Kill Bill: Volume 1. 2003. USA. Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Screenplay by Tarantino, Uma Thurman. Martial arts advisor Yuen Woo-ping. Sword fight choreography by Tetsuro Shimaguchi. With Thurman, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, David Carradine. 35mm. In English, Japanese, French; English subtitles. 111 min.
Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill is an exuberant revenge saga in which a former assassin awakens from a coma and sets out to hunt down the squad of killers who betrayed her. A lifelong devotee of Hong Kong kung fu, Japanese samurai films, and 1970s exploitation cinema, Tarantino turns the film into a delirious tour through the genres he loves, from Shaw Brothers martial arts to spaghetti Westerns and anime. Tarantino brought in Yuen Woo-ping, whose months-long fight camp prepared the stellar cast for hand-to-hand combat and fluid wirework, while sword-fight choreographer Tetsuro Shimaguchi contributed to the design of the blood-soaked katana duels. Blending Asian martial traditions with American grindhouse aesthetics, Kill Bill is a triumph of hyper-stylized action cinema.