*** Official KILL BILL VOLUME 1 Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Mayer]

James (and DPoland) give voice to my worries. The worst thing an artist can have is weak feedback. I am still somewhat excited for the film, but that's as much for Yuen Wo-Ping as it is for QT.

There are plenty of good reviews out there as well, but the more reasoned critics aren't as hopped up (thought they aren't down on the film either).

Guess I'll have to pay my money and take my chances (as usual).

Few movies are worth $8. Fewer still are worth $16.

Take care,
Chuck

 

[FredK]

Mark Caro - Chicago Tribune

American and Japanese audiences are different as well, which is why Japan will see a different cut of "Kill Bill" than what will screen here. "Basically, Japan can handle it," Tarantino says. "They can handle more out-there violence, all right, in their movies, and they have them. It's like one of those things where it's just like if America could handle it, I'd give America that version. But they can't."

I didn't realize this. It doesn't bother me, but I haven't read it here yet so thought I'd post it. The full article is a good read, but no other new info.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Interesting. I didn't know that. Also:



See, now I knew that the B/W section in the movie made no sense. (The scene makes sense; that it's suddenly switched over to black and white does not.) It's one of my only strong gripes about the whole movie. And I suspect a lot of us oh-so-delicate American moviegoers will feel the same way.

 

[Kevin Porter]

You just know he's going to include that Japanese cut on American DVD in one form or another. Kill Bill is simultaneouly my most anticipated movie/DVD(s) of all time. A theater near me is screening Pulp Fiction October 9th. Might have to check it out in all it's big screen glory to prep me. Has there been talk of an overlap period where Volumes 1 and 2 will both be playing?

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

what a pooch screw! they candy assed it?? ugh. this depressing! So why pay full price to see a compromised film?? Chopped in half and toned down content?? What happened to "freedom" in the good old U.S. of A?....we really are a bunch of sorry assed puritans, aren't we?

-Dennis

 

[Chris]

The switch to B/W is genious It's still getting the scene across, reminding the audience of the only reason for the switch, and ads a different take on the scene

To be honest, I like it

 

[Jo_C]

Without upsetting you fans, here's how I think "Killbill" will end...

...the very final shot will be Uma Thurman beheading Bill, and after the beheading the screen goes black, and into the end credits.

That's how Bill will be killed.

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

It's just goofy that they bothered to film a whole elaborate scene like that with all kinds of (I'm sure) complicated prosthetics and red dyed corn syrup by the bucket, yet had to take the color out...it just seems so random, yet makes sense in the land of MPAA non-logic...

-Dennis

 

[John^Lal]

i think Tarantino is an excellent director and i only expect great things from him. but i am rather put off by all these movies using wires and having 1 person fending off 50 people.

i don't know how i can really be assured by any one telling me he does it right, or the way he uses them is in the right way. i doubt i can be assured in any way other than seeing it for myself.

but i want to know how far fetched, realistic/unrealistic this movies character situations are.

 

[Dominik Droscher]

Without upsetting you fans, here's how I think "Killbill" will end...

Wrong.

 

[Robert Crawford]

This thread is now designated the Official Discussion Thread for "Kill Bill Volume 1" please, post all comments, links to outside reviews, film and box office discussion items to this thread.

All HTF member film reviews of "Kill Bill Volume 1" should be posted to the Official Review Thread.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.


Crawdaddy

 

[Al Stuart]

I didn't know where to post this, but I wasn't sure that it wouldn't simply be deleted from the Kill Bill review thread. See here: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=162576

Mark Kalzer, who wrote the opening review in the thread, mentions that he had to suffer through Female Convict Scorpion before Kill Bill, and how that scared him beforehand, because he realized that Kill Bill is inspired by it. He claimed that Female COnvict Scorpion was the most horrendous movie he's ever seen. I won't get into his facile comparison of fight scenes, "Kill Bill has some of the most spectacular fight scenes ever filmed actually! It easily tops The Matrix." I didn't think that The Matrix was the be all end all of great fighting movies, where are 40 years of great kung fu movies? But that's irrelevant, because he dumped on Female Convict Scorpion, which is an utter masterpiece. Here is an excerpt from a review I wrote for a magazine (ask me which magazine in a PM and I'll tell you, but it gets no free press here), and this film hovers in my top 20 from time to time.


Easily the best movie you’ve never heard of, Shunya Ito’s astonishing “Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41,” is not merely the best women-in-prison movie ever made, but something altogether more powerful. It is a scathing commentary on patriarchal society in the guise of something cheap and solely exploitational.

Opening with the striking image of the main character Matsu, also known as Scorpion, chained to the ground in a cavernous underground isolation area, sharpening the spoon in her mouth against the stone floor, Female Convict Scorpion is an incredibly acted, written, scored, shot, and directed masterpiece of 1970’s Japanese cinema. Meiko Kaji’s performance as Scorpion is one the great (near) silent performances since Maria Falconetti’s as Joan of Arc in “The Passion of Joan of Arc.”

And none of this would have been possible if not for the fact that when it was made in 1972, FCS:J41 was seen as a C movie (it’s actually a sequel), the third movie on a triple bill. The constant subversive material would have been impossible with a film in which producers were paying attention to anything other than fulfilling a guarantee on reel length. The only concerns would have been a 90 minute film that fills the explicit sex and violence quota necessitated by the genre. And FCS:J41, certainly plays all the cliché cards, the sadistic warden, the requisite lesbian sequences, the feminist revenge angle, and a multitude of other seemingly stock situations and characters, but director and co-writer Ito manages to put a spin on all of your expectations and delivers something beyond poignant.

Ingeniously made on an obviously low budget, the film is filled with surrealist visuals, from the scene where a crowd of actors stand perfectly still while another falls to the ground, to the bizarre sequences involving some sort of ghost-like woman who disappears into the leaves of the fall. Watch especially for the incredible use of silence throughout the film. The plot is typical, the women are treated horribly in prison by the male guards and a few find a way to escape, where they find that they can never escape the male-dominated world which landed them in jail in the first place. Of course this leads to a cataclysmic conclusion filled with mayhem, but it is mayhem with meaning.

 

[Andy Sheets]

I don't know how i can really be assured by any one telling me he does it right, or the way he uses them is in the right way. i doubt i can be assured in any way other than seeing it for myself.

Well, it's inspired by Shaw Bros. movies, which means that improbable moves will be asisted with wires but it's not a complete denial of reality like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was, where you could point your finger and just go into the sky like Chow Yun-Fat did

 

[Scott Weinberg]

What happened to all the other posts in this thread?

 

[JonZ]

Another review...
http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=7771

 

[Steve_Tk]

I'm looking forward to this one. But as with other QT movies they are either a huge hit, or a big time miss.

 

[Nathan V]

I think too that the B&W was planned beforehand. Speaking as a photographer, I know that you've gotta light the set very, very differently if you're going to be shooting in B&W. You can't just shoot a scene in color with intended lighting and then turn it into B&W later and expect it to look good. It would look way too flat. I don't have a problem with it. The more visual stylistics, the better. And anyway, this is a Robert Richardson movie. How could there not be B&W?

Still with high hopes,
Nathan

 

[Dominik Droscher]

IIRC the switch to black and white was in the script but I guess even then QT had the MPAA in mind.

 

[Cal S]

Saw a sneak preview last night. It ruled. Ultra Violent and fun. Ready for Vol. 2!

 

[ChrisMatson]

IGN has an interview with Lucy Liu about the movie. Be warned, there are MANY spoilers:
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/453/453422p1.html