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Rated R; running time of 110 minutes
Genre: Action
Written by: Quentin Tarantino
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A Fox, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, Chiaki Kuriyama, Julie Dreyfus, Michael Bowen, Michael Parks, Gordon Liu
WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW.
The Digest
The Bride A.K.A. Black Mamba is lying lifelessly in the middle of a church - the church where she and her entire wedding party has just been gunned down. To insult to her many injuries - the would-be killers are an elite team of assassins of which she is a member herself. Her own teammates have beat her pregnant body to a pulp and shot her in the head. But The Bride is strong and she doesn't die. As she languishes on life support the try to kill her one more time, but at the last minute the leader of the team, Bill (David Carradine) calls for the mission to be aborted. He theorizes that she deserves to face her killers and not die as a result of a sneak attack. And thus she is left alone. Only to wake up 4 years later and for their own sake, they should have killed her when they had the chance.
Yes, she is up now. The pain of being shot in the head doesn't compare to the pain she feels once she realizes that her baby is gone. She is determined to kill Bill for what he has done to her, but first she must clear a path to him by killing off her former teammates.
First on her list is O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Lui) A.K.A. Cottonmouth and Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) A.K.A. Copperhead. Green should be a piece of cake, but Ishii is a different story. She is now the head of the Japanese crime world - a feat that has never been accomplished by a woman or by someone who is not 100% Japanese. Given her position, she is surrounded by body guards - about 93 of them to be close to exact - and it's going to take a miracle to get to her, or is a mothers revenge enough?
The Dish
Let me take this moment to admit to a few things.
1. I don't really care for Tarantino personally or professionally -this is putting it very mildly.
2. I've never watched anime or very many Japanese films.
3. I seen only about 3 or 4 of the films that Tarantino paid homage to and borrowed liberally from.
I've given you this background so you know what I'm working with as I talk about this. I'm sure I missed most of the references and there are just a lot of nuances that went right over my head. Having said that - hot damn what a movie! I have a sense that the movies he borrowed from are sometimes artistically different than we as Americans are used to and that is the beauty of it. Borrowed style or not this is one of the most originally crafted movies that I've ever seen. From the snappy dialogue to the way the scenes were set up - all of it original. I know how can you liberally borrow and still be original, but trust me on this.
I appreciated the strong female character and their diversity and I really can't say enough about them. Each time I start to claim one as my favorite, I remember something about another one that I liked. Each woman was captivating in her own right, so much so, that you forget that they just gutted someone like a fish. Which brings me to one of my issues; this is a very very violent movie. Even if some of it is cartoonish (literly and figuratively) it's still takes some getting used to. What also takes some getting used to his the liberty Tarantino took (as is his prerogative) with the sequencing of the scenes and some of the cut away shots. Also a little odd is some of the plot gloss-overs. Again, this may be part of the whole style thing of the other directors.
I have no complaints about anyone or anything, really which astounds me given my feelings toward Tarantino.
The Directive
This movie isn't for everyone. I would love to encourage folks to run out and see it, but you have to be mindful of all of the bloodshed - and there is a lot. 3 or 4 decapitations. Countless limbs sliced off... it's a bit much.
Killer - kick ass movie.
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Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2003
EMAIL: thediva@3blackchicks.com
ICQ: 8690410
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