Kill Bill: Volume 1 is the first half of the story of The Bride (Uma Thurman) and how she exacts her revenge on those who did her dirty... way dirty. The Bride AKA Beatrix Kiddo AKA Black Mamba was part of an elite team of assassins known as the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, headed up by The Snake Charmer himself, Bill (David Carradine), who shares an odd relationship with each of the girls. Lover to some, master and mentor to all. It consisted of Black Mamba (Thurman), California Mountain Snake/Elle Driver (Darryl Hannah), Copperhead/Vernita Green (Vivica Fox), Cottonmouth/O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) and finally Budd (Michael Madsen), Bill's brother. For reasons we later discover, The Bride wants to get out of the business and has left the group, sneaking away to El Paso to marry an ordinary guy who runs a used record store. She is also enormously pregnant at the time of the wedding. Bill and the gang decimate everyone in the wedding party and really, anyone who happened to be at the chapel during the wedding rehearsal; they then beat the living hell out of Beatrix (although her name is bleeped out throughout the movie and we only discover her true name in Volume 2). The final coup de grace is a shot to the head by Bill himself.
But Beatrix awakens from her coma to odd circumstances in the hospital she has been wasting away at, some four years later; no longer pregnant, but very angry and with revenge on her mind. Scenes in the movie are out of sequence, but instead of being confusing, it simply intrigues the viewer. She makes a list and systematically locates all of the team members, all of which who have moved on to bigger and better things. She then kills them with bloody fury, sometimes slashing through scores of bodyguards to get to them. We learn that Copperhead is now Vernita Green, California suburban housewife to a wealthy man, but she still brings her A-game. The exchange between the women once Vernita's young daughter arrives home is pretty priceless. Cottonmouth/O-Ren Ishii has become the head of the Japanese Yakuza, despite her Chinese/American heritage. Her methods are brutal and we see her origin story and her rise to power. She is simply amazing to watch with her tiny little shoes and her wicked blade. She now leads the Crazy 88's and although there aren't 88 of them, it sure seemed like it as Beatrix sliced them up in rapid fashion. But before Beatrix could get to O-Ren, she had to go to Japan to seek out the legendary sword maker, Hattori Hanzo, Bill's former master, and convince him to make a sword for her to defeat Bill and the group. Hanzo does, of course, and once she has the sword in her hands, there is no stopping her.
Although the entire movie is a complete bloodbath, it is both artfully done and silly. Black and white scenes are used often for effect and O-Ren's origin is told through anime, which is a nice touch. I say some parts are silly simply because of the bloody overkill. Limbs get lopped off and blood shoots out at an insane amount. It's funny and gory at the same time, very Tarentino indeed. The scene where Beatrix and O-Ren battle it out is beautiful, with the dark night as a backdrop and the snow-covered ground making the spilled blood that much more intense. The end of the movie sets us up perfectly for Volume 2 where Beatrix finishes off Elle, Budd and finally Bill, himself, making some shocking discoveries along the way. While there aren't a lot of special features, just an interesting making-of featurette, Tarentino's theatrical trailers from all of his movies and musical numbers by the "5, 6, 7, 8's," you don't pick up this version for the added goodies. They are merely icing on the high def cake that is Kill Bill on Blu-ray. The jump to high-def is phenomenal, enough to warrant a second purchase if you are an existing fan of Tarentino and already own the movie. But at the bare minimum, break out the popcorn and rent it on Blu-ray, along with Kill Bill: Volume 2. You won't be disappointed.
