Kill Bill, Volume Two.

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I saw volume one today. It was great untill the point where it ended, which left me scratching my head as to why they would cut it off at that point.



At an hour and a half it went by very quickly, a sign of good script-writing and film editing. At another 1.5-2 hours for the sequel, would it not have been better to simply show the whole damn thing?



Here is another case of the sequelitis which has recently stricken Hollywood. FIrst it took enough material for one good sequel to the Matrix and tried to stretch it into two films with un-needed SFX interludes. Now it has taken what is surely one good complete film and split it into two pieces for no other reason than to make me pay two fares to see it.



Either that or they think we're all too caffine and media addled to sit through 3-3.5 hours of film without a coating of ritalin on our buttered popcorn.



Once upon a time people used to sit through 3-4 hour stage plays, 6 hour operas and concertos, even 6 hour films back in the golden days of the propaganda film. Is our attention span really that short now?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32
    i think the decision to present it in two movies came during shooting. he'd (tarentino) gone over budget and he was going to have a hard time cutting it to under three hours, executives (is it miramax?) saw what he'd shot and they agreed with him to present it in two volumes.

    i absolutely loved the way it ended. i'm like "wha wha what? it's over?" it only seemed like a few minutes.
  • Reply 2 of 32
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    It seemed like minutes? Vol. 1 seemed like it took forever! ...typical Tarantino style. Not a bad thing. It was packaged nicely for a 90 minute movie.
  • Reply 3 of 32
    cosmonutcosmonut Posts: 4,872member
    QT said that the movie people decided that two artsy 1 1/2 hour movies is a lot less pretensious than an artsy 3-hour movie and that's why they split it up.



    Of course, why get $8 out of a movie-goer when you can squeeze $16 out? \
  • Reply 4 of 32
    I just saw volume 1...in Budapest. So they didn't get $8.50 out of me, they got 790 HUF, which is about $3.57.

    The only problem was, the movie was in English with Hungarian subtitles, which was fine, except for the rather substantial part of the dialogue that take place in Japanese. The Hungarian subtitles preempted the English, so I have no idea what was being said during most of those parts. Oh well, I need to see it again anyway, because that was one weird freakin' movie.
  • Reply 5 of 32
    I found Kill Bill Vol. I a visual treat and one of the best QT films so far. Only strange feeling I had through the whole movie was the saddness that Bruce Lee wasn't alive today to play a role in it...maybe Bill...I found it fine that Carradine is playing this role...but if only...can't wait for II.



    Hopefully, the DVD will combine the two into one. But with people's shortened attention spans...I doubt it. The longest film I ever sat through was Andy Warhol's "Empire State Building"...don't remember how long it was but it is reletively just a straight shot of the building. After a while you can see it swaying in the wind...at least I think that's what I was seeing after four hours...



  • Reply 6 of 32
    originally posted by artman @_@

    Quote:

    Only strange feeling I had through the whole movie was the saddness that Bruce Lee wasn't alive today to play a role in it



    Hey, at least they had Sonny Chiba, FYI, one of only 3 people that Bruce Lee gave the highest level of qualification for Jeet Kune Do. (level 3) Plus he's a martial arts movie legend in his own right. Kill Bill may not have Bruce Lee, but it has his spirit.
  • Reply 7 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by LiquidR

    originally posted by artman @_@





    Hey, at least they had Sonny Chiba, FYI, one of only 3 people that Bruce Lee gave the highest level of qualification for Jeet Kune Do. (level 3) Plus he's a martial arts movie legend in his own right. Kill Bill may not have Bruce Lee, but it has his spirit.




    Agreed, seeing Chiba was great. One of the most important scenes in the movie actually. But I kept thinking of Lee and the tragedy of his loss...were if he was alive and he starred in this film it would be epic.



    Guess we'll have to wait someday when the Lee's and Golden Harvest will gather all those reels of footage Lee shot for Game of Death (The Divine Wind), compile it all and re-release Lee's vision of it. I have read that there are completed scenes Lee filmed for G.O.D. but were stored in a vault...



    Game of Death FAQ



    Too bad GO GO won't be in Vol. II...I'll miss her...







    Her battle with Uma was my favorite...



  • Reply 8 of 32
    Yeah, she was a cutie too. And I usually don't dig Asian women. But Go Go and Oren-ishi were some hot ass kicking asian ladies.
  • Reply 9 of 32
    Miramax is notorious for ruthlessly editing movies down to a manageable length. Many would argue that Tarantino's style could use some editing, but since Pulp Fiction more or less made Miramax what it is today, they gave Tarantiono carte blanche on this film. The decision was made fairly late to split it up. A three hour movie, even with today's longer films, is risky. A second opening sequence had already been recorded just in case, and the movie was already divided into chapters, so splitting it into two volumes required minimal effort and very little re-negotiating of actors' pay.



    I'm personally very glad things were done as they were. The pacing and development of Volume 1 did not seem rushed or forced, nor too drawn out. I was completely absorbed by every minute of it, from the background and dialogue (more and better than I had been led to expect), to the action (holy God!), to the soundtrack (practically a character itself!). Maybe it was all the allergy medicine I was on at the time, but I was completely blown away. Best of all, without the film being split into two volumes, we would not have been treated to such a delicious cliffhanger ending. The whole thing was truly a credit and a tribute to the genre.
  • Reply 10 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by LiquidR

    Yeah, she was a cutie too. And I usually don't dig Asian women. But Go Go and Oren-ishi were some hot ass kicking asian ladies.



    You should definitely rent Battle Royale.
  • Reply 11 of 32
    smirclesmircle Posts: 1,035member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Influenza



    I'm personally very glad things were done as they were. The pacing and development of Volume 1 did not seem rushed or forced, nor too drawn out.




    Actually, I was completely shocked when Vol.1 ended, time had passed without me noticing which does not happen too often. When will Vol.2 be out?
  • Reply 12 of 32
    satchmosatchmo Posts: 2,699member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Artman @_@

    But I kept thinking of Lee and the tragedy of his loss...were if he was alive and he starred in this film it would be epic.





    Just this past Thursday (Nov, 27th) it would have been Bruce Lee's 63rd birthday.
  • Reply 13 of 32
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    well, since i seem to be "movie trailer boy" lately, thought some folks might like to see the trailer for the next installment of Kill Bill....



    man, it's nice to see david carradine back in the ass-kickin' saddle again.
  • Reply 14 of 32
    hardheadhardhead Posts: 644member
    How about this for irony. David Carradine is held in high regard for one reason only, "KUNG FU"... A TV series that should have starred Bruce Lee except the movie execs (most probably white men) thought American movie goers, err, TV viewers (i.e., white folk) would not accept an Asian leading man.



    Freaken stupendous stupidity... To Carradine's credit, he treated the role with respect.
  • Reply 15 of 32
    argentoargento Posts: 483member
    This Friday baby!
  • Reply 16 of 32
    this one is more character driven and a lot less blood and not as high a body count.



    plus he says he wants to film some stuff of the principals now for volume 3 which he wants to do in 15 years....intersting idea, the star would be the little girl who watch the bride kill her mom. (vivica fox)



    i was a teenager when kung fu was on originally, and i gotta confess, i just didn't get it/dig it. david carradine doesn't hold much allure for me.
  • Reply 17 of 32
    KILL BILL VOL. 2 IS AWESOME!!!
  • Reply 18 of 32
    Quote:

    Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

    this one is more character driven and a lot less blood and not as high a body count.



    plus he says he wants to film some stuff of the principals now for volume 3 which he wants to do in 15 years....intersting idea, the star would be the little girl who watch the bride kill her mom. (vivica fox)



    i was a teenager when kung fu was on originally, and i gotta confess, i just didn't get it/dig it. david carradine doesn't hold much allure for me.




    I heard he was thinking of doing that as an anime film. He's also rumored to be working on a script of the Vega brothers (Vincent from Pulp Fiction and Vic or Mr. Blonde from Resevoir Dogs).
  • Reply 19 of 32
    rokrok Posts: 3,519member
    so did anyone see vol. 2 this weekend? i assume mandolux did, but i am surprised no one else has piped up yet...
  • Reply 20 of 32
    me too - you would think oodles and oodles of people would have seem this masterpiece by now. Maybe people think it's all hype.
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