Friday, April 16, 2004

   Whoo! Look at the limbs fly!
In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, I just saw Kill Bill: Volume 1. And, being a big fan of martial arts movies, I loved every minute of it. And, since a lot of it was in Japanese, my grandmother... HATED it. So, this post has two purposes. One, to review Kill Bill v1. Secondly, to reiterate my grandmother's jingoistic ramblings.

Now, for the review. For those who don't know, Kill Bill is directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film is basically a tale of revenge, with tons of samurai-esque action all around. Firstly, the plot is quite solid. As a revenge flick goes, it's full of grit and attitude, thus setting the mood quite well. In the area of martial arts, the movie succeeds quite well. There's tons of sword-swinging action, with a bit of regular martial arts mixed in. Plus, there's the ever-present Hollywood feats of wire-fu and physically-impossible jumping and dodging.

And now we come to the gore. We've all heard about KB's most famous attribute. To be blunt, yes, it's gory. Limbs fly everywhere, blood flies in insane amounts, and plenty of heads roll. But Mr. Tarantino keeps it all in perspective by adding in some comedy, be it in the form of subtle nuances and one-liners or the even subtler pseudo-fakeness of the spewing blood.

All in all, Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a film definitely worth seeing. There's a bit of language, but don't worry. It's not an Eminem album. The action, drama, and overall presentation (akin to Akira Kurosawa's work, combined with styles from American cinema) leave me no choice but to give this film a 10/10.

And now, for the promised report on my grandmother's famous ranting.

Seeing as how she was raised during World War II, it's understandable that she's not exactly a fan of Japanese culture. But I had no idea how bad it was.

As soon as the dialogue turned to mostly Japanese (thankfully with subtitles), she started ranting. Basically, she reiterated her belief that Japan is only pretending to be America's ally, and is basically getting ready to "hit us all over again". Once an enemy, always an enemy, apparently. This is no doubt due to a few things.

1)The propaganda during the war.
2)The fact that she's para-militarily jingoistic towards America.

She also used this movie as a stepping-stone to reiterate my overall "obsession" with Japan. >_< All in all, if it weren't for the subtitles and the fact that I had the movie practically blaring, I wouldn't have enjoyed the movie at all.

(This post would be much longer and wittier, but I'm very tired. Long day, and whatnot. I'll probably add more tomorrow. :D )
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