If you have Javascript enabled and would like to view the lastest version of this Weblog, please go here.
June 06, 2005
Kill Bill...
So, this might say something about me that you didn’t want to know (depending on who you are, I guess), but…
Kill Bill rocked!
I am (and have always been) a huge fan of Kung Fu movies (also see here and here). When we were kids, Luke (my brother) and I would fill the empty spaces of our summer vacations renting martial arts movies (from Bruce Lee to Chuck Norris, we liked them all). A great childhood memory is of when I stumbled across a documentary about the “Peking Opera School“ on television. I was enamored by the fact that there was actually a school that taught people how to be in Kung Fu movies.
I don’t know if there was a Kung Fu movie that my brother and I didn’t like. In fact, those movies are probably the reason why Luke and I began taking Karate classes.
As I grew older, my tastes changed a little, but my love for Kung Fu cinema didn’t. Throughout the years, I developed an eye for which Kung Fu movies I liked and which ones I didn’t (usually having something to do with the story, but not always). In any case, I was amazed when I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I couldn’t believe how well a complex and compelling story could be written around the martial arts (I had previously had many glimpses of this through Kurosawa and Woo films, but nothing as utterly emotional as that was). The other night, I was delighted again when I watched Hero.
Friday and Saturday, Quentin Terantino did not dissapoint: Kill Bill (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) wa pure genious.
In true Kung Fu movie-making sense, Terantino didn’t only pull off a wonderful homage to Kung Fu cinema, but he delivered a storyline that was deep, emotional, and intense.
Be warned, though: if you haven’t seen these movies yet, prepare yourself for a blood-fest of universal proportions. I’m talking gallons upon gallons of blood spraying from severed limbs as if a fire hose was turned to “full.”
But, in my opinion, the incalculable amount of blood was so comical that it just made the movies even more enjoyable.
Kill Bill was funny, intriguing, and ultimately redeeming (severed limbs and all). I would recommend this to anyone who can get past the fact that Terantino purposely made a spectacle out of violence — a better response to what is becoming a social norm than many other films I have seen recently.
Posted at 12:40 pm
Trackback:Trackback Link:
