Kill Bill: Vol. 1 - BLURAY, Digital, 4K ULTRA HD [4K UHD]

Great product

I missed "Kill Bill, Volume 1" when it was in the theaters (you have to move quickly up here in the Northland because we have only two movie theaters with a limited number of screens and films can disappear before you know it), but this turned out to be to my advantage. Quentin Tarantino did not plan on "Kill Bill" being told in two "volumes" but Miramax decided that a four hour revenge film would be a bit much and consequently we end up with "Volume 1" coming out on DVD the same week "Volume 2" opens up in the theaters. So having seen the Bride (Uma Thurman) take care of the first two names on her "to do" list I can treat tonight as an intermission and go see "Volume 2" tomorrow. This is good because if I had to wait four months to see the second half of the film I would be pretty ticked off. Once upon a time in El Paso, Texas a wedding party is slaughtered execution style. However, it turns out that the Bride, who is pregnant, is not dead but in a coma. Four years later she wakes up in time to save herself from insult being added to her ingury. After dealing with a few annoying details, such as somebody trying to rape her comatose body and being unable to get her legs to move, the Bride puts together her list of people to kill: (1) Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), (2) O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), (3) Budd (Michael Madsen), (4) Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), and (5) Bill (David Carradine). There is more that happens in this film than eliminating the first two list (and since there is a Volume 2 telling you that the Bride survives Volume 1 does not constitute a spoiler), such as an anime telling us how O-Ren Ishii became the Queen of the Tokyo underworld. But Tarrantino is all about how the Bride takes out her first two victims and the triumph of style as substance, especially when style means fountains of blood gushing from human beings that would make Akira Kurosawa proud. You have to keep in mind that Tarantino has seen and committed to memory more movies than any other human being on the face of the planet. The following is a list of movies and television series that are supposedly referenced in "Kill Bill, Volume 1": "The Lodger," "Scaramouche," "The Wings of Eagles," "The Magnificent Seven," "Yojimbo," "Tsubaki Sanjûrô," "The Manchurian Candidate," "Marnie," "Honey West," "Tôkyô nagaremono," "I Lunghi giorni della vendetta," "Da zui xia," "Modesty Blaise," "The Green Hornet," "I Giorni dell'ira," "Le Scandale," "Ironside," "Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro," "Kurotokage," "Da uomo a uom," "La Mariée était en noir," "Twisted Nerve," "C'era una volta il West," "The Wild Bunch," "Siu kuen wong," "A Clockwork Orange," "Hannie Caulder," "Black Mama, White Mama," "The Last House on the Left," "La Novia ensangrentada," "Il Grande duello," "Joshuu sasori: Dai-41 zakkyo-bô, "Shurayukihime," "The Doll Squad," "Tian xia di yi quan," "High Plains Drifter," "White Lightning," "Shura-yuki-hime: Urami Renga," "Truck Turner," "Uomini duri," "Crash che botte!," "Onna hissatsu ken," "Gone in 60 Seconds," "Thriller - en grym film," "Du bi quan wang da po xue di zi," "Profondo rosso," "Switchblade Sisters," "Black Sunday," "Eaten Alive," "7 note in nero," "Hao xia," "Yagyû ichizoku no inbô," "Game of Death ," "Grease," "Wu du," "Patrick," "Day of the Woman," "Hattori Hanzô: Kage no Gundan." "Paura nella città dei morti viventi," "Resurrection," "Shogun Assassin," "Si wang ta," "Makai tenshô," "Escape from New York," "Xian si jue," "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan," "Tenebre," "The Professional: Golgo 13," "Scarface," "Gai shi ji hua," "Year of the Dragon," "Wong ga jin si," "Hard to Kill," "3-4x jugatsu," "Miller's Crossing," "Hong fen zhi zun," "Unforgiven," "Reservoir Dogs," "Fong Shi Yu II: Wan fu mo di," "Tai ji zhang san feng," "True Romance," "Pulp Fiction." "Jûbei ninpûchô," "From Dusk Till Dawn," "Full Tilt Boogie," "Kite," "Weißkreuz," "SF:Episode One," "From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money," "Proboscis," "Wo hu cang long," "Batoru rowaiaru," and "Koroshiya 1." I was happy I recognized over two dozen of the films on that list, and that is not even close to a passing score percentage-wise. For all I know every single scene and shot in the film is lifted from something else, but the onslaught of references is apparently so relentless that everything old becomes new again, especially without a commentary track when QT can tell us the origin of each and every homage. At this point what is most memorable to me is watching O-Ren Ishii and her posse walk glide into the House of Blue Leaves with the soundtrack giving them energy and the final showdown in an exquisite garden at night with gently falling snow where O-Ren in her white kimono and the Bride in her yellow biker suit do their dance of death with Japanese steel. With "Pulp Fiction" Tarantino made his impression upon our ears with scene after scene of great dialogue. No wonder the soundtrack for that film had clips of some of what came rolling off the tongues of the actors (usually Samuel L. Jackson, who plays a corpse in this film). But with "Kill Bill, Volume 1" Tarantino's blood feast is mostly for the eyes. Imagine what he can do if he every puts those two together in a single film. Until then, we can see how the Bride deals with the rest of the people on her list. This film is not for everybody, but then what Quentin Tarantino film ever was?

Kill Bill is what is hailed as the much anticipated "4th film by quinton tarintino". If you don't know who quinton tarintino is, then I feel sorry for you. For the rest of us I need only mention the titles "Resevoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction", And "Jackie Brown" and then you will understand the anticipation this new film has for us big time QT fans. So as the long-awaited 4th film, we find Tarintino taking a new dirtection... firslty, this is Kill Bill vol 1, with Vol 2 having just been released in theaters as of this writing. Seeing the first volume immediatley shows us that what QT had blanned was large, stylish, and visionary! The fact that The lead star Umma Thurman actually particiapted in much of the conceptual work behind the film only serves to further display why this film came together so brilliantly. Kill Bill, as it's appropriatley called is a tale of revenge at it's most basic. Umma Thurman Plays an ex Assassin, who was betrayed at her wedding by her former boss. The plot throughout the movie leaves some gaps to be further explored in the next film, but plenty of detail and background is given to all the characters throughout the course of the movie (a trademark of tarintino is brilliant character depth). Once comming out of a comma, "The Bride" as she is called (we never get to hear her name in the movie - it is bleeped out!) goes on a path of vengence that will leave a thick trail of blood in it's wake. Harking back to old martial arts films of the 70's the mood is sometimes made to feel corny intentionally. Oddly enough not only didnt this bother me, it made the movie more fun and more enjoyable. What's amazing is QTs abillity to switch moods in the film from being epicly dramatic, and almost philisophical in nature (like many old sammuri movies); to being goofy, and corny and almost poking fun at itself. Also we are treated to scenes that have wild western feels, as well as refrences to other old genres. The film is filled with LOTS to dwell on and think about. Beyond that we have QT's typical directorial excellence. Vissually, Kill BIll is probably one of the finest works I've ever seen. The movie has more style, flair, and wit than almost any other I can think of. QT just has a way of always finding some new place to put the camera... some new trick to use that u werent expecting. An entire 10 -15 minute scene in the movie is fully animated in japanese style! The use of black and white and other little artistic ideas of QT make this movie an absolute pleasure to watch. If nothing else this has to be one of the most creative and unique films you'll ever see. Finally, this is QTs first attempt at making an action orientated film. The fight scenes are really well done, and in the climactic battle we see umma thurman single handedly fight 60 plus men (all with sammuri swords) - and slaughter them all! Even the first time through, I had to watch that scene twice! QT also has a way of bringing the action together with many moments that are (typical to his style) nothing more than witty diologue. IN the end, some people wont like this movie just because it's too "wierd" for them, or just not their kind of film. Those who dont like QTs style are likely to not be impressed. But for me, and many others, Kill Bill Vol one was an AMAZING movie, on many levels at once. The variety of themes, the amazing visual style, and the excellent audio (thanks to the RZA from Wu Tang Clan who produced the soundtrack)... this movie really surprised me by just HOW good it was.

What an AMAZING 4K restoration! I was gradually giving up on 4K restorations of old movies/anime since 1) they usually look slightly darker than original blu rays on a calibrated TV and 2) usually have exactly the same audio track quality. Watched Kill Bill Vol 1 yesterday and man! From the start I was shocked by how good the opening song “Bang Bang” sounded - just right! I couldn’t believe it sounded so good before, so when I finished the movie I put in the blu ray disk and yes - muffled bass, ruined minds and highs, awful. All other songs sounded fantastic on 4K disk (it has a variable audio rate vs fixed for blu ray by the way). I then compared the picture quality of the two and I could NEVER say that 4K disk looks darker or brighter than each scene demanded; on the contrary blu ray scenes look washed out in comparison, but 4K was always right on the spot. What impressed me even more and I don’t know how they achieved it, but motion looks amazing on 4K Dolby vision disk and like blurred nonsense in comparison on blu ray - and this is given that I have exactly the same motion processing settings for both modes on my LG OLED TV.

This won't be a movie review. You've either already seen it, or, if not, you can scroll through other posts here and read all about it. I also wanted to be clear that this is in regards to the 4K release, as Amazon, in it's infinite wisdom (eye-roll emoji here) puts every review for every iteration of a movie all together. (As an aside: Would you people who leave one-star reviews because the mailman was a day late, or your DVD case had a dent just stop, please? Your complaint can be registered elsewhere without bringing down the star ratings other customers might pay attention to.) Anyway, back to the movie. I ordered parts 1 and 2, having only ever owning the movies on DVD. I never upgraded to blu-ray. The 4K is mind-blowing! The colors pop, the black & white sequences are sharp as h*ll, and I don't think it's looked this good since it was initially in the cinema. If, like me, you have a version you've had for several years, and wanna step things up, grab the two on 4K. You will not be disappointed.

...slice 'em and dice 'em. Well, it's fun to watch. It isn't very deep, but it's fun. It's a pretty simple-minded plot: The Bride (a/k/a Black Mamba), very well played by Uma Thurman, is hit by a death squad on her wedding day and left for dead in a coma. Four years later, she screams herself awake, kills off a thug who is violating her in her comatose state, and the joyride begins. The way the movie rockets along, we wonder if we're watching a movie or reading a comic book. The Bride is out for revenge on the death squad that killed all nine members of her wedding party ("They should have made it ten," she gloats, as she whacks her first victim, Vernita Greene, a/k/a Copperhead, played by Vivica Fox; all these assassins are named after snakes, for some reason) in front of her four year old daughter just off the school bus. Then she's off to find her nemesis, a gorgeous Chinese-Japanese killing machine named O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth), played by the lovely Lucy Liu. Their boss behind the hit, Bill, is mostly unseen and unheard, and evidently we have to wait for Part Two to see why he ordered the hit to begin with. In the meantime, there's gore galore all over the floor as The Bride mows down everyone who gets in her way. Some of the action is so over the top that we wonder if we're supposed to take it seriously or say "yeah, right" and laugh out loud, as when O-Ren's posse of hired thugs take on The Bride all at once and all end up dead or mutilated. Uh-huh. The film's cinematography is jaw-dropping, zipping from color to black/white to anime and back to live action; we're reminded of the mixed sequences that Oliver Stone used so effectively in "Natural Born Killers". As for style vs. substance, "Kill Bill" is weighted so heavily in favor of the former that substance is almost an afterthought. There's been a lot of comparison between this film and "Pulp Fiction"; there's blood and gore liberally splashing the screen in both movies, but "Pulp Fiction" was a masterpiece of great plot (convoluted though it was), great acting and great dialogue. "Kill Bill" ultimately boils down to great style, a lot of noise, and one fight after the next. On a rating scale, I'd have to give it five stars for style and two for substance which averages out to 3.5 stars, but it's great fun to watch so I'll round it off to four. Let's just hope the story gains in substance in Part Two. Judy Lind

Quentin Tarantino has done it, again! Kill Bill, Volume 1 is a trademark masterpiece that has the morbid blend of excessive violence and wicked humor a la only Mr. Tarantino. Well displayed are the acts of revenge executed by a woman whose mission it is to nurse her scorn against all enemies that have dared to stand in her way and ruin her future hopes. Graphic and bloody scenes, action-packed anime, and the preoccupation with daydreams full of vengeance are all elements that create the psychological interplay among the characters. Never before have I known for there to be such a combination of vengeance, sadism, megalomania, and narcissism, all rolled up in one package. At the beginning, Uma Thurman's Black Mamba sets the stage for how the tone of the movie is going to be set. She makes it clear that though she is rational when it comes to dealing with her enemies, her rationality is not the kind that includes mercy, compassion, or forgiveness. And this overture gives the viewer only a taste of what is to come. Without giving the details away, this movie is so violent that it is, without question, not for children to view. Central to the developing storyline in Kill Bill, Volume I is world-renowned, Japanese martial artist and actor, Sonny Chiba, whom Quentin Tarantino has regarded as one of the main inspirations for his particular brand of motion picture outputs. Kill Bill, Volume I, all in all, is a great movie. If there is any down side or sour note, it is that the movie was filmed roughly half a decade after the death of the leading Japanese actor, Toshirô Mifune, who, in America, is perhaps most famous for his role as Toranaga in the 1980 miniseries, Shogun. Potentially, there might have otherwise been an opportunity for Tarantino to provide another actor the chance to earn the level of recognition that was highly deserved, just as he had done with John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. It is reported that though Mifune could speak English, his lines were always dubbed in the American films in which he appeared, a major disappointment that would plague him until his death in 1997.

I recently revisited this kinetic classic from Quentin Tarantino and found myself loving it just as much as I did when it was originally released. It's fun to see how a film ages, and although Kill Bill might show some wrinkles, it's definitely still a fresh, fun face. The only reason it might seem as if this film has aged is that it has had such a cinematic influence. The film follows the exploits of "The Bride" played to perfection by Uma Thurman in, perhaps, her definitive role. The film credits the story to "Q & U" so one must suspect Uma played more than a cursory role in the conception of this character. The Bride goes on a revenge rampage that is less an exercise in realistic storytelling as it is a metaphor for the woman's fury. She begins the film a pregnant bride who is shot in the head by a scorned lover, has to overcome paralysis and repeated rape, and concludes the film as an almost inhuman robot who sends messages with dismembered low-level minions. As skillful as the choreography and as slick as the dialogue, this a fundamentally very basic film (which is why it's so effective). It's not difficult to side with the bride. Any rational human being recognizes that a pregnant woman who is shot in the head can pretty much justify all the anger in the world (which The Bride embodies). Still, this film gains intensity after a viewing of Kill Bill 2 which also shows preceding events which explain how, although still innocent, the Bride did contribute to the construction of her fate.