Content Warning for mention of abuse, miscarriage and violence against women
Two decades later I have finally embarked on the journey known as Tarantino’s Kill Bill (Vol 1). What could I possibly say about this that hasn’t already been said? I have various impressions about it. Let’s try to unpack some of it.
Imagery
This is one of the best visual experiences I’ve had in a while. Kill Bill Vol. 1 is shot meticulously and with great emphasis on doing something impactful, but not always the same something. If you have followed my Medium blog you know that I recently re-watched Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge, which is known for its consistent stylistic cinematography. Though both films feel defined by their imagery, they are two different species.
Tarantino aims for picturesque visuals and he mixes it with utter and over the top violence. Not so much in that the violence itself is beautiful, in fact it’s absurd most of the time, funny even. The choice is to have these both in the same film without one outweighing or taking from the other. There are so many examples of this, but in particular: the silhouette against the blue fight scene, the fight scene between the Bride and O-Ren Ishii near the end, outside in very light snow, sometimes just the way Tokyo flashes behind the fighters, or how a sword looks pulled from its sheath, and various and countless others strewn across the whole film.
Soundtrack
The music has this 70s funk thing going on, which you wouldn’t expect from a movie so heavily based around Japanese sword fighting and Japanese film culture. Ennio Morricone wrote the majority of the film’s tracks. He is known in particular for working on spaghetti western films like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. With this musical backdrop Tarantino blends the culture of 70s exploitation films, spaghetti western gun slinger films with the culture of Japanese anime, Japanese samurai films, and of course incorporating his own particular style. I think the culmination of all of it works quite well, but I don’t have too much experience with these film genres, save for particular types of anime. At one point you could hear a synth line you’d only expect from a John Carpenter film (of course it was my favourite musical bit).
Trauma and Vengeance
Much of Kill Bill Vol. 1 forgoes dialogue to convey Bride’s anguish and determination through her violence, shouts, whimpers and dedication. We know from her hospital scene that she was in a coma for years after Bill shot her and that her pregnancy was terminated through the trauma. Action and visuals drive the film, so we can view the plot as being a simple tale of revenge where a victim hunts down an abuser.
However, while she’s on a vengeance mission and wants the audience to understand that she has no mercy, there’s a point in the film where the focus is off Bride and conveys angry, violent women in general. We see women tired of being sexual conquests, women tired of living in a man’s world, where men can do what they want without consequence. On one hand I can see how a 2003 film audience would revel in this kind of female empowerment, but wonder if a 2022 film audience would feel the same.
Men’s Portrayal of Women’s Violence
It reminds me of the differences between modernism and postmodernism. In short these are two very closely tied movements that followed one another, but varied in important ways, like meaning vs. absurdity of truth. Technically third–wave feminism had already begun by the 90s and certainly into the 2000s. However, let’s not forget this film was produced by Harvey Weinsten and written and directed by a straight white man. And so we see a woman’s use of power and violence against her aggressors in the same way a man would and are supposed to congratulate her for it.
Could you watch Kill Bill Vol. 1 and wonder if it had a streak of misogyny running through it, especially when considering its original source material, and who was behind the production of it? What would a woman director’s version of this kind of vengeance look like? Promising Young Woman? Because though some part of our psyche wants to see this direct power reversal as something righteous and deserved, it’s still existing within a masculine sphere – through who made it, but also in the way all of the women in the film behave.
Let me just add that I am not someone that does not believe women are inherently non-violent. I know for a fact that this is incorrect. We all intrinsically have these feelings and urges within us. But the way they come through look different. Perhaps they ultimately are different because of how differently we are socialized. But given this is a piece of art with very direct influences and a very particular style, I wonder if these observations hold much water, too.
(I’m about to contradict myself, hold on).
Ending Thoughts
You know I couldn’t end a post on this without bringing up some cultural and racial observations. I wonder about sensitivity to Japanese culture in certain aspects. I let that idea stew for a little, because I’m aware that this film is more fantasy than it is anything else. But, is it just? Let me reiterate that by the end O-Ren Ishii and Gogo Ybari are heinously brutal characters. And yes, so is the Bride as she has ripped through about 57 people by this point. But the ending imagery sits a bit uneasy with me. We see Ishii, an Asian woman in an Asian land, dead on the ground while the blonde woman victoriously wields a samurai blade.
On that note, I’m hungry for more artfully violent films. What do you think I’ll go with next?
To read more of my writing on film, check out the cinema category.
You can stream Kill Bill Vol. 1 on Hulu.
