i netflixed "kill bill vol. 1" as part of my effort to watch all tarantino films. i had heard some things about the film, but overall didn't know much about it and didn't know what to expect. when trailers for the film first aired on tv, there were also trailers for "lost in translation", which is another film with a japanese connection. it stars bill murray, so i would often confuse the two films. kill bill, bill murray, hey it's an easy mistake to make.

when the film opened with the 'presented in shaw scope' title, i knew this would be a throwback to the martial arts films of the 1970s. i was never into those things so i'm not an expert as to what they are like. sometimes when non-japanese paint a picture of japan, i feel uncomfortable, but overall i think that tarantino did a really good job with "kill bill" as a modernized (highly stylized, exoticized, idolized) homage of the classic martial arts films, though i did notice a few minor weak points. again, i'm not an expert so maybe it wasn't so much weak as not my thing--i've never been into tarantino films. watching the bonus footage, tarantino said that he learned how to be an action director while making this film. perhaps that was the weakness that i noticed. if so, then volume 2 will be quite interesting to watch.

i enjoyed the over the top aspects of the film as they fit very well. those bits didn't seem as awkward to me as they usually do in tarantino films. the opening of black mamba and copperhead fighting then having coffee together was hilarious. i felt that that was a very tarantino touch. i really liked some of the sets--they were gorgeous. i think the audio portion of the film was well done. the soundtrack used was perfect hybrid of old and new, just like the visuals.

i know a lot of people liked the characters o-ren ishii and gogo yubari but they just didn't seem that fierce to me. i was expecting them to be much more psychotic for being such notorious killers. the dialogue between hattori hanzo and his subordinate cracked me up! tokuni, kare ga "ore wa hage jyanai. sotteru dake" wo itta toki. i was surprised to see okinawa played a role in the film (a throwback to "the karate kid"? hahhaa). especially strange to see that swordmaker master comes from such a peaceful island. makes me wonder if there's some classic martial arts film that takes place in okinawa or if tarantino just used it since okinawa is the 'birthplace' of karate.

things that pissed me off: naturally, uma thurman's horrible japanese pronunciation. i had to read the subtitles to understand a lot of what she was saying. i would have much preferred that they do adr work to get less painful japanese out of her. maybe that's too much to ask. at the very least she could have said 'ishii' correctly!!! the 'i' at the end isn't pronounced twice, it's held long. it's not 'ishi-i', it's 'ishi~', get it uma? lucy liu's pronunciation wasn't so bad--there were just a couple of words that hurt my ears. i was very impressed with julie dreyfus's pronunciation. i immediately knew that that was the voice of someone who had lived in japan. (this was confirmed when i looked into her biography.)

i'm now ready to watch volume 2.