I have never owned Kill Bill on any home media because I was always waiting on this. I haven't bought much physical media since 2020 when before that I used to go to Best Buy or wherever and scoop up every Blu-Ray under $10 but I am day one 4k on this one. I think I can still get tickets to see a 70mm print but honestly I don't go to theaters much when I have a solid projector based and 7.1 setup in my basement. But it's tempting since I can't think of the last time I saw a screening on real film let alone 70mm.Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (20XX) - Theaters
No idea what release year to put, so let’s just give it two rad Xs.
After more than 5 hours in the theater I can say with confidence the worst part of this was the 15 minute intermission … and whatever the hell that post-credit Fortnight tie-in animated scene was supposed to be.
Otherwise, if you have the bladder for it, this is the definitive Kill Bill.
What few changes I noticed all happen in
Vol 1:
-O-Ren’s origin story animation is expanded to include her killing the specific henchman who murdered her father, and not just the mob boss.
-The Battle in the House of Blue Leaves is entirely in color.
-The scene in which The Bride tortures Sofie for information, and what Bill tells Sofie afterward in the hospital is changed. (and the “clip show” teasing Vol. 2 is absent)
So not really significant changes, and for the most part, The Whole Bloody Affair is merely watching both volumes back-to-back without needing to swap out the DVDs. But it’s that last change that makes all the difference: Bill doesn’t ask Sofie if Beatrix knows B.B. is still alive. Meaning, if this is your first time through, the audience doesn’t know B.B. is still alive either.
That reveal was put in place to set up Vol. 2, but is much more appropriate for the audience to learn at the same time Beatrix does when she finally confronts Bill directly. It’s a rug-pull moment allowing a reflection in real time on the blood-soaked path she took, complicating her revenge story against the father of her child, and its fantastic.
When I first saw them decades ago, I thought Vol 1. was exhilarating and fun, but annoyingly incomplete, while Vol. 2 was more subdued and much less exciting, but had a great climax and payoff.
But with both halves combined, the second half’s more deliberate approach feels completely appropriate immediately following the bonkers chaos of the House of Blue Leaves scene. Together, each individual element more readily synergizes with the others.
It’s a glorious mash-up of genres: kung fu classic, blaxploitation, neo westerns, samurai movies and probably a half dozen more I couldn’t spot all in support of an over-the-top and supremely sleek and cool revenge epic in the vein of Lady Snowblood.
-I also much more appreciate the appearances of Hattori Hanzo and Pai Mei than I did 20 years ago.
-And that GoGo Yukari is played by Chiaki Kuriyama from Battle Royale
-And that the Two Pines church is on Agua Caliente street, which in addition to simply meaning “hot water” is also the town at the end of For a Few Dollars More.
-And that The Bride’s yellow jumpsuit is a nod to Bruce Lee in Game of Death
-And that Elle’s thrashing is reminiscent of Pris’ death in Blade Runner.
You guys, I hadn’t even seen Blade Runner when I first caught Vol 1. on opening night in 2003.
I didn’t even like Pulp Fiction yet.
My how I’ve grown.
I watched it tonight and agree with this.Opportunities to see it in a theater are few and far between because that's the Netflix business model, but I really enjoyed Wake Up Dead Man and it's an easy recommend for anyone who liked Knives Out and/or Glass Onion.
Part of what made the first two movies in this series fun was the shifting point of view which allowed them to be both whodunnit mysteries (which save the big reveal for the end) and crime thrillers (which reveal the details of the crime to the audience and then build suspense through the cat-and-mouse game between killer and investigator). This particular brand of having your cake and eating it too appears to be what Rian Johnson was born to write but this presents a new problem as he gets further into the series: Three movies in we now have a growing back log of past re-directs and twists in our heads and so we're actively looking for the red herrings right from the beginning, even more so than in Part 2. I half expected this movie to be the breaking point and there was a nervous moment about 2/3 of the way into watching this for the first time where I thought that Johnson had pushed his experiments with narrative structure too far and it was heading toward an unsatisfying conclusion but he managed to stick the landing (for my taste anyway).
It's not as much fun as Glass Onion (Ed Norton hamming it up as an unlikeable tech-bro in that one is a tough act to follow) and it tips further into the kind of uncomfortable political and religious conversations we have all been warned to avoid at Thanksgiving than even Knives Out did, but in the end it's probably the most thematically resonant of the three because of that. Which is all the more annoying because I know I won't be able to buy a physical copy of this movie either. Sigh.
Oh and Josh O'Connor is terrific in this movie and if this had been produced by Amazon instead of Netflix we probably would have already seen an announcement that he's been picked as the next James Bond. He's got my vote anyway.
This was actually a pretty good flick. I’ve always liked Sam Worthington. Everyone was pretty good in this. Thanks for mentioning it here.Watched "Relay" , https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11539996/