for some time and has acted in a number of shows/movies/heckifIknow in japan, thus her skill with japanese. Although the article said she really isn't half-japanese

 

[Welverin]

maybe my wife will skip buying a pack of cigarettes that day and go with me.

See, violent movies are good for you!

 

[John Crichton]

Just got back from seeing it.

Man, that was FUN!

A little background: I am not an anime fan (I'm a movie fan). I didn't grow up watching 70's martial arts flicks nor do I know any of the movies referenced in this movie. But, ya know, I kinda feel like I did after seeing it.

Tarantino has been an aquired taste for me. My first experience with his directing was watching Pulp Fiction. I didn't like it much at all. Actually, I couldn't see what the big deal was. I laughed only once during the entire experience -

Spoiler

when Vincent Vega blows off Marvin's head accidentally

. That was the only part I liked. Same for Jackie Brown upon viewing it for the first time. I thought it was crap.

A few years past and for some reason I ended up watching Pulp Fiction again. It blew me away even though I knew what was coming in every scene. It almost felt like a huge *CLICK* in my brain. I got why people liked the movie and understood where the writer/director was coming from. The film wasn't about the story or really even the characters. It was about the experience and the style.

Tarantino's movies have never been big sellers or huge money-makers. They are not everyone's cup of tea. Many people simply don't get his films. I can understand why someone could see any of his films as stupid, pointless, characterless and so on. It may seem like that on the surface. I've been there.

But I'm glad I'm in a better place now.