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Saturday, May 22, 2004
There's a blade by the bed and a phone in my hand.
I saw Kill Bill 2 again last night. That was pretty cool, because I was seeing it with my mother and sister. I was particularly interested in my mother's reaction to it, because she said that she enjoyed the first a lot more during the second sitting. And really, Kill Bill 2 is quite different in tone from the first.
She liked it, but found it to be even more weird than Volume 1. In particular, she found Pai Mei to be an utterly ridiculous character. And of course, he was. And that was the point. But she understood that, so it's all good. lol
In any case, I loved it. I liked it more the second time, definitely. Kill Bill just has a great attraction, which is difficult to adequately describe. Apart from the themes and all of that stuff, the performances and characters are all so wonderful. Not only are they wonderful, but they interact with each other perfectly too.
There are several examples that I can give you about why Kill Bill has had such a strong impact on me. The first and most obvious is probably my Kill Adam RPG...which began almost as a parody of Kill Bill, where Kill Bill itself is almost a parody of traditional Hong Kong and Japanese martial arts films. It's evolved beyond that, but the point is that Kill Bill was my main motivation for doing it (not to mention Josh's encouragement and discussion).
Secondly, there's Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah.
Uma Thurman is never an actress that I particularly noticed. Out of any of the performances of hers that I've seen...I've rarely been wowed by her acting ability. She was really awkward and silly as Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin for example (not that Batman & Robin is an example of a great movie anyway -- but still).
In addition, I never understood why she is seen as this great "Hollywood beauty". She has incredibly ugly feet (lol) and she has some very manly features. I don't see her as being very feminine at all, in various ways. This isn't to say that I think she's ugly -- if I saw her in everyday life, I'd probably think she was quite a pretty woman. But she's certainly not a classic beauty, if you see what I mean. In general, I always felt that she was a bit overrated.
Kill Bill changed my opinion.
Not only did she deliver her lines perfectly, but the character of The Bride fit her like a glove. In some ways, the idea of Uma Thurman and a martial arts movie originally seemed like polar opposites for me. But it works so well.
Moreover, Uma impressed me greatly in various scenes in both movies, but particularly in Volume 2. Remember when she was being buried in the wooden coffin? Her reaction to that...her crying frantically when the torch went out...everything about that felt real. It was amazing to watch. It was really mesmerizing. And when she walks into the cafe and asks for the water, and gives that little smile...lol. It was just perfectly executed by her.
Her interactions with Bill and B.B. are also very genuine in appearance. Overall, a combination of her character's plight as well as her own acting ability really helped to sell me on Kill Bill. It was a role made for her, and she shined in it. It was so good that it has really made me love her as an actress.
And Daryl Hannah...well, she always kind of annoyed me. I think this is mostly because her characters have usually been very soft personalities.
Remember her character in Grumpy Old Men? Nearly every character she plays seems to speak softly and wear fluffy pink sweaters.
So of course, I start to somewhat associate that with her.
Seeing her play Elle Driver was so refreshing, because here she was, being the total opposite to what I'd expect. Not only that, but she did it so well. The way she delivered her lines, her physical movements...and especially her little speech about what happened with Pai Mei. When the camera zooms in on her eye and mouth as she talks and laughs...she really came across as a classic movie villain. It was great. It left a big impression on me. And so, like Uma, Kill Bill has definitely restored some faith in Daryl Hannah for me.
On a similar note, I'm continuing to prepare for Kill Adam 2. I'm going to be pushing things a bit further on a technological basis, by incorporating more HTML into the design and stuff. Tony is helping me with that, which is great. He always knows what he's doing and his actual enthusiasm for the RPG has been awesome in general.
I'm thinking about using the music player concept from The Matrix Revelations, as well. It will be a bit more simple in Kill Adam...but it would potentially give participants a much finer degree of control over the atmosphere of their posts. The big question is whether or not I have my broadband set up in time -- if it were up and running, things would be a lot easier in terms of music and stuff.
Anyway, it should be good. Perhaps Kill Adam 2's debut will coincide with the changes that I briefly mentioned in my last post. So, KA2 might be a good testbed for it -- a good example of what you'll be able to do.
All in all, I hope that there's enough interest for this second RPG. I hope that people decide to sign-up. Although the entrance requirements will be within certain boundaries, I don't want people to feel intimidated -- even if they don't get in, it's great that they give it a go. Just by signing up, people are showing a level of enthusiasm for the RPG. And that kind of support is very cool.
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