quote:

---

I remember reading some where that Quentin did not want to cut anything out so that's why it was split into 2 parts.

| IP:

---

That's true but it's because he felt he had a lot of good footage and did not want to compromise the film. Not because he was trying to avoid the NC-17 rating.
 

---

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 09-30-2003, 09:09 PM:
 
The film was slplit in two part because it is five hours long, not to avoid an NC-17 rating. It just happens that as it is split into two parts, it avoids a massive total tally that puts it into the nc-17 realm. That is just the side effect.

I am anxious to see this film.

Dave
 

---

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 09-30-2003, 11:08 PM:
 
Jeff, did you see only volume 1, or both volumes? I'm now even more pumped than ever. Miramax should pay you for the good publicity!

AJG
 

---

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 10-01-2003, 01:01 AM:
 
From what I read, the two parts will not even be close to 5 hours long. You are not really gaining much time by splitting it into two parts. INstead of one 3 hour plus movie, you are getting two 90+minute movies.

Guess who suggested this move - Harvey.
 

---

Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 10-01-2003, 08:57 AM:
 
Actually, it's more toward three hours total I think. Volume one was only about 100 minutes or so. And yes, that is the one I saw. I don't think I will be lucky enough to see Volume 2 until next year.

And by the way...BE SURE TO STAY after the "written and directed" credits. There is an epilogue, and some scenes from 2. And there is a HUGE plot twist given away that will have you killing Tarantino for making you wait until February.

Something that was pointed out to me that I thought was interesting was the dates these are being released on:

VOLUME ONE: 10/10
VOLUME TWO: 02/20

Ones and twos.

And, I agree with the comment about being de-sensitized to violence. This film would NEVER play as well in Europe as it will here. I wished that America could embrace the sexual content of film and TV more instead of the violence. We might not be in so many wars. But that's another subject all together.

I look forward to hear what you guys have to say about KILL BILL. Just be prepared to have a shock or two.
 

---

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 10-01-2003, 10:31 AM:
 
The running time of Volume One is 110mins.

Just wait till you see Volume Two, it's much more fun.

 

---

Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 10-01-2003, 11:13 AM:
 
Here is a link to see the bootleg trailer that is off the CD soundtrack. You will see more clips from the film, including part of the Anime sequence:

KILL BILL Bootleg Trailer
 

---

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 10-01-2003, 05:46 PM:
 
It was more than Harvey's suggestion, it was his order. Anyone who knows anything about Mirimax is that NOTHING happens there without his stamp of approval, and he is well known for doing whatever it takes to make as much money as possible.

I apologize for typing the "5" on the hour tally. It is in fact "3" hours long. It was cut for that reason, as given by Harvey, but the real reason if you know Harvey is that he likes money.

Dave
 

---

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 10-01-2003, 06:15 PM:
 
Um Dave you spelt the word five.

I would say it is probably close to four hours since the first one is 110 mins long.
 

---

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 10-01-2003, 11:18 PM:
 
Um, oops.

I am also on heavy medication too.

I will rack it up to major brain fart in both instances, with a slight twinge of goofy juice on the side.

Dave
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-02-2003, 01:52 AM:
 

quote:

---

It was more than Harvey's suggestion, it was his order. Anyone who knows anything about Mirimax is that NOTHING happens there without his stamp of approval

---

quote:

---

And, I agree with the comment about being de-sensitized to violence. This film would NEVER play as well in Europe as it will here. I wished that America could embrace the sexual content of film and TV more instead of the violence. We might not be in so many wars. But that's another subject all together.

---

Wars are about the political policy of rich millionaire lawyers parading under the labels of "democrat" and "republican." But you are right about America's perverse love of violence and repulsion to sex.

America is unique in that its culture must have winners and losers in everything it does. We must have people to idolize and others to stomp in the face. This is really THE ROOT CAUSE of why we have over 10,000 gun homocides every year. Canada has just as much free gun access as America but nowhere near as many homicides per capita. American media programs us to think that violence (particularly that of using a gun as a tool) is a means to an end in solving lots of problems.

With that, kudos to Tarantino for using swords instead.
 

---

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 10-05-2003, 01:56 AM:
 
Ever since I saw the trailer for this - I have been waiting.

Being a fan of John Woo and Akira Kurosawa - I can't wait for this film.

Bring on the blood......
 

---

Posted by Chris Greenwell (Member # 1660) on 10-05-2003, 03:24 AM:
 
We just did a trade screening of Kill Bill yesterday, and most of the people that were in there walked out within the first half hour. I think people will really love it or really hate it...
 

---

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 10-06-2003, 06:14 PM:
 
All the real action starts to come together at the end of reel 4
through all of reel 5 till the end. Note end credits are just under 7 1/2 mins..

I've been running it since August, we have not had one walk-out for any of the screenings here.
 

---

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 10-10-2003, 01:31 AM:
 
This is my kind of movie. I loved it, I stayed for all the credits, I will be buying the soundtrack. I will be seeing it a few more times......

Now I am waiting for the sequel.........

I love the very beginning with the crackling feature presentation snipe.. Great stuff........
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-10-2003, 06:30 AM:
 
A damn fine film indeed! Tarantino back to more of the "Reservoir Dogs" violence mixed with the style of "Pulp Fiction". Even at the 2 hour point when the show ended and being 5am in the morning, I was ready to watch the next 2 hours. Now how much longer do I have to wait to see the rest of it? To hell with Matrix 3, give me Kill Bill 2!

I have one beef with the movie. The animation sequence was unnecessary and annoying. Had Tarantino shot those scenes with people instead of animating them, it would've been much more effective.

4 1/2 stars out of 5 (lost 1/2 star because of the anime sequence)
 

---

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 10-11-2003, 01:46 AM:
 
I disagree Brad. I thought the Anime sequence was a nice touch. Different, but nice. It did kind of derail for a minute the entire flow of the film, and seemed a bit out of place, but I did like it. I will agree to lose a half star for the scene BUT ONLY because it derailed the pace of the film.

Overall, this film just kicked my ass back and forth! I loved the thing. The Dojo Bar scene was one of the bloodiest things I have ever seen period! DAMN fine work Mr. Tarantino!

It is a must see. Anyone who walks out on this is an idiot! There I said it!

quote:

---

And by the way...BE SURE TO STAY after the "written and directed" credits. There is an epilogue, and some scenes from 2. And there is a HUGE plot twist given away that will have you killing Tarantino for making you wait until February.

---

Was this on the trade screening prints? Because this was not on the print I saw this on this evening.

Dave
 

---

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 10-11-2003, 02:06 AM:
 
There were no upcoming sceenes on my prints. The last line before the credits was enough of a plot twist.
 

---

Posted by Robb Johnston (Member # 239) on 10-11-2003, 09:55 AM:
 
The trade screenings ended with the up shot of the Bride from the trunk. The scene of the Bride on the airplane and Bill's final offscreen words to O Ren Ishii's secretary were originally in the middle of the credits.

After the screenings, perhaps after hearing on internet reviews that many walked out before seeing the scenes which are more than throwaway easter eggs often witnessed there, the scenes were incorporated into the main body of the film.

By the way, am I the only one who thought that the fight scenes in this film were better than those in Matrix Reloaded? If only for the fact that the wire work in Kill Bill looked less fake/odd than the computer aided wire work? Or maybe I am still suffering from the cold I had the last week.
 

---

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 10-11-2003, 11:33 AM:
 
Yeah -- no epilogue on the print I saw. And we waited around expecting something silly like that.
 

---

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 10-12-2003, 03:17 AM:
 
Watching this movie has put me on a high that I haven't experienced in a while.

First of all, damn you Harvey because this move has us waiting for the next one too long. I don't see how much more profits this move will make because judging by the opening week grosses(proably 24M), this movie will not get close to 100M. Which means the sequel will make maybe 60M because not enough people will catch the video before Vol2 comes out. Is that enough net of the overhead and extra marketing to cheat us Tarantino fans who are willing to sit through a 3 hour version? Also Vol2 viewers will be a subset of Vol1 viewers because each one is not self contained. The word of mouth seems to be very mixed. It was kind of annoying watching this movie with a matinee crowd. The only worse experiences I have had were watching the really good Big Lebowski with some suburban crowd and being the only guy to laugh out aloud during the movie. Oh, and the crowd for the Exorcist Writers Cut. Idiots were laughing at the most inopportune times while i was trying to get into the mood.

Praise goes to Robert Richardson who has given us excellent work in Natural Born Killers. He does another excellent job here. Tarantino is on the mark again with the music chosen. And the sound mixing is not clueless like the all goes approach used by other action movies. It's interesting that a movie that has a lot of excess, doesn't go overboard on the sound mix. So you don't tune out the noise.

The first scene is raw and has a lot more impact than any of the meanness you see in Michael Bay's silly Bad Boys movies. Also people, this is not a KUNG FU movie with a lot of wirefu and acrobatic stunts that you are used to seeing in Jackie Chan movies. Uma is not the second coming of Michelle Yeaoh and she doesn't aspire to be. Vol I, especially, is more of a samurai movie than a kung fu movie. You still have your wire fu and martial arts stuff,but with not much empahsis in Vol I.

There is a lot of blood spurting. I don't want to hear you f***ers whine about how fake it looked. That was intentional. You don't think Tarantino had access to peope who could make it look more realistic? It was partially an homage to the old B movies, but also at the same time, it was to give you a dose of reality to the effects of using a sword without being realistic(if that makes any sense).

The Anime Scene: Could it have been done better? Sure. In fact, the first half of the anime sequence seemed like a by the numbers How to Do Anime 101 type stuff. But then, it really ramped up. The creepy way one person tells the other too look at the eyes or look at the face was great. While I would have preferred a more out there style for the animation, I still loved it and didn't feel restless.

Uma Thurman: I was a little bit apprehensive if she could pull it off with the toughness aspect despite loving her Game of Death look in the teaser. Man, I am glad she turned out great. If one could nominate Zeta Jones and Renee for the lightweight forgettable annoying Chicago, what about Uma in a more demanding role here despite the critics snide remarks about the lack of background for the character(like that stopped them from praising the simple characters of Chicago). Action takes a backseat to simplistic musicals in our world.

Lucy Liu: I normally find her annoying.But she was really good here and the scene with the mafia heads is one to be seen.

The long toe scene : Made some peoplein the audience uncomfortable. I guess they would have preferred to have some long lingering look at her naked or something. I am glad Tarantino didn't make this movie to include what a lot of the regular moviegoers and critics would look for, but what he wanted. Yeah, I was looking at those bent toes, but hell, it added a certain rawness to the character and made it seem more real. Plus you just gotta admire the balls it took to stick with the scene for so long.

The final fight scene: just great. No showiness. Just down to business and lots of blood. Bloodbath gets a literal depiction at the end of the fight.

I recommend this movie very highly even if I know there will be someone reading this who will hate the movie.

[ 10-28-2003, 10:19 PM: Message edited by: Pravin Ratnam ]
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-12-2003, 03:49 AM:
 
It's pretty obvious Quentin has a major, major foot fetish. He seems to go out of his way in his movies to make sure to work into the script any chance for an actress to walk around barefoot and with as many overly closeup shots as possible of their feet.

Makes me wonder how many hours of raw "footage" he has in his private collection.
 

---

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-12-2003, 04:04 AM:
 
The most violent element in this movie was the anti-piracy code. The print I watched was really nice and clean, and especially during the black-and-white and the blue silhouette fight scenes the code spoiled the visual impact for me drastically.

I liked the movie. I understand it comes from a comic style, but I thought the blood fountains were a bit over the top. It made it a little silly. But I liked the fact that there was so much Japanese dialog. It was also quite well spoken by the American characters. That shows they payed attention to detail.
 

---

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 10-12-2003, 11:57 AM:
 
Oh, I forgot to talk about Vivica Fox who nailed her part down. It was a relief to see QT get someone like Fox than an annoying Halle Berry who looks too stiff in her action roles and seems to hog all the black action roles in recent times. I have always felt Vivica Fox had a good screen presence and a very no nonsense aspect about her acting. Only problem is the trailer pretty much shows you most of her scenes.

I just hope Darryl Hannah doesn't make one cringe in Vol 2. She is just a mediocre actress. Hopefully, Tarantino will use her in a way that wont expose her limited abilities.

Michael, I agree about the CRAP code. It hasnt bothered me as much in other movies. But here, with the great cinematography, it really stood out in some scenes.
 

---

Posted by Aaron Garman (Member # 1653) on 10-12-2003, 01:07 PM:
 
I absolutely loved the film. Damn Mr. Wienstein for making us wait until 2004 to see the rest of this masterpiece. As for the CRAP code, it was really bothersome. I'm getting really tired of seeing this garbage all over the screen. Suggestion: studios should crack down on internal thieves rather than paying customers who simply want to watch a nice presentation.

AJG
 

---

Posted by Robb Johnston (Member # 239) on 10-12-2003, 04:17 PM:
 
But the release dates are sort of clever, especially if Vol II holds firm.

volume 1 on 10/10
Volume 2 on 2/20

Only the volume numbers and zeros in the dates, makes it easy to remember.
 

---

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 10-12-2003, 04:23 PM:
 
Again, this is a Deluxe Labs printing job. They seem to be the only lab using the CRAP code in an offending manner like this.

Will someone please bomb the Deluxe building?
 

---

Posted by Richard Miller (Member # 1405) on 10-13-2003, 12:36 AM:
 
I enjoyed the film a lot. The anime sequence was a nice touch considering I thought the whole movie had a certain anime style to it. That's the only other place that I ever see fountains of blood when anyones limbs a chopped off. Other that that, the cinematography was great, the Crap Code was in full effect (that's bad ), and the overall feel of the film was energetic. All in all I can't wait till Feb 20.
 

---

Posted by Paul Linfesty (Member # 214) on 10-13-2003, 12:45 PM:
 
This was an incredible piece of pure cinema. The best of its kind in a long time. Outrageous over-the-top action with incredible cinematography and editing that was "inspired" by, but not exactly copied from older films. Unlike many B movie imitators of late, this film didn't go for any "profound" scenes that would have weighed it down in an attempt to give it "meaning." This is pure trash and relishes in it. A true movie geek like Tarantino understands this is the atrraction of this kind of flick. It is the most pure fun I've had at the movies in a VERY long time.

It was REALLY cool to see one of my FAVORITE snipes at the beginning ("Feature presentation") which I first saw in 1969 (although only the "Previews of Coming Attractions" version was showed in Bakersfield at two theatres). I LOVED the music and background "psychedlic" color scheme. Althought they should have stuck this BEFORE the SHAW SCOPE tag. (My other fav was the first GCC drum snipe).

(Reviewed at Regal Edwards Bakersfield 14, #1. Projection was outstanding. Extremely bright projection, above 16 standard, but short of strobing. Corner to corner focus and illumination. The print seemed almost grainfree, and was extremely sharp. SRD soundtrack used, and seemed pretty accurate, although distorted from the source music and dialog. But the badly dubbed and recorded source films also sounded this way.)

CRAP CODE: RED Dots FILLED throughout the second to last reel that featured MONOCHROME sequences! REALLY stood out, even more than it would have in the color sequences. Why, oh, WHY?
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-13-2003, 05:18 PM:
 
I finally was able to check out "Kill Bill" at the Carmike 8 in Lawton. Really cool show. Pretty damned loud too! The gunfire in the film (especially the first shot in the beginning) startled the hell out of me. I heard others in the audience mutter things like, "Jesus Christ!" Picture quality was pretty good for Super35 (though it is billed as "filmed in Panavision"); not a whole lot of visible grain.

The only gripes I had with the film involved the pretty low illustrational quality on the anime sequence and the CRAP CODE. Normally, I don't notice the code all that much. But with the red dots blinking on screen over solid white backgrounds in a B&W segment, you have to be blind not to notice it. I guess the copy protection people want to be absolutely sure it shows up on some asshole's VHS-C camcorder.

There is a pretty strong level of authenticity to Tarantino's homage to Japanese sword fighting shows and 1970's popular culture (the theme from "Ironside" is cleverly used for dramatic effect). Having lived in Japan for 3 years during my youth, I had to wonder if Tarantino had seen the same sword fighting shows I saw as a kid. Japanese TV has a lot of violent content filled with all sorts of blood spraying theatrics. Even some of the kiddie super hero shows like Ultraman and Kamen Rider would have lots of monster guts and blood showering everywhere. The same kind of style is evident in the film, which makes the violence easier to take. With some of the film taking place in Okinawa, I halfway expect U.S. Marines to be involved in the story somehow.

Overall, one of the best things I can say about "Kill Bill" is Tarantino does not hesitate to take risks in offending people. Right from the beginning you know he is NOT out to please everybody. He is making his kind of film with no concessions made for "good taste" or "political correctness". The wishy-washy people can just go rent a Merchant Ivory film.
 

---

Posted by Josh Jones (Member # 447) on 10-16-2003, 07:53 PM:
 
Yeah, I'm addicted. The only reason I saw this film was because the trailor had bikes in it I ended up really liking the film however, especially since I am an anime fan. The gore is as bad as some of the anime I've seen which helped me connect and made it so funny and over done. I'm definately waiting for the second one

On another note, the Cap code was much less noticeable in this print than say the print of "Winged Migration" we had. Some of those dots were about 1/10 the height of the screen, those dots were huge!

The patterns on this print were very small, and much less anoying than the previous examples I've seen. The patterns seemed to remain for several frames, and always in the middle of the frame. They looked like alignment patterns. Overall, color in the film was excellent, rich colors were displayed, instead of the blue, washed out prints that have been "the thing" in recent years.

Nicely done.

Josh
 

---

Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 10-20-2003, 03:06 PM:
 
You know, all this talk about Cap Codes and their distractions. I totally agree. But what's even more ironic...what shows up on the internet? A complete WORKPRINT of KILL BILL. It actually started showing up on the net a couple days before the 10/10 release.

Where there's a will...
 

---

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-20-2003, 03:13 PM:
 

quote:

---

Where there's a will...

---

How do you know that Will did it?
 

---

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 10-20-2003, 03:18 PM:
 
The blood fountains also reminded me of the ending of Kurosawa`s "Ran" where the evil woman is decapitated and you can see a her blood spraying the wall. While you can not actually see her head coming off (the camera follows the motion of the sword quickly to the wall), it was a drastic effect. But noone ever complained about this - it was seen as a movie with art factor.
BTW, I found the end where the top of Ms Liu`s head gets chopped off really stupid - the brain peeped out above the cutline. That makes no sense. Of course, it also awoke unhappy memories of "Hannibal".
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 10-20-2003, 05:51 PM:
 
The showering geysers of blood reminded me more of a couple Monty Python skits --or the scene where King Arthur meets the black knight guarding the little tiny bridge in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".
 

---

Posted by Jesse August (Member # 1798) on 10-23-2003, 09:55 PM:
 
I saw it on Tuesday at the Globe theatre in Winnipeg, and will have to see it again somewhere else. BAD sound (just the speakers behind the screen), out of focus, bad framing (the sub-titles were a third the way up the screen, not to mention you could see a small sliver of the top of the frame at the bottom of the screen). All in all BAD SHOWMANSHIP. The only positive thing I can say is the print looked to be in good shape. Come on Globe pull up your socks.
 

---

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-24-2003, 12:32 AM:
 
Finally got to see this today. The fountains-of-blood reminded me of all those '60s and '70s chambara films my grandparents took me to see when I was a kid. Was a nice touch in the credits to memorialize the big names that made that genre along with revenge films so much fun to watch (among others the late great Charles Bronson, director Fukasaku Kinji, and Katsu Shintaro, who played the blind swordsman Zatoichi in all 26 films of that series and the "reasonably honest" Edo-era cop Hanzo the Razor. Sonny Chiba's character is named Hanzo--perhaps as an homage?) A lot of the camera setups looked very familiar. It certainly looks like Tarantino did his homework.

Yeah, the anime sequence looked almost like animated storyboard drawings rather than finished cells, but I guess that's the intended look. Production IG (ING) is a major animation studio in Japan with a lot of famous anime titles under its belt.

Need to acknowledge the dialog coaching. Normally I cringe at English-speaking actors trying to do Japanese dialog, which generally sound as bad as most Japanese actors' attempts at English . But everyone here acquitted themselves quite well, especially Julie Dreyfus. She came very close to sounding like a native speaker. Well done!

Another thing--killer music selections!

I enjoyed this one a lot. Very much looking forward to Volume 2!

[ 12-08-2003, 02:23 AM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]
 

---

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 10-28-2003, 02:56 PM:
 
I must say that I liked this film a whole lot better than I expected to. I think Tarantino is an extremely overrated filmmaker. His films are not very original, and he wears his influences on his sleeve. He is essentially a very skilled thief, and in this case, I think that is ok. Many (especially American) filmmakers have tried to capture the spirit, look and feel of Asian Cinema, from Kurosawa, to Shaw Brothers Martial Arts films, and Japanese anime, but never has anyone been so successful. If you are a fan of any of the above genres, I would recommend a viewing.
 

---

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 10-31-2003, 06:41 PM:
 
I have seen KILL BILL twice. Missed about ten minutes of Reel #1 arguing with the theatre crew about focus issues, so I had to see it again.

The prints over here in Germany really SUCK. Reel #1 seems to be the worst in terms of imaga sharpness, ALL reels have soft focus in long shots, but in #1 not even the character`s eyes in closeup shots look in focus.

There was a kind of non-grain noise all over the film, maybe due to the Digital Intermediate, I don`t know. But the absolutely WORST thing about these release prints was the total lack of image steadiness. Have not seen such bad steadiness in months!

The problems mentioned may have something to do with the necessity of putting new subtitles over the Japanese (in German translation), maybe it was screwed up somewhere during that process.
Some distributors must want to kill the theatrical business, judging from the product they send to the screen.

Liked & enjoyed the movie, loved the b&w sequence!
 

---

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 10-31-2003, 06:53 PM:
 
Don't know how your prints were made, but bipack printing, sometimes still used for subtitles, can affect sharpness and steadiness. A 2K digital intermediate is 2K, not 4K.
 

---

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 10-31-2003, 08:11 PM:
 
John,

I heard from a friend working for the local arm of an American distribution company that they had their screening room rebuilt. 14 rows of seats, and a 9-foot-screen in front. When one of the bosses looked at the new room, he asked "where`s the video projector?".

I am afraid that some of the distributors only care about hitting the greatest number of screens with the cheapest release prints that money can buy.
If Kodak film stock could scream, theatres would have to run all shows on a "10" fader setting! (Same goes for Fuji, of course...)
 

---

Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 11-06-2003, 05:05 PM:
 
Regal Barn Plaza, Doylestown PA, 11/1, 4:25 PM show. Hall #6, attendance 13.

One movie writer in New York calls Kill Bill the most violent American movie ever. I assume he was referring to Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 combined. To my eyes Vol. 1 was pretentious in places -- it didn't flow like Jackie Brown or Pulp Fiction. I did like the anime in the middle. The anime helped break up the plodding pace and was entertaining in itself.

The pop culture references were intentionally obscure. Did any of you Film-Techers pick out the "Ironside" theme? (Late 60's TV show starring Raymond Burr as a detective in a wheelchair.) Recognize the "Truck Turner" theme? (Blaxploitation movie starring Isaac Hayes as a bounty hunter.)

Oh, yes, I recognized the CRAP Code! Three times I spotted those dreaded red dots within R5 -- and every time those dots were plain as day! For the CRAP Code alone the image gets a failing grade. Sound was OK; it defaulted into Dolby SR at the Miramax logo and stayed that way. Also (confirming posts from other Film-Techers) no teaser trailer for Vol. 2 at the end.
 

---

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 11-07-2003, 12:17 PM:
 
Regarding the use of the Ironside theme, what about the use of Ennio Morricone's From Man to Man (Death Rides a Horse) theme
which is pumped up right before the final use of the Ironside theme in the House of the Blue Leaves theme with Sophie crying out in anguish. The Truck Turner theme was well used. Also I liked the 5,6,7.8s I'm Blue and Woo Hoo. And who would think one could use Zamfir well in a movie.

I am glad I saw this in a theater with good sound and a really big screen(the oft maligned Regal perimeter POinte which remodeled recently despite being less than 10 years old).
 

---

Posted by Zac Lister (Member # 2009) on 11-07-2003, 01:34 PM:
 
Hey, I didn't get to see who did the anime in the middle, can anyone tell me?
 

---

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 11-07-2003, 01:51 PM:
 
The anime sequence was done by one of Japan's leading animation studios, Production I.G. . Production I.G., which has been associated with some of the most original anime of the past decade, including Mamoru Oshil's "Ghost in the Shell" (1995) and Hiroyuki Okiura's "Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade" (1999).
 

---

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 11-10-2003, 09:50 PM:
 
I finally saw this movie tonight at a local theater in Forest Hills. Although I usually prefer movies with less action and more exposition and I'm also not into violence, I actually liked this movie. I thought it was very creative and stylish, even if it didn't have much in the way of dialogue. Of course the plot and decision making process of the characters makes absolutely no sense. I hope Part 2 explains why "the bride" was supposed to be killed, otherwise the whole story won't make much sense.

And how she'd get on the airplane with the sword? Since her blood was all over Viveca Fox's house, why didn't the police come after her? And where did she get money to travel after being in a coma for several years? And why, upon waking from the coma, immediately think she lost her baby, rather than thinking that she delivered and calling a nurse to ask where her baby was? And if she was raped in the hospital often, as implied, how come she didn't get pregnant again?

The digital sound was quite good, especially the music. The sword clashes sounded a bit brittle, but the music was quite warm and crisp.

I think I finally noticed the CRAP code, but it wasn't red. It looked more to me as if there were dirty fingerprints on the print. They were towards the left of the screen and I first noticed them near the end of Reel 1. If what I saw was indeed the CRAP code, then I think that they're not putting CRAP code on prints for the major Manhattan theaters because I've never seen anything like that when I've attended films there.
 

---

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 11-10-2003, 11:37 PM:
 
Martin, you ask good questions, but not for a film like this. Just need a little more suspension of disbelief...

As for the hospital attempted rape scene, one of the characters mentions that her "plumbing" doesn't work anymore, so no worries there yada yada.

I too laughed at the sight of a two-handed long blade katana being allowed in the cabin of an airliner today. To say nothing of riding through the streets of Tokyo with several of them prominently displayed. In real life you'd be hauled off to the nearest police box in half a heartbeat if you tried that.

Eagerly awaiting Volume 2...
 

---

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 11-17-2003, 08:08 PM:
 
I highly enjoyed this flick and really liked the musical choices. I stayed till the end of the credits which is a rarity for me.
 

---

Posted by Pravin Ratnam (Member # 1417) on 11-18-2003, 01:00 AM:
 
I can't remember the last movie that has gotten near unanimous excellent reviews on this board, while getting such a mixed reaction among casual moviegoers. By the way, when I saw it during a repeat viewing, the Sonny Chiba role impressed me even more from an acting standpoint. If Brit actors like Geilgud and Dench can get oscars for looking majestic and dignified in their roles, then what to make of Chiba who did goofiness, cautionary concern about what Uma really wanted, a father like pride and relazed demeanor when he says "You May" to Uma when she inspects his swords.

Same with Julie Dreyfus who carried out different facets of her role - cold bitch intro, smug bitch interpretor, perky cell phone answerer, petrified onlooker during the showdown, wailing amputee, horrified reluctant guest of the Bride at the end of the Blue LEaves scene, defiant blonde hating woman in the trunk, and then Catherine Keener dead ringer filled with trepidation, guilt, when faced by bill in the final segment.
 

---

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 11-19-2003, 11:44 AM:
 

quote:

---

Here is a link to see the bootleg trailer

---