Written And Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Elle Driver: "That's right. I killed your master. And now I'm gonna kill you too, with your own sword, no less, which in the very immediate future, will become... my sword."
The Bride: "Bitch, you don't have a future."
I might have waited too long to post my review for the first part on this blog, but here's the review for the second part. Now, I'll admit that while I do think Volume 1 was much stronger, I've grown to really appreciate the second volume and how it concluded this duology.
There's a lot of moving parts. There's two viral origins in relation to The Bride's mission of revenge and why Bill held her in such regard. Let's go into those first.
There was a big deal about The Bride getting a sword from Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) by everyone. It turned out that Hanzo having a reserved hatred for Bill was enough incentive to get him to make a sword for The Bride. Bill has certainly pissed off a lot of people in his time.
My favourite however was watching The Bride being trained by Pai-Mei (Gordon Liu). While he's a misogynistic, racist and xenophobic sadist of the highest order, he turned out to a brilliant trainer for The Bride. When it turned out that Elle Driver killed him, it was another reason for The Bride to up her revenge.
I do love that both Elle and Budd's comeuppance come within tandem of each other. Budd was living a depressing existence but he actually got one up on The Bride by burying her alive. It didn't take and neither did he expect that Elle would be the one to kill him. I almost felt sorry for Budd.
Elle on the other hand got a fate arguably worse than death. Having lost both eyes was squeamish but she was probably not long for the world with the Black Mamba nearby. Again, we got an epic fight scene between both Elle and The Bride as well as the latter's name finally revealed.
Yup, she's called Beatrix Kiddo and by the third act she finally caught up with Bill and met her daughter, B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine). The reunion with the three was another strength of the movie. Beatrix and Bill in spite of their complicated feelings towards one another had a certain level of respect. Bill's death was more restrained compared to others but thematically, it was a satisfying way to end this whole bloody saga.
- Samuel L. Jackson played the Reverend during the wedding rehearsal. Beatrix was almost during a wedding rehearsal. That's nuts.
- That Superman/Clark Kent analogy might be one of my favourite things that Quentin Tarantino has ever written.
- Standout music: Malcolm McLaren's About Her and Quincy Jones Ironside.
- Chronology: It was six months between releases of both parts but less time in between. You can watch both movies together with Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.
Kill Bill: Volume 2 on reflection turned out to be a much better conclusion to this whole bloody affair. It went down a spaghetti western route and it ended working perfectly, especially during the final confrontation between Beatrix and Bill.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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