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Me rambling more about Kill Bill and thoughts it inspired.
First, just a general thought: If Tarentino can wring this badass performance out of UMA THURMAN, what's he gonna do with Jet Li? Mmmm.
Ahem. Now I reflect.
From "I killed your master" to "I killed your parents and family" to "I killed your student" to (in certain cases) "I killed YOU. Why aren't you dead?", the revenge epic is pretty darned big when you're talking about martial arts movies. Everybody from Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan to Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Jean Claude Van Damme has covered this theme, and... it's not hard to work out why, really. It's an easy excuse to go out and just BEAT on people.
That said, I've never really understood the concept of vengance, noble or otherwise. It doesn't change what happened. Revenge has no place in my worldview. It's just not really understandable to me.
This was a really -good- revenge story though. I admit I'm with the crazed violence junkies who prefered part 1. Part 2 was good, but I often spent time going "...yes, thank you, we got the point a while back. Shut up. Shut UP. TARENTINO, WE KNOW IT'S YOU. SHUT IT ALREADY AND LET THE MOVIE PROGRESS." This happens to me every time I try to watch one of his films. The "snappy patter" and epic speeches his characters tend to make just make me roll my eyes and wait impatiently for him to stop channeling his yammering through the actors. So that didn't go far with me. (Bill's "Superman" speech in particular was "We have two minutes, let's just go with whatever comes up.")
Let's see. Actually giving the Bride a personality was good. I liked her, surprisingly. As stated before, GoGo was the Hot. The other characters didn't stand out a lot, but Budd in particular struck me as the single most UNNATURALLY laid back human being known to mankind. ... Also, does anyone really believe a blind woman can survive being left in a trailer with a snake? (In this movie? Hell yeah, I suppose. Oh well.)
Uhm...
...Really, I don't have as much to say as I thought. The fight scenes were probably the best I've seen in a while... the only complaints I had were the oddly weak feel of the anime scene and the god damn -rambling- dialogue in part 2. Aside from that, great movie. (I'm counting both parts as one here.)
Oh. And the soundtrack, as I was constantly pointing out to the wolf, KICKED my ass. I want it. I want funky cymbal-heavy groove music playing around me ANY time I have to swordfight. And... that Goodnight Moon song over -one- of the eternal end credits. Where do I get that?
...Movie good. The end.
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Honestly, I really think that this movie is also interesting when you consider the distance people come in five years, especally when you look at Budd and Vernita Green. I came out of this wondering exactly what Bill did to his brother to make him mad enough to lie to Bill about selling his Hanzo katana.
-K
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Part 1 is rather arbitrary and violent and pointless without part 2.
Arbitrary and pointless is rather what I was hoping for. So when I saw it, I thought "Oh. This is a well directed, intelligent, thoughtful movie after all.
...what a letdown."
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But if you go into Part Two cold, it's like watching an old noir film from the 30s. Except in color (after the flashback), and with shotguns and plucked eyeballs. And the pimpiest pimp in all of pimpstory. And a big wooden flute. And Mister Wispybeard the Very Fucking Old. Good lord, must I go on? This movie is GOLDEN. It's just not the right thing to watch after you've been put into the violence mood by Part One.
Did you notice that in all of Part Two, there were (if I recall correctly) only four fight scenes (one of which was training), only two fight scenes that didn't end in under five seconds (one of which was training), and only four deaths (counting Elle but ignoring the slaughter at the beginning, which properly dates back to Part One)?
And I liked the Superman speech, dammit.
Actually, I liked every second of Carradine's presence. I was properly reassured that as long as you don't let him near the script, he's brilliant. (Give him any creative input beyond character interpretation, though, and you get Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Beware, for the pen is deadlier than the bamboo flute.)
After seeing it twice, there is one and only one scene that I just didn't think should have been there. It annoyed me both times through. That's the scene where Budd's in his boss's office. Just... argh. What you said: we get the point, Quentin. But that was the only one, for me.
Oh, and for the record, I found GoGo hideous. But apparently I'm the only one on the entire goddamn planet.
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I did notice the lack of fight scenes in part two, yeah. That was part of what grated on me... but eh. I did like a number of scenes in part two. (The bit at the -very- end, the Bride curled up on the floor alternating laughing and sobbing? My favorite shot in either movie.) All in all, I saw the Bride as a stronger -person- in part 2. Part 1 was all badass, part 2 was raw determination making her that way. So... yeah.
Carradine, I really couldn't be brought to care about as much as I did about Budd. Budd was interesting to me. Bill was... just this old guy. Budd and Bill -together- I'm interested in. Like Ruppert says above, I really want to know what led to their falling out. (And I agree with your take on that office scene.)
...I still hate that damned Superman speech though, sorry.
If there's a single-movie director's cut in the works, I'll take that. Maybe it would even out the film(s) a bit. Otherwise...
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Which would be pretty cool. :>
Oh, and apparently there's going to be a third movie. I don't know if they're going to tell us anything more about Budd vs. Bill, or if Elle actually does survive; but the central character is going to be Vernita's daughter. One-arm-left chick will, I think, feature as her mentor.
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