Kill Bill Vol. 1 & Vol. 2 (Blu-ray)

Seeing Inglorious Basterds recently provided the urge to revisit the Kill Bill films. I replaced the DVD versions with Blu-rays some months ago, and they’ve been sitting unopened ever since. Joyce had never seen the KB’s, and I wasn’t sure they would be for her, particularly the first. I made her promise that if we watched Vol. 1, and she didn’t like it, she wasn’t allowed to bail on Vol. 2. With that agreement in place, we watched both films on successive nights.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen KB, and I’d forgotten how much fun the first instalment is. The set piece confrontation between The Bride and the Crazy 88’s is waaaay over the top and, IMO, detracts from the film, but I’m willing to forgive Tarantino that indulgence as his homage to the genre. However, the remainder of the film strikes a perfect balance between action, dark humour and character development that QT tried, but wasn’t quite able, to pull off in IB. Joyce really enjoyed Vol. 1 and was anxious to find out how the rest of the story unfolded in Vol. 2. She wasn’t disappointed.

Vol. 2 plays out at a far more measured pace, simultaneously filling out the backstory and advancing the narrative. But when the action arrives, it does so in explosive fashion, notably The Bride’s showdown with Elle Driver which matches the intensity of the ‘knock down drag ‘em outs’ with Vernita and Gogo the first time around. The acting also takes on greater prominence with David Carradine’s Bill and Gordon Lui (in his second of two roles) as Pei Mai being particular standouts. I recall many people expressing disappointment with Vol. 2 when it was released, complaining that it was too long and ponderous compared to the action-packed Vol. 1. But, taken as two pieces of a whole, it’s very nearly perfect.

As befits the material and mood, Tarantino paints Vol. 1 with bold, almost cartoon-like images, and the Blu-ray reproduces them in spectacular fashion. The film is chock-full of vibrant yellows, reds, blues and greens, and they positively leap off the screen. For the most part, he works with a more subdued colour palette in Vol. 2 that’s well suited to the more sombre tone and emotional depth of the latter half of the story, but it’s no less impressive. In both cases, the image is clean, detailed and razor sharp, and the B&W sequences (save for some intentional grain) rival those in the blu-ray release of Sin City (a reference quality disc, IMO). The uncompressed Dolby Digital soundtrack is every bit the equal of the stellar visuals - clear, tight and powerful.

I should note that these are the Alliance Atlantis Blu-ray releases (as is my copy of Sin City). They may be bare bones in terms of features, but the quality is outstanding and so is the very affordable price. I wish I could say the same for the Alliance release of From Dusk Til Dawn, but it doesn’t impress to nearly the same degree as the others.

Next on the Tarantino viewing agenda is Jackie Brown. Too bad that one isn’t available on Blu-ray yet.