No. He teaches no one the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique. Now, Kiddo, one of the things I always liked about you is you appear wise beyond your years. Then allow me to impart a word to the wise. Whatever – WHAT-EVER – Pai Mei says, obey. If you flash him, even for an instant, a defiant eye, he’ll pluck it out. And if you throw any American sass his way, he will snap your back and your neck like they were twigs, and that will be the story of you. – Bill
The Bride’s bloody path to revenge had led her to a confrontation with Michael Madsen’s Budd when last we saw her. Unfortunately, her attempt to even the score with Budd had her ending up on the wrong end of a shotgun full of rock salt. After facing down assassins and a small army of Yakuza thugs, the Bride has seemingly been undone by a broken down former hitman with a drinking problem.
This is the initial setup for when QT goes in for the kill with Volume 2. As I said before, Volume 1 may have been filled with blood and guts, but Volume 2 has a surprising amount of heart. While viewers may have come to Kill Bill Volume 2 expecting more mayhem, the film gives you that and much more.
Kill Bill: Volume 2 Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Gordon Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah. Directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Though things looked bleak for the Bride after Chapter Seven, Tarantino brilliantly goes away from the Bride’s plight in Chapter 8, The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei. The section starts with a beautifully tender flashback between Thurman and Carradine, where he tells her the legend of his Kung Fu master, Pai Mei. Set by campfire, Bill once again plays the same flute that he did when he starred in Kung Fu. According to imdb.com, Carradine still plays the flute all the time and QT was glad to be able to add it to the film as many times as possible.
Originally in the script, Bill told this story on the way to see Pai Mei, in the Jeep seen later on, but QT instead made this a more intimate moment. Bill’s first line Once Upon a Time in China, was the name of a 1991 Jet Li film about the famous Chinese hero Wong Fei Hung. Ironically, in Bill’s story Pai Mei is a member of the White Lotus Clan, who were the villains in the sequel to Once Upon a Time in China.
In this early section, Bill was originally to have a major fight against Michael Jai White, but this scene is alas only available as a deleted scene on the Volume 2 DVD. Tarantino had reportedly thought that it was more important for the audience to like Bill than to fear him. The scene itself is a wonderful homage to “old school” Martial Arts films, but Tarantino’s points are valid, and successfully conveyed.
The sequence that is left is a wonderful piece of film making, with Bill showing a huge amount of warmth to Uma’s Bride. Thurman herself is wonderful here. Completely through use of body language, the actress is able to get across her naivety toward Bill. Much like Christian Bale is able to do with Bruce Wayne in the early section of Batman Begins, Thurman is able to exude a character that is innocent and promising, instead of the motivated vigilante she has presented thus far.
Upon getting to Pai Mei’s lair the film completely shifts its mood to imitate early Shaw Bros’ Kung Fu classics. The character of Pai Mei was originally seen in the 1980 film Clan of the White Lotus and was actually the villain in said film. In that film, Pai Mei was eventually defeated by Hong Wen-Ting played by Gordon Liu. Here it is Liu that takes up the character of Pai Mei.
Liu’s performance is so funny and memorable that it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the part, but the role was originally intended for someone else. Apparently the first choice for Pai Mei was legendary choreographer Yuen Woo-ping. Tarantino was originally going to even dub Pai Mei’s voice in English so as to pay homage to many 70’s Kung Fu films, seen only in dubbed versions in the U.S. Fortunately for everyone, Gordon Liu was eventually chosen for the cruel Kung Fu master.
Just as he had done for Sonny Chiba in Volume 1, Tarantino gives a great role to his heroes of the past in Liu’s Pai Mei. Liu has starred in many standard setting Chop Socky films such as Dirty Ho and Legendary Weapons of China, but most notably he was the star of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Liu starred as San Te, a revolutionary who takes refuge in a Shaolin Temple, only to become one of its greatest Martial Arts masters.
Liu makes Pai Mei one of the best characters to come out of Kill Bill. His teachings are brutal toward the Bride, but his mannerisms and performance make him supremely entertaining to watch. Liu is also helped immeasurably by Tarantino’s setup for this section of the film as the washed out cinematography and frequent close-ups make this film look as if it were directed by legends of the genre such as King Hu or Lau Kar-leung.
There’s just something about films that cover a master/apprentice type relationship that is absolutely fascinating. Though the master may be cruel and gruff to their students, the pupil always ends up a better person then they were before. Pai Mei is such a great character he belongs on a short list of masters from Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back, Pat Morita’s Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, and Siu Tien Yuen’s Sam Seed in Drunken Master. The only bad thing I can say about this portion of the film, is that it should be around 30 minutes longer! Here’s hoping Tarantino makes good on his promise to do a pure Chop Socky flick in the future.
One of the most important things Pai Mei teaches the Bride is the “3 inch punch” technique, which allows her to break boards from short distances. In a stroke of genius film making, QT takes us back to the Bride’s subterranean prison. After using a hidden straight razor from her cowboy boot, ala Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, to free her hands, Pai Mei’s training comes to the forefront. In a beautifully staged sequence, the Bride breaks free of her grave and climbs to freedom, complete with Ennio Morricone soundtrack.
The action surprisingly moves away from the Bride in the eighth chapter, Elle and I. After a gorgeous shot of the Bride coming into focus with a desert backdrop (a shot reminiscent of Henry Fonda in Once upon a Time in the West, we see surprisingly little of Thurman for most of the sequence. QT actually takes this opportunity to build up another one of his fantastic villain.
Those wondering if Tarantino had lost his “gift for gab” and complained about the lack of great dialogue in Volume 1, should consult the interaction here between Budd and Darryl Hannah’s Elle Driver. The scene is setup by Budd calling Elle to sell the Hattori Hanzo Sword he had obtained from the fallen Bride the previous night. The scene itself is tremendous and full of great lines from the “relief or regret” exchange to Elle’s dissertation on Black Mambas.
Now up until this point, Elle really hadn’t been seen that much on screen. She certainly doesn’t get the screen time Lucy Liu does in Volume 1. Tarantino takes this opportunity to build up Elle as a threat to the Bride as much as possible. Hannah gets to do a slow burn in an almost Bond villain moment as she explains to Budd how she was the one who should have taken down the Bride. Now on the surface this would appear to just make Elle more evil, but in her own sadistic way, it actually gives her this odd sense of honor. Elle feels as if the Bride should never have been defeated by one such as Budd, but takes some small revenge in order to even the scales.
Following this scene comes the most emotional fight in the entirety of Kill Bill. The indoor brawl staged by Tarantino ranks up with any close quartered fight in cinematic history. Most often the Bond/Red Grant fight in From Russia With Love or the Frank Sinatra/Henry Silva throw down from The Manchurian Candidate are the one’s credited for being the best brawls ever caught on film (though I’m partial to the Roddy Piper/Keith David slugfest from They Live), but the Bride/Elle fight is among the most brutal. Tarantino apparently got a lot of his influence from Jackass: The Movie, making the film as gross and violent as possible.
One may note that after the fight, Darryl Hannah has a moment where a slight reference to Blade Runner is made. In that film, Hannah was a different type of unstoppable killing machine. She meets a very similar end here, and its nice that Tarantino could throw in a tribute to one of the actress’ best roles even though she doesn’t have the stature of a Sonny Chiba or Gordon Liu. Hopefully, Elle gives Hannah a second chance at stardom, much like QT gave to John Travolta and others.
The film’s final chapter Face to Face is not the blood-fest that a lesser filmmaker would have put together. Instead through events and dialogue, the film’s emotional center bursts through, giving the film a resonance that many of the films it has emulated beforehand could not even come close to. I hate to go into too much detail as to give too much away, but suffice it to say the end is very satisfying.
Michael Parks gets another moment to shine and he relishes his opportunity. Playing a Mexican pimp named Esteban Vihaio, the character is a surrogate father for Bill. From him you see where Bill develops his love/hate dichotomy with women. Esteban is very charming and seems to feel genuine affection for the women in his stable, but he also displays a frightening streak of sadism. The role is masterfully performed by Parks and gives a moment’s pause before the showdown with Bill.
The film’s final showdown is a conservative, yet rich sequence. Once again Thurman and Carradine show so much charisma, it’s a shame that their characters weren’t together under friendlier circumstances. One really wants to see what QT could do with a DiVAS prequel to Kill Bill with Bill and the Bride working together, instead of trying to kill each other.
At the end, you’re left with what may be the greatest Revenge film ever made. Much like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark before it, Kill Bill may be better than the sum of the films it was emulating. Tarantino was able to craft a film that made the Bride more than just a two dimensional heroine and gave her a soul sadly lacking in many action oriented female characters such as the Charlie’s Angels bunch or Linda Hamilton’s hammy, yet flat performance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Much of the credit must go to Uma Thurman as well, as the Bride is by far her best performance, but Tarantino was able to give all his characters this vibrancy to create a really astonishing film.
Picture Credits: myspace.com, outnow.ch
