The Bride (Uma Thurman) continues her quest of vengeance against her former boss and lover Bill (David Carradine), the reclusive bouncer Budd (Michael Madsen), and the treacherous, one-eyed Elle (Darryl Hannah).

Building off of the exploitational atmosphere that he introduced to audiences in Kill Bill Volume 1, Kill Bill Volume 2 picked up with The Bride looking to settle the score with Michael Madsen’s Bud, the shit-kicking brother of Bill, Daryl Hannah’s pathological psycho Elle Driver, and her ultimate nemesis, in the form of revered performer David Carradine, who portrayed Bill. While the first film fell into the martial arts genre, Tarantino worked to push the narrative into the outreaches of the exploitation genre here. With everything from the redneck movie to Italian Giallo, a dash of Shaw Brothers action and a heartwarming domestic drama, all of this was contained in Kill Bill Volume 2 and this mismatch of styles helps to deliver home a powerful narrative.

At the end of Kill Bill Volume 1, three names remained on The Bride’s Kill List and Bill’s younger brother Budd was the first person she hunted down. Played by Tarantino favourite Michael Madsen, Budd was a redneck shitbird of the first order. Behind his greasy hair and alcohol-laden posture hid a dangerous and formidable brute who was more than happy to put The Bride in her place six feet under. Madsen had a sick glee to his performance and he complements Tarantino’s dialogue perfectly. Also on the list was The Bride’s mortal enemy Elle Driver and she was one mean spirited bitch! Played to villainous perfection by Daryl Hannah, Elle was a bad girl who liked being bad and her seminal duel with The Bride in Budd’s trailer park home is a grim and gritty brawl that stays with you. Not to mention its shocking conclusion which gives new meaning to ‘an eye for an eye’.

But if Kill Bill Volume 2 has a star that steals the entire film then it is unequivocally David Carradine as the titular Bill. This master assassin and former lover of The Bride is packed full of wild west charisma and Eastern wisdom. Carradine is an absolute scene-stealer as Bill and when the camera is upon him you can’t look away. This cult actor of cinema and TV absolutely gave Tarantino his movie and you completely buy into how damn cool he is on screen. Along with the cool factor is his place as a ruthless killer in the film’s narrative and Carradine’s sly performance helps to communicate this to the film’s audience with ease. The famed actor also shared great chemistry with Uma Thurman and you brought into these character’s tragic tale of love and hate even more because of it. Carradine gave the perfect performance as Bill, and the film is all the better because of his involvement.

While Kill Bill Volume 1 was an out and out action film, Volume 2 moves at a different pace. Not only does it keep audiences on their toes, but it also affords them the freedom to interpret the film’s narrative and draw out the events of the past that shape this story’s present. Part of this is due to Tarantino’s masterful blending of genres within the exploitation genre. But this is also in part to the director’s maturing craft as a storyteller. With Kill Bill Volume 2 you feel that Tarantino is exploring different parts of himself as an artist up on the screen here, and the result is something both interesting and different.

A massive part of the story that finally reveals itself to the audience in the third act (and which was eluded to previously at the conclusion of Kill Bill Volume 1) is that The Bride’s daughter B.B. is still alive. And their reunion has plenty of significance to the film’s narrative. This story of a mother and daughter reuniting is something that many would not assume to ever be included within the structure of a Tarantino film. But it fits perfectly here. Thurman’s performance is heightened during these scenes as her own emotions as a mother come into their own up on the big screen, and Tarantino uses them to his advantage. Chaos and action aside, this is the most crucial and compelling part to the entire Kill Bill saga, and its inclusion certainly stays with you.

But everything in Kill Bill Volume 2 leads to the final confrontation between The Bride aka Beatrix Kiddo and Bill and this exchange between Thurman and Carradine is the stuff that cinema legend is made of. Featuring a beautifully delivered monologue about true nature and intent from Carradine, and exploding in a quick hack and slash exchange of Hattori Hanzo katana’s, Kill Bill Volume 2 is brought to an end in dramatic and shocking fashion. It’s an end that eludes to cult martial arts film Five Fingers of Death, and with image and music working together in unison The Bride finally gets her revenge!

Kill Bill is an incredibly important part of director Quentin Tarantino’s list of works and it is essential viewing for anyone who loves cinema. Blending performance, genre, action and emotion for a film that grabs you and does not let go. It’s an example of Tarantino doing what he loves and loving every second of it.

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After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.

In terms of cinematic flavour, Kill Bill was a real departure from his previous films, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, which had all focused on one aspect or another of the crime genre, as filtered through the eyes of Tarantino. Here in Kill Bill audiences got something extremely different that was a mad cocktail of martial arts violence and grindhouse driven-in sensibilities that they were craving for, and which they adored upon seeing. A hard-hitting revenge film, where no one was to be spared, Kill Bill was a piece of cinema that went for it with everything it had and this innovative director truly delivered on the spectacle here.

Kill Bill would also introduce us to Uma Thurman’s The Bride, a woman with no name, who was once one of the deadliest assassins in the world until she was fucked over and left for dead. Awakening with violent fury, this lethal killer was out for blood and nothing would stop her in her quest for vengeance. Thurman had long been recognized as Tarantino’s muse, and with this unique character and narrative, the director had purposely crafted a piece of cinema to show off all of her acting talents and turn her into one of the medium’s most badass characters. Spot on with the burning dramatics at The Bride’s core, along with proving herself to be very talented with a katana, Thurman was perfectly cast as The Bride and she created one truly memorable character here.

Alongside Thurman’s The Bride, audiences would also be introduced to the other members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, specifically with Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii and Vivica A. Fox’s Vernita Green. Both of these ladies were ready to get some, and the action got intense for each of them with Fox and Thurman engaging in a viciously damaging knife fight, while O-Ren and The Bride would fight the duel to end all duels in the neon lit corners of the Tokyo Underworld. Both women made great adversaries for The Bride, and each was part of the perfect casting that Tarantino assembled for this film.

While Quentin Tarantino had made a name for himself as one of the coolest and most stylistic directors on the planet, his work on Kill Bill took this to a whole new level. Everything about this film was a lesson in style, from its crazed narrative to its awe-inspiring production design and costuming to the thoroughly epic soundtrack, that blended both Western and Japanese sounds. All of it made for one very cool feat of filmmaking. Kill Bill Volume 1 was also the first time that Tarantino would work with noted cinematographer Robert Richardson, and the result was a visually lavish and crisp cinematic experience that made for a very fun watch.

If you were looking for action, well, you came to the right place with Kill Bill Volume 1, because it was loaded with it. Until this point, Tarantino had never really shot action before, yes his films had dealt with incredible feats of violence and over-the-top gore, but as a filmmaker, he had yet to dip his toe into the action waters. Kill Bill changed all of that and this director proved that he had a unique eye and a real flair for crafting some of the most striking action sequences ever committed to celluloid. Tarantino would hit his audience up early with it as well, in a terrifyingly destructive knife fight at the home of Vernita Green, and after this beat down audiences were committed to what would come next.

And what came next was one bold feat of cinema! Taking place exclusively at The House of Blue Leaves, this thirty-one minute extended fight scene was a piece of gonzo martial arts chaos captured to perfection. Wielding a famed Hattori Hanzo sword and dressed in a yellow and black striped jumpsuit inspired by Bruce Lee’s The Game of Death, The Bride was ready to go to town and boy did she. Fighting a combination of O-Ren Ishii’s personal army The Crazy 88, O-Ren’s psychotic bodyguard Gogo Yubari and finally gaining her revenge on O-Ren herself, this scene is martial arts epicness at its finest. With blood and limbs flying at every turn, and incorporating a vast range of stylized, choreographed fight exchanges, The House of Blue Leaves sequence is simply extraordinary to watch.

Kill Bill Volume 1 is one hell of a fun ride, and Tarantino truly put everything of himself as an artist into this film. And that’s why it is essential viewing for any moviegoer.

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