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Re:Re:Kill Bill
Unless you've seen the old 1960's kung fu action shows and movies, then you can't possibly appreciate this film. And if you hadn't seen any spaghetti western, then you really won't "get" the film either. I suggest you see what I mentioned, watch the film, then share your opinion on what you think.
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Language pair: English; Japanese
This is a reply to message # 36261
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| 48518 |
Re:Re:Re:Re:Kill Bill
Layla Kill Bill 033005
Not everyone is aware that Kill Bill is based on Chinese Pulp Fiction, and that it is intended to be satirical, as Matthew seems to be hinting. It is very campy, very melodramatic, and when you watch it from this point of view, it is very funny.
It kind of reminds me of Shakespeare's most unpopular play, Titus Andronicus. It was written at a time when a new theatrical Genre called "revenge tragedy" was very popular, good examples of which could be found in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedie.
If you look at, for example, The Spanish Tragedie and Titus Andronicus side-by-side, it appears that Andronicus is trying to one-up The Spanish Tragedie at every turn. Whenever there's a murder in the one, there's a double murder in the second. If a woman's tongue is cut out in the one, she loses her tongue and her hands in the other. When you consider that Shakespeare's Globe Theater didn't have the kind of special effects technology that we take for granted today, but that actors would unfurl, for example, a roll of red ribbon to simulate bleeding from a stabbing wound, it's easy to imagine that Titus Andronicus may have been intended to be very light, tongue-in-cheek, very satirical. Nothing at all like Julie Taymore's very dark, bitter Titus Andronicus with Anthony Hopkins.
Of course, Kill Bill doesn't use rolls of red ribbon any more than Julie Taymore does, but if you look at the special effects in the movie and how they are done, you may find something of the tongue-in-cheek (joking with a straight face) in Kill Bill as well. Anyway, I enjoyed it very much from that perspective, and in fact, I enjoyed it far more than I did Kill Bill 2, which I felt was just okay, and really didn't live up to the promise the first movie had set up for us.
The other thing that you should know about my feelings about martial arts movies is that I'm a big fan of dancing, and the old films with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, Gene Kelly, and the big musicals with the huge production numbers. Martial arts, to me, is a very special kind of dance, and I really enjoy seeing how actors learn to use their bodies in these movies. I was particularly impressed with Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu on that count.
Layla, if you decide to see the movie, let us know what you think!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; Japanese
This is a reply to message # 48464
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