Man, these films are just so goddamn cool! Even when you know exactly what's coming, the sheer cinematic quality of the individual scenes and shots holds the attention - we take Tarantino's inventiveness and pop culture- and cinema-literacy for granted, but rewatching Kill Bill has reminded me of just how adept he is with his bag of tricks (I've never particularly thought of myself as a Tarantino fan, yet have much enjoyed all of his films that I've seen - Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and, of course, the Kill Bill instalment(s).)
I like the first volume much more than the second, but they do make more sense taken as a whole - and I think that splitting them into two is justifiable on artistic terms, though there's a deal too much padding in the second film in particular. It's all so over the top, and obviously, deliberately so, but also undeniably involving and exciting - the vividness of the images and set pieces and of the archetypes that are so lovingly invoked in them sells it...the two that linger are the interlude on Okinawa, its impact sealed by the use of Salyu's (Lily Chou-Chou's) "Kaifuku Suru Kizu" and, of all things, Zamfir's "The Lonely Shepherd", and the explosive showdown with O-Ren Ishii's underlings and its lyrical finale in the snowy garden outside.
