KILL BILL VOLUME 2 movie review

      Compare to Volume One, Kill Bill Volume Two is less exciting but has solved most of the questions we had in Volume One. What is the name of the bride? Why Bill wants to kill Kiddo? Why the bridge left Bill. Other than continuing her journey of revenge, Volume Two also reveals the background of Kiddo, how she became deadly assassin and her relationship with Bill. If you are a fan of old movies, then you will know that there are a lot scenes where the director takes from Shaw’s Kung-Fu movie (Gordon Liu), classic Italian horror movies (when Kiddo escapes from the coffin and walk like zombie n the street) and Japanese monster movies (fight between Elle and Kiddo in the trailer home, e.g. Godzilla and Mothra). Compare to Volume One, Volume Two has more stories to tell and more dialogues between the characters and the dialogues are fundamental elements to keep the story going. The movie opens with a long close up of The Bride (Uma Thurman) behind the wheel of a car, explaining her mission, which is to kill Bill. Tarantino writes dialogue with quirky details that suggest the obsessions of his people. Although some lines does not seem to match with the story, but the lines speaks the characters in the film.

“That's one of the ways he gives his movies a mythical quality; the characters don't talk in mundane everyday dialogue, but in a kind of elevated geek speak that lovingly burnishes the details of their legends, methods, beliefs and arcane lore.”, Roger Ebert, April 16, 20004.

     The film began in black and white before switching to color, which the flashback that the pregnant Bride and her entire wedding party were targeted by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad in a massacre at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel. Bill was responsible -- Bill, who she confronts on the porch of the chapel for a conversation that suggests the depth and weirdness of their association. There is another scene which the director used black and white, which suggest the claustrophobia of being buried. The Bride and her future family being shoot by the squad; inside her wooden casket, and as clods of earth rain down on the lid, the director used black and white for the most painful moment in her life. In setting up this scene, Tarantino pauses for colorful dialogue once again; The Bride is informed by Bill that Pai Mei hates women, whites and Americans, and much of his legend is described.

“Such speeches function in Tarantino not as long-winded detours, but as a way of setting up characters and situations with dimensions it would be difficult to establish dramatically.”, Roger Ebert, April 16, 20004.

     The director uses a lot of methods which make the movie comic like. For example, exaggerating actions, sudden close up and zoom out.  Pai Mei, whose hair and beard are long and white and flowing, like a character from the pages of a comic book, is another example of Tarantino's method, which is to create lovingly structured episodes that play on their own while contributing to the legend. Pai Mei waits patiently for eons on his hilltop until he is needed for a movie, like a distillation of all wise, ancient and deadly martial arts masters in countless earlier movies.

     In the film, when all the assassins retired, they try to forget their past. Vernita has a daughter and try to be a mother, Budd work as a toilet cleaner in a bar, and Kiddo plans to marry a used record store owner and lead a normal life. No matter how much money they can earn from killing people, they still choose to be a normal person.

      This movie plays a big contrast with real life. Kiddo drives fancy and colourful car for the journey of killing people, she is not killed by the gun shot by Budd, Bill and Kiddo had gun fight without waking up their daughter, Karen used gun in the hotel without disturbing the other customers, five-point exploding-heart trick,  these are impossible in reality. 

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/kill-bill-vol-2-20040406