License:
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike

by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".

In December of 2025, my neighbor, Quentin Tarantino finally released Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. The film that was originally meant to be, but that was unfortunately cut into two volumes upon its original release, 2 decades ago. Therefore for this review I will be treating Volume 1 and Volume 2 as one film, even though it has a rather substantial intermission in its not-directors-cut version. Re-experiencing the story of the Bride and her revenge, for this review, filled me with some rather profound questions. Questions that I believe I started asking in my review of Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood. Questions as to: what is the meaning of Kill Bill?

David Carradine, who plays Bill in Kill Bill is a paternal half-brother ( a term I dislike, so I will prefer to just call him simply a "brother" ) of Keith Carradine. I bring Keith Carrandine for a very interesting reason. He, in 1978 played one of the lead roles in a little known Louis Malle picture starring Brooke Shields, called Pretty Baby. In that picture Keith Carradine plays the male part of the, so called, romance. The other, female half of said romance, is played by, then 12 year old, Brooke Shields. If we return to Keith's brother David, and with him, to Bill from Kill Bill, we see something strangely similar.

In Kill Bill as the story unfolds, we learn that our main character Beatrix Kiddo is, or was, in a romantic relationship with Bill. David Carradine on the set of Kill Bill was about 66 years old, while Uma Thurman was about 32. The fact that he calls her "Kiddo" ( or that Quentin gave her the name "Kiddo" ) and the fact that the movie includes a lot of other references of similar nature, all points to a strange underlying thematic through-line, similar to the one I found in my review of Once Upon a Time...

Here is another interesting observation. One movie reference that exists in Kill Bill ( specifically Volume 1 ) is a reference to Luc Besson's film Leon: The Professional. At one point in the animated back-story about O-Ren Ishii, we have a child character hiding under the bed, while a violent situation is going on in the room. And at one point during that, a sharp metal object ( in this case a sword ) penetrates the bed, and almost hits the child underneath. In Leon this sharp object was a big hunting knife.

Now, the inclusion of a reference to another movie in a film by Quentin Tarantino is nothing strange. His filmography pretty much consists of just non-stop references. But a reference specifically to Leon specifically in the story about O-Ren Ishii, is probably symbolically significant. If you remember, the big boss guy who killed her family in that violent situation was Boss Matsumoto and obviously she wanted to get her revenge. In Chinese ( because the character is a half American, half Japanese and half Chinese ) "Ishii" means 11. At 11 O-Ren gets her revenge on Matsumoto. But before the movie cuts to it, we have a dramatic zoom onto the child's eyes filled with rage. And Tarantino's voice-over line is spoken by Thurman saying "Luckily for her, boss Matsumoto was a Pedophile!".

I could pull out a theory suggesting that there might have been a sort of bet between Tarantino and, I don't know, maybe Robert Rodriguez, or Tarantino and Uma Thurman, or Tarantino and fucking Harvey Weinstein, that Tarantino could somehow come up with a way, to say this line, about a little girl, out-loud, in an auditorium full of people, and the people would not just not freak out about it, but would totally and utterly enjoy the fuck out of it. The perfect corruption of the audience if you will.

But I could also draw another theory. A theory that suggests that this whole O-Ren Ishii thing is actually a very deep thematic thing that is woven into the fabric of this movie. Again, why is O-Ren Ishii, the coolest of Yakuza bosses, has a name that directly references this very line? And with a quick cut, this very word? Why would her name be the age of her first kill? Why 11?

If we look at Kiddo and the Carradine character, through this lens, we could see a deeper, more disturbing, analysis of the whole bloody affair. When we get to the eventual confrontation between her and Bill, she explains her motivation that started the plot in the first place. When she learned she was pregnant, she decided that enough is enough. She decided that she doesn't want her baby to be part of the same life. The life that she went through. The life that O-Ren Ishii ( being another member of the same Bill's killer squad ) went through also. She left Bill to save B.B. from Bill. She left Bill to save B.B. from a reality where some bad guy you hate being a pedophile is a good thing.

But how does Bill react to the fact that Beatrix Kiddo, the love of his life, the mother of his B.B. just ran away? How does Bill react to her rehearsing a wedding with some dude he never seen before? Right. He over-reacts. He over-reacts like a character named Humbert Humbert in a Stanley Kubrick film "Lolita".

No wanted Tarantino cast the same actress that played B.B. ( Perla Haney-Jardine ) in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.

Happy Hacking!!!

2

Find this post on Mastodon

Find

Post