I bought this today too. I used Blockbuster's trade-in program to save some money since I'll probably double-dip for the director's cut edition if and when it shows. I don't normally like to double dip, but I would have rented this one a few times probably and spent more $$ than just buying it for $12.99.
I don't think the PQ quality is all that. Anyone else see this? How about the sound? I thought it sounded better at the theater, which I normally don't. Maybe I was just too anxious for this disc and hyped it up too much in my head!
Are you referring to the House Of Blue Leaves scene or the wedding scene? I can't imagine that the House Of Blue Leaves scene was intended to switch between color and B&W, although I could see the wedding scene being intended.
Of course he's going to say that. If you call it a "Special Version", more people are inclined to buy both. If you call one version the "uncut" version and the other version "The version I had to alter to get the R-rating as required by my contract", people won't be interested in buying with both.
Its the House of Blue Leaves scene. It was discussed in the Kill Bill Vol 1 discussion thread in the Movies forum.
Watching it tonight I think I prefer B&W also. It's obvious there was some forethought to the switch and not something done at the last second- it starts when one of the Crazy 88 has an eye removed and is perfectly timed to come back to color when Uma blinks during a closeup of her eyes. It also a perfect lead in to the subsequent "shadow fight" against the blue blackground. Finally, I think the following wide shot with Uma surveying the carnage is much more effective since the color of the blood is such a shocking contrast with the B&W images of a few minutes previous.
Thanks, Kevin, that's exactly what I was gonna say about the color switch. Hopefully more people will realize that this was written by Tarantino into the film at script stage. Whatever his motivations were, to secure a rating or whatever, I think it works due to the facts described by Kevin. It's obvious that it's intentional and not like somebody just turning a knob to take all color away due to ratings pressure. I haven't seen the color version of this scene, but when and if I do, I bet I'll still prefer the theatrical version best. The carnage reveal after color comes back in is very effective, whereas if it were all in color, you wouldn't even notice.
So the film is not "censored", as Jeff wrote above. I believe the script may still be available at http://www.tarantino.info/ which is where I originally read it.
The music played during the House of Blue Leaves B&W scene sounded like the very old martial arts movie soundtracks, adding to the intentional arguement.
If the U.S. R rated cut is simply a watered down version made to appease the MPAA per Tarantino's contract it doesn't make sense that it is the same version the whole world saw except Japan and Hong Kong. I would think in that case the U.S. would be the only place with the B&W. I can't believe that Japan and Hong Kong are the only two places that the Full Color version could've been shown.
I don't understand all this talk about KB being "censored" or "cut" by the man. I didn't see anyone complain about the fight scenes being severly trimmed for the LOTR theatrical releases and theatrical dvd versions which immediately followed. PJ was under contract to deliver a PG-13. QT was under contract to deliver an R, not an NC-17.
QT figured out a way to work with the MPAA instead of against it and he didn't have to lose a single frame of film in the process. That was brilliant. So many people try to fight city hall and lose and whine about it. And the movie changes media all over the place so it still fits within the visual scheme of the movie.
Tarantino has repeatedly said that he intended the switch to b/w, and that the color sequence in Japan and China was a valentine to them (as they are used to the blood in their movies.) He also said that every frame in the US cut would be considered a directors cut.
That's not necessarily true. Although I believe the "House Of Blue Leaves" scene is intact, he was forced to cut in a few other places in the film. I'll post a list as soon as I can get the details.
Yes, albeit 3-perf Super-35, so the "full-frame" VHS release will in fact be panned-and-scanned since 3-perf has a native, unmasked aspect ratio of 1.78:1.