Hindsight

I must be the only person I know who didn’t like “Kill Bill” as much as everyone else.

Random thoughts… With spoilers…

There’s a lot to like and a lot not to like about Kill Bill. On one hand, you could say that it’s ultra stylish and just ultra cool. That’s an obvious gift of Tarantino, make it cool. On the other, you could say that it’s a bunch of asian cinematic devices rolled up into one film without any originality whatsoever. It may be original, but in the sense that it’s not been pushed onto U.S. soil so strongly before.

Watching KB is like watching live-action anime. Limbs and head fly off with one swift slash. Blood spurts out like water and makes us laugh at certain points in the film. Woo-ping Yuen was on hand - the fight choreographer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix, among other films.

Heck, even Production I.G. (Patlabor, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) produced an animated sequence for a good portion of the film.

Some of the best humor is best achieved through its editing. The “..wiggle the big toe…” sequence being the most obvious one.

The cast is good. Uma Thurman kicks ass pretty damn good. Lucy Liu does her part and Chiaki Kuriyama (as “Go Go Yuriba”) plays the lolita-fatale schoolgirl with sharp objects.

It’s a well packaged film - half in Japanese (with subtitles) and half in English. Whether you play this film here or in Japan, you will have an equal amount of subtitling. The Japanese will love it for the U.S. cast and the casting of Kuriyama (Chiaki Kuriyama was also a knife wielding neurotic in “Battle Royale“).

So why do I mention all these things and still find myself disappointed with the film? I went in with not a clue of what KB was about. All I knew about the film was that it was by Tarantino and that Uma wears a Bruce Lee jumpsuit.

Perhaps it’s because I’m familiar with anime, some martial arts films, and I’m just seeing all of it crammed together in something that most casual moviegoers haven’t seen elsewhere. Maybe I’m spoiled by the quicker action sequences of “Hero” or the slower pacing of “Ghost in the Shell”. I got tired of the long stares between fights that, while present in most anime, just fails under the guise of a U.S. film designed to mimic it.

Maybe I thought Tarantino could push it even further. Or maybe I just have to wait for the sequel so everyone on the bandwagon can call me stupid while I stand on my soapbox. I find it difficult to explain why.

If Kill Bill were directed by Joel Schumaker, people would call this shlock. But since it was Tarantino, it can be classified as the best of his work. His directorial style doesn’t deviate too much from his previous works (Pulp Fiction comes to mind, obviously). Tarantino-buffs will not be disappointed at all.