Diary of an up and coming sociopath

Nikki and I recently got back in after seeing Kill Bill, Volume 2 (or, as the BBFC card would suggest, just “Volume 2″) - Expectations were obviously high after the first one and we’d even gone so far as to go to the preview showing to ensure maximum exclusivity. I admit, a few minutes into the film I was beginning to wonder if things hadn’t gone horribly wrong. The pacing of the first 15 minutes just seems incredibly off. Far, far too slow. Luckily, it picks up. There are far fewer action scenes in this film, but the cinematography and dialogue makes it remain interesting. The whole Pai-Mei sequence is great in a kind of Quentin Tarantino does The Karate Kid way. I liked that we kind of get to see the “origin story” of the bride, though ultimately her motivations for ever joining Bill aren’t really explained, which would’ve been nice. There’s a good part near the end where Bill does some amateur super-hero philosophy. Nothing proper geeks didn’t already know but interesting to people like me, nonetheless. There’s also a part with Samuel L. Jackson, which is awe-inspiring solely because I didn’t even realise it was him until the credits. That’s talented acting, when you’re being projected 15 feet high on the wall and people fail to notice who you are.

However, one thing we do learn the motivation for is why the film was cut up. The two parts are so different in tone and pace that I can’t imagine people would’ve enjoyed it half as much spliced together. If the first part is a kung-fu homage, the second part is more like a western. Spliced together, it would’ve been all out action for half the film, then a grinding halt, and the rest of the film resolved by, er, deep conversation. People may have felt cheated of a climatic moment. I’d be interested to see if the film was literally split down the middle, or whether a longer cut of the film would be mixed up somehow. The changes seem so dramatic I can’t help but feel some modifications must’ve been made.

One thing that I am totally unclear on was the deliberate obscuring of the Bride’s name though. As far as any of us can see, it was only a device to, er, allow for a really, really weird aside once it gets revealed. Anticlimax, perhaps? Not a very good one, when the power of DVD freeframe has revealed it anyway. Someone needs to explain to me whyTarantino found it so important.