Kevin's Watch

Matrixman wrote:Yeah, Kiddo's daughter is cool! And darned cute, if I may say so.

(Hmm, I never saw Shogun Assassin myself...)

yeah, it was great.

But personally, my favourite part was the girl in the school uniform...

Darth Revan wrote:But personally, my favourite part was the girl in the school uniform...

Chiaki Kuriyama. She was also in Battle Royale, among others.

MM wrote

(Hmm, I never saw Shogun Assassin myself...)

And interestingly, because of the referencee in the movie, I now feel metaphysically compelled to see it.

These movies have generated my two favorite lines from movies: Kiddo "Guess that makes him liar, doesn't it", and Bill "I overeacted!"

Well, I'm now afraid to buy "Ka-Boom" cereal for my kids, just in case the toy surprise is the same as in KB1!

i really enjoyed both I & II, and i favor II but not by much over I. i am glad Tarantino split them up, because they offer two distinctly different experiences, yet not so much that they feel disjointed. after the intense pace and action of much of I, it felt appropriate to then slow things down some in II for some reflection, background, and insight into the characters. in the end, II filled out the gaps from I and i think the ending of II, the final showdown between Kiddo and Bill, was absolutely sublime. i know some people were probably looking forward to a big drawn out battle, but to me that would have simply been redoing what we had already seen from Kiddo earlier. btw, for me, the showdown between Kiddo and O Ren was also a great piece of cinema, a near perfect scene; the set design, dialogue, score, film stock, the pacing of the scene, all came together as well as a director could set them up, imo.

Peven is a person of great wisdom. *bows*


Another great line was at the end when she said she's a bad person. His reply is fantastic!

thanks for the compliment, Fist, i see we share an appreciation for Tarantino's style. i also agree with your comment about Bill's reply to Kiddo saying she is a bad person. dialogue like that is one of the reasons i enjoy Tarantino movies. amongst the blood and violence and crude language Tarantino throws in bits of dialogue that are full of heart, that might seem out of place for some, but for me it adds another dimension to his stories and characters.

another prime example of that is Sam Jackson's explanation, and revelation, of his Ezekiel quote, the one he has been using prior to carrying out hits, at the end of Pulp Fiction, in the confrontation with Tim Roth/Ringo where he confesses that he understands that he has been doing the work of evil men, but that he wants now to try to be the shepard of his fellow man. after my first several viewings of the movie it occurred to me that Joules(Sam Jackson) was the real protaganist of the story, the one character that had a real arc, who was changed by events in the story and was a different person at the end than he was at the beginning.

another thing i like about Kill Bill, as a whole, is how effectviely Tarantino leads the audience along the path he wants, and we don't know where that path is going to lead. for instance, after seeing Kill Bill I did anyone think they would end up being sympathetic to, even liking, Bill? yet by the end of II Tarantino has us seeing Bill in a whole new light, while not "cheating" by going against anything he had already established in I, but by adding dimension and depth to a character most directors would have handled as a two dimensional "bad guy".

Taking Peven's last point. Contrast and compare Quentin's characters with the character's of another current filmmaker Joss Whedon. Quentin is very sentimental about his characters, Whedon not so much. Jenny Callendar dead, Joyce dead, Tara dead, Doyle dead, Book dead, Wash dead and each death treated unsentimentally (do not mis understand I don't mean callously and carelessly), not maudlinly. Quentin seems to me to be very sentimentally attached to his characters, a nearly maudlin attachment. Continuing on the topic of emotionality, Quentin and Joss have brought emotionality to areas of film making not especially known for having such, Chop socky styled adventure and teen action adventure.

Many of you are going to say there's no comparison between Whedon and Tarantino. However, they're about the same age, are seemingly influenced by the same film (Hong Kong chop sockys, Howard Hawks, 70s TV, film noir), both have an affinity for surf music (Quentin by self admission, the BtVS theme is a surf rock piece).

Literary dialogue is a similarity. The example of Fist above (I won't quote because it uses a very bad word). From Joss, episode IOHEFY: Buffy:"...He doesn't deserve forgiveness" Giles:"Buffy, forgiveness is something freely given. It is not something that is earned"

I know I had more to say about this than this. My brain vapor locked.