Kill Bill

Kill Bill is the 4th film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It was released in two parts, Volume 1 (2003) and Volume 2 (2004), with an integral version entitled “The Whole Bloody Affair” still unavailable for home video release (it was premiered at Cannes in 2006) and only rarely shown at The New Beverly Cinema.

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Main details and contents

Release dates: Volume 1: October 10, 2003 (USA); Volume 2: April 16, 2004 (USA)

Also known as: Kill Bill, la venganza: Volumen I (Argentina) | 杀死比尔 (China) |
キル・ビル (Japan) | 킬 빌 (South Korea)

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino, Uma Thurman (characters)
Producers: Lawrence Bender, Kwame Parker, Erica Steinberg, E. Bennett Walsh, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Koko Maeda, Dede Nickerson. Vol 1 only: Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Katsuji Morishita. Vol 2 only: Yingchun Fang
Cast: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu… [click for: Volume 1 full credits / Volume 2 full credits]

Releases: Vol.1 BluRay | Vol.2 BluRay | DVD | VHS | LD

Two volumes, one film

Kill Bill was created as one film and then released as two volumes. However, it is considered to be one film (the entire saga has been termed The Whole Bloody Affair). The film in its entirety is divided into ten chapters. The first volume consists of the first five chapters. The second volume is the last five chapters. While Volume 1 is a no holds barred, violent grindhouse revenge thrill ride, Volume 2 is longer in running time and slows the breakneck speed down to give viewers a more in depth look at the characters Tarantino created. On another level, Volume 1 has a more Asian Kung Fu-Samurai inspired feel while Volume 2 plays more like an American or spaghetti western.

Tarantino decided to release a slightly altered version in Japan and some other Asian countries, showing a small number of additional scenes of violence, and a full color version of The House of Blue Leaves massacre. The alterations in Volume 2 are only very minor recuts and hardly contain major additions. This version does not exist on home video and is very rarely even screened. The reasons for that remain unknown, one possible interpretation being the unclear rights situation in Tarantino’s post-Miramax phase. Click here to read more about it.

Facts and figures: 111min (Vol 1), 136 (Vol 2), TBC (Japanese versions, to be added)

The Story

The Bride, an ex-professional assassin who is pregnant, is shot and left for dead at her wedding, by none other than her former boss Bill. She wakes up from a coma after five years, without her baby (believing it to be dead) and sets out for revenge on her ex-assassin associates (The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad). After regaining her strength she tracks down the DiVAS and attempts to kill them one after another. Among them are: O-Ren Ishii, who has subsequently become the head of the Yakuza in Japan. Vernita Green, who is now a housewife, and Budd, Bill’s brother, who works as a bouncer at a strip club and lives in a shitty trailer. Not until the very end, does The Bride get to face her arch nemesis and ex-lover Bill, to take her final revenge for all that he has done to her, only to find out about a surprising truth. But…she will still…Kill Bill.