QUENTIN TARANTINO'S GENRE-BENDING CLASSIC 'KILL BILL VOL. 1'

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1 Year: 2003 Rating: ****1/2

Quentin Tarantino began with the heist-fallout sleeper-hit RESERVOIR DOGS, and the blaxploitation caper JACKIE BROWN while in-between was his first anything-goes-epic PULP FICTION... and nine years later, it was time to throw it all into the pot once again...

And it's even more-of-more this time, with the genre-bending KILL BILL VOL 1, his epic take on Japanese Martial Arts combining fast-paced action with exploitation horror, and kind of a superhero twist...  

Anime from KILL BILL VOL 1

As Uma Thurman has a lot more going than the flaky heroin-snorting moll in PULP FICTION, where she only existed for John Travolta's story... now everyone else is centered around her, and she wants most of 'em dead...

In what's also a Sergio Leone-style revenge-opus that even includes an anime short borrowing from Albert Finney's hiding-under-the-bed-with-a-gun sequence in The Coen Brothers' MILLER'S CROSSING...

Lucy Liu in KILL BILL VOL 1

Here involving the young version of Lucy Liu's character, member of a group of world-traveling assassins led by David Carradine's titular Bill... who we only hear in the pre-credit intro, shooting wife Uma Thurman's Bride with a sinister kill-shot that should have ended her story before it began...

Where personal vengeance is the superpower keeping her alive... as the quickly-edited action explodes within an opening karate-fist-fight against suburban mom Vivica A. Fox...

Viveca A. Fox in KILL BILL VOL 1

Their quick scrap within a mundane kitchen/living room is as strategically shot/executed as the climactic ultra-violent showdown where The Bride takes down dozens of karate thugs working for Lucy Liu's now-grown-and-powerful female crime-boss O'Ren Ishii... following an even more involving match against scene-stealing ball-and-chain-swinging schoolgirl Chiaki Kuriyama...

Enveloped in a tour-de-force rollercoaster where Tarantino finally lets everything fly beyond his more subtly-developed, signature dialogue-driven/art-house style...  yet KILL BILL VOL. 1 is still the usual fun and quotable, non-linear entertainment while blending into creepy/sinister horror-genre elements...

Michael Bowen in KILL BILL VOL 1

Like a vintage split-screen hospital-set attempted-poisoning-to-actual-rape sequence (from Daryl Hannah to Michael Bowen) providing "revenge as a dish best served cold" in what's still Quentin Tarantino's hottest and flashiest vehicle...

Celebrating Asian martial arts (including Sonny Chiba in a brilliantly comedic turn) through the pulsating soundtrack and character-paced-prowess ranging from spaghetti westerns to low-budget/drive-in exploitation. 

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Daryl Hannah in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Chiaki Kuriyama in KILL BILL VOL 1

Chiaki Kuriyama in KILL BILL VOL 1

Unseen David Carradine in KILL BILL VOL 1

Anime from KILL BILL VOL 1

Split-screen Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah in KILL BILL VOL 1

Michael Bowen in KILL BILL VOL 1

From KILL BILL VOL 1

From KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Julie Dreyfus in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Gordon Liu, Lucy Liu and Chiaki Kuriyama in KILL BILL VOL 1

Julie Dreyfus in KILL BILL VOL 1

Sonny Shiba and Lucy Liu in KILL BILL VOL 1

Lucy Liu in KILL BILL VOL 1

Lucy Liu in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Opening Credits from KILL BILL VOL 1

Opening Credits from KILL BILL VOL 1

Opening Credits from KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1

Uma Thurman in KILL BILL VOL 1