Movie Review: Kill Bill Volume 1

                Kill Bill Volume 1 is one of a 2-series film by Quentin Tarantino. This film was released on 2003. At first, the producer and Tarantino intended to release the entire movie which are both volume 1 and volume 2 as one movie. But due to the total length time of the movie is 4 hours, thus they decided to release it in 2 parts.

               This film is about a character named 'The Bride' (Uma Thurman) who seeks revenge on her former assassins group named 'Deadly Viper Assassination Squad' because they murdered all the attendees of her wedding including her groom. They also intended to kill her but then she survives.

             The film begin with a proverb "Revenge is a dish best served cold". It means that revenge is the best when it is done slowly and with complete patience. The next part is where the leader of the Assasination Squad named Bill (David Carradine) is unseen but talking to the wounded and dying 'The Bride'. She told him that she's currently carrying Bill's child. However, Bill ignore it and shot her at the head. The film then move forward to the future in which it is shown that The Bride arrives in one house which belong to one of the former members of the Squad which is Vernita Green (Vivica A.Fox). They both then fight each other but then cease to fight when Vernita's daughter come home from school. The Bride then promises that she will not kill Vernita in front of her daughter.

        Then, they have a conversation in the kitchen in which Vernita attempts to kill The Bride by shooting at her. However, she fail and The Bride retaliates by throwing a knife which then hit Vernita's chest and instantly kills her. We then see The Bride cross Vernita's name in a list. We can also see another name had been crossed which is O-Ren Ishii's name.

      

The film then reverts back to the time after the wedding incident in which The Bride is found not death but in comatose state. Another member of the Squad, known as Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), enters The Bride's hospital room and prepares a lethal injection. Driver however is interrupted by Bill on the phone in which Bill told Driver that it would be unfair to kill The Bride while she is in comatose state. Four years later, The Bride awakes and horrified to realise that she is no longer pregnant. She also realise that a hospital worker named Buck had been raping her while she is in her comatose state. The Bride then take revenge by killing him. She also steals Buck's truck named 'Pussy Wagon'. She then swear revenge towards the Squad and eventually made a list of those she want to revenge upon. The first in that list is O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu).

The Bride the travels to Okinawa to obtain a sword from a legendary sword-smith named Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba). At first Hattori refused to forge a sword for The Bride. However, after learning that The Bride want to take revenge towards Bill which is one of his former student, he agrees to forge the sword for her. The film then moves to an animation period in which The Bride tell the story about O-Ren Ishii and how she eventually become one of deadliest assassins at the age of 20 years old.

Bride then tracks down O-Ren at a Tokyo nightclub in which she challenging her to a fight. She also severe the arm of O-Ren's right-hand which is Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus) which is also Bill's protegee. The Bride then fights O-Ren's Yakuza army and lastly fight with O-Ren in a snow-draped Japanese garden. The Bride eventually killed O-Ren by slicing her head skin.The Bride leave Sofie alive so that she can inform Bill that The Bride is coming after him. The film end by Bill asking Sofie whether The Bride knew or not that her child is still alive. 

Generally, this movie is interesting because it does not only show violence but at the same time it contains comedy and also animation. This is done in other to make sure that the film are not too 'dark-basis' or to boring for the audience. In terms of comedy, one of the example can be seen when The Bride stole a truck named 'Pussy Wagon'. 

In terms of animation, Tarantino used comics animation of also known as anime. This can be seen when The Bride are explaining the details on O-Ren's life. Moreover, the used of bright colour in most of the scene is also one of the attractive points in this films. Last but not least, this film is suitable for those who love violence and fight-basis movie. However, this movie is not perfect if we did not watch the sequel which is Kill Bill Volume 2.

Director's Journal: Week 3

           This is week is my first week joining the course of The Art of Film Directing. At first I really wanted to join this course as one of my External Elective Course (EL). According to my Programme Structure, I’m supposed to take the EL courses during my 5^th or 6^th semester. However, due to some problems regarding our faculty’s registration system, I have no choice but to take my EL a semester earlier. That is the reason why I and few of my friends only started to take this course at week 3. Fortunately, there are still few spots left for us to take this course.

          During the lecture, we were told that the class already started learning on the basic of film directing which is based on the cyclical production model by Marcus Gillezeau (2004). Even though this week class is on the second part of the cycle which is the development phase, the lecturer which is Dr. Azalanshah did take a few minutes to recap on the lesson of previous week. This make me understand more on the basis on film directing.

          As I said before, this week class is on the second part of the cycle which is the development phase. Development phase according to cronological cycle is after the first part which is Concept phase. Under this Development phase, a proposal is created in order to be presented to potential investor in order to gain their trust on investing towards the project. A complete proposal would include a few things such as written proposal, synopsis of the project, budget, list of crews and cast, production and shooting schedule, and also a pilot. A pilot is an introduction presentation on what the project is about. It is also known as a ‘taster’ who gives the potential investor a short glance on what the project will be about.

           After the lecture, we are then required to watch a movie presented by Dr in which we are then required to write a movie review based on the particular movie we watch that week. This week, the movie that was by Quentin Tarantino named Kill Bill Volume 1.

         Other than the lecture and movie review, I was also informed that we need to form groups and prepare a project based on the type of video given. There are 4 types of videos given by Dr which are short film, commercial/advertisement, PSA (public service announcement), and also promo film. I was then invited to join the commercial video team.

        Besides having to attend lecture, I also are required to attend a session known production meeting in which we are meeting with the students who take the course of TV Production. I was also informed that the video project is the collaboration between the students of Film Directing and also TV Production. This week production meeting is about the presentation of project by each group. These presentations resembles the development phase that we were learning this week in which each group have to present their proposal which include the synopsis of the project, budget, list of crews and also the schedule of shooting.