"Kill Bill: Volume One": Reading the Cult
"Kill Bill" is Quentin Tarantino's game full of personal style, he has borrowed almost all the classic elements from his favorite movies into the new film ; If you don't understand the source of these elements, you will undoubtedly lose a lot of the pleasure of appreciation. In this small article, the author tries to reveal the objects of some of the tribute elements, which can also be regarded as a little care for fans before the second half of the movie is released.
Since Quentin's favorite and what he wants to pay tribute to are mostly the B-level or even R-rated old movies of the last century, maybe you have never heard of many of the movies mentioned below, or even if you have heard of them. I don't even bother to contact you, so congratulations, you have a new understanding of movies and Quentin. It turns out that in addition to the world of the "masters", movies can be so wonderful!
[Character Image]
Bill's new Britney in the movie, a one-eyed female killer nicknamed "California Mountain Snake", whose real name is Elle Driver. The name comes from an anecdote from Quentin's Pulp Fiction crew: Sarah L. Kelly, the production assistant at the time, was jokingly called "El Driver" (meaning "driver") because she always liked to drive The car spun around on the set. However, the character's image idea came from a Swedish film: "Thriller" (Thriller, also known as "The Killer One-Eyed Dragon" They Call Her One Eye). In order to avenge the film's heroine, an eyeball was gouged out by a cruel master. What's more unusual is that the film is actually a "raw film"; Daryl Hannah, who played "California Mountain Snake", once joked that in her career, I am afraid that there will be no director to ask for it again. She had the experience of watching a "porn film".
The protagonist "The Bride" and several of her enemies in the movie belong to an underworld organization called "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad". Each team member has a nickname named after a venomous snake, namely California Mountain Snake, Black Mamba, Copperhead, Cottenmouth and Sidewinder ). In fact, these nicknames come from the American teenage hero comic "Captain America" (Captain America), which has a "Serpent Society" (Serpent Society), and his members use these same nicknames.
In the final Aoba House revenge scene, the heroine "The Bride" wears the exact same outfit as Bruce Lee in Game of Death. Quentin paid tribute to Bruce Lee, the long-admired kung fu master.
The famous Hong Kong martial arts star Lau Ka Fai is very admired by Quentin, and participated in two "Kill Bill" performances. In the first one, he played the leader of the gang killer group. Bruce Lee in The Green Hornet; and the black suits and ties worn by the gangsters are identical to those in Reservoir Dogs, which Quentin made famous. In the second episode, Lau Ka Fai plays the "white eyebrow" old Taoist who teaches the "bride" Chinese swordsmanship. In the 1960s and 1970s of the last century, the Shaw Brothers Group in Hong Kong filmed Kung Fu movies, many of them appeared as "white eyebrows", and without exception, they were all characters who looked like immortals, but were actually vicious and savage. .
The kendo master Hattori Hanzo, played by Japanese kung fu star Shinichi Chiba in the film, is a real-life Japanese samurai in the 15th century who later became a hero in folklore, like another famous Japanese samurai character, Zatoichi. In the 1980s, Chiba Shinichi successfully created this classic samurai image in a TV series called "Hattori Hanzo: Cage no Gundan". And there was a Japanese TV station in Los Angeles where Quentin lived at the time, and the show of Chiba Shinichi was broadcast all day long, and Quentin was particularly impressed by that role over time. Even Quentin himself is very proud to have invited Chiba Shinichi to play this classic role again.
Played by Lucy Liu as the Tokyo underworld queen, Quentin drew heavily on the 1968 Japanese film Black Lizard. The name of the character she plays, O-Ren Ishii, comes from the name of a female ninja in the "Hattori Hanzo: Cage no Gundan" series. Quentin thought the name was cool, so he used the movie among.
The Texas State Sheriff Earl McGraw, played by Michael Parks, who came to investigate the scene of the "bride" attack, came from a parody that Quentin himself participated in writing. In the funny horror film "From Dusk Till Dawn" (From Dusk Till Dawn), the Texas sheriff of the same name is also played by Mike Parks, and even the habit of liking various styles of sunglasses is the same.
【Plot screen version】
Regarding the source of the film's story idea, many people speculate that Quentin refers to a film called "The Bride Wore Black" by Truffaut, one of the French New Wave flag bearers: the same bride, the same A five-person kill list. However, Quentin himself vehemently denied this speculation, because he had never even seen Truffaut's movie; in fact, Quentin himself did not like Truffaut's style at all, so he did not watch his movies. When considering the subject matter of "Bride's Revenge", Quentin had two movies that came to his mind the most, one was the 1971 American movie "Hannie Caulder" and the other was the 1973 Japanese movie "Shura Xue Ji" (Lady Snowblood). Both are stories of victims who choose violent revenge, and even the mentorship relationship between the "Bride" and Chiba Shinichi's character in "Kill Bill" is a tribute to "Hannie Caulder."
In the film, the "California Mountain Snake" pretends to be a nurse and uses a poisonous syringe to assassinate the unconscious "bride", which is based on a similar scene in the 1977 "Black Sunday" (Black Sunday).
In the second episode, there will be a scene of Bill playing the flute, which is actually a reference to the old film "The Silent Flute" starring David Carradine who played Bill in 1978. aka Circle of Iron) tribute.
When the sheriff played by Mike Parks drove to the scene of the victimization of "The Bride", there was a subjective view of the inside of the car, but there was a row of sunglasses of different shades and styles on the dashboard; this shot, if you look at it, If you have experienced "Killing Before Dawn", you should feel very cordial.
At the end of the first episode, the climax battle of "Aoba House", the inspiration for scene creativity and scheduling came from an old Japanese film "Shogun Assassin" in 1972; at the same time, Quentin also admitted that he still has a conscious addition to it. In fact, both films are known for their "slaughterhouse"-like images of mass violence.
The impressive orange-red sky in the film as "The Bride" flies from Okinawa to Tokyo is actually a nod to the opening scene of a 1968 Japanese film, Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell.
And when the plane the "bride" took arrived over Tokyo and began to descend, the effect of shooting from the sky was actually shot in a studio against a bunch of models of skyscrapers. Quentin deliberately used this seemingly crude effect to pay homage to the Japanese monster films in his heart, especially "The War of Gargantuas" in the 1960s.
In the first episode, the Japanese schoolgirl killer's sister stabbed to death a lecher who wanted to fuck her, a scene inspired by a similar scene in "Battle Royale". Interestingly, according to the introduction of Kenta Fukasaku, the son of the latter director Shinji Fukasaku, the idea of girls shooting each other in "Battle Royale" was actually inspired by the violent scenes in Quentin's debut "Reservoir Dogs"!
The fight between Bride and Go Go Yubari in the battle of Aoba House was Quentin's first attempt at designing and filming the action himself, although Go Go used a bandsaw The meteor hammer is reminiscent of the "blood drop" in Chinese folklore, but this weapon was actually "invented" by Quentin himself, not from the old Hong Kong film "Blood Drop" starring Chen Guantai as everyone imagined. son".
For the "bride" in the film to carry a samurai sword on the plane - what's more, there seems to be a special design for the samurai sword to be put on the plane, many people expressed difficulty in understanding, thinking that this is too false. But the fact is that Quentin didn't want to show real life at all. All the storylines took place in his cleverly set "movie world". In such a movie world, it is assumed that everyone can wear a samurai sword. , as we see in most samurai movies.
The beginning of the second episode is still about fifteen minutes of black and white. The back shot of the "bride" that everyone saw in the trailer was inspired by the classic 1946 movie "The Postman Always Rings Twice".
【Line Dialogues】
At the beginning of the film, there is this line of introduction: Revenge is a dish best served cold, in fact, it comes from the sci-fi classic - "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan", the second episode of the "Star Trek" series.
Chapter Two from the first episode of the movie, titled "The Blood Splattered Bride". The title of the chapter comes from the 1972 Spanish B-grade horror film "La Novia Ensangrentada", which was released in the United States under the title "The Blood Spattered Bride", about a newlywed bride being killed by the ghost of her husband's ex-wife s story. European B-level horror films are still a popular "cult film" type (Cult Film), and Quentin, who likes ghosts and horses, is also a hardcore fan of this type of film.
In the first episode of the film, Shinichi Chiba's character repeats remarks similar to "encounter a Buddha and kill a Buddha" more than once, such as the following sentence: Kill whoever stands in the way, no matter if he is a god or a Buddha ("Kill whoever stands in the way, even if that be Lord God, or Buddha himself.”). In fact, this sentence turned out to be the ninja TV series "Yagyuu Conspiracy" starring Chiba Shinichi, which must be said at the beginning of each episode, but Quentin has made appropriate changes to it.
In the second episode of the movie, "The Bride" has a line: "she went on what the movie advertisements refer to as a Roaring Rampage of Revenge", which is a reference and modification to the propaganda of an old film that is also about women's revenge. The film is called "Bury Me an Angel", and its promotional slogan is: She's a Howling Hellcat Humping a Hot Steel Hog on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge!
【Film Score】
Like the movie, the soundtrack of "Kill Bill" is diverse and complex, but it blends wonderfully with the atmosphere of the movie. Let's first take a look at what the music is listed on the soundtrack album:
1. Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Nancy Sinatra
This song appears in the title credits, a very simple song with only a Spanish guitar accompaniment. But the singer has a lot of background. She is the daughter of Frank Sinatra, a generation of singers. Although the tune is simple, the lyrics are very harmonious with the story of the movie, as if the "bride" is whispering about the grievances and grievances with Bill.
2. That Certain Female - Charlie Feathers
is, obviously, a fast-paced country west song. In the movie, it appears when Mike Parks' Texas trooper drives to the scene where "The Bride" was killed. In this section, Xiao Kun used the same passage from "From Dusk Till Dawn", the row of sunglasses placed above the bridge made everyone in the theater laugh.
3. The Grand Duel (Parte Prima) - Luis Bacalov
What do you think of this melodious piece led by harmonica and mixed with vocals? By the way, Spaghetti western! As soon as they hear such a piece of music, the minds of fans of the old film will appear in the Italian classic "Once Upon a Time in the West" (Once Upon a Time in the West): the setting sun is like blood, the sand is like fog, and the gunmen face each other calmly. Come on, the storm is coming! This mysterious, romantic and sometimes brutal music appears in the animation clip of O-Ren Ishii's childhood recalling the past, and hidden in the gorgeous violence is a tear.
4. Twisted Nerve - Bernard Herrmann
This piece of music is used when Elle Driver in "One-Eyed Dragon" pretends to be a nurse to kill "The Bride". The whistle has always been a way for people to express their relaxed emotions, but when you listen to this whistle, you will feel the chilling and eerie chilling atmosphere. This piece of music comes from the movie "Twisted Nerve" of the same name. In fact, the composer Bernard Herrmann is a master of thriller music, and has composed music for dozens of movies in his life; of course, the most famous one is between him and the horror master Hitchcock. long-term cooperation.
5. Run Fay Run - Isaac Hayes
This piece of music appeared during the "Bride"'s flight from Okinawa to Tokyo and got off to follow the O-Ren Ishii convoy, composed by Isaac Hayes for the 1971 TV series He became famous for the "Shaft" soundtrack, and won an Academy Award for Best Song in 1972 for a movie referencing the music.
6. Green Hornet - When Al Hirt
heard the name, he knew that it was from the TV series "The Green Hornet" that Bruce Lee played in. In the movie, it was used to express the momentum of the O-Ren Ishii team. Under the "touted", the "Tokyo Underground Queen"'s style can be seen at a glance.
7. Battle Without Honor or Humanity - Tomoyasu Hotei
is probably the most familiar soundtrack, and it was used in the first trailer. Very dynamic and realistic music, the scene used is exactly the slow motion scene of "Tokyo Underground Queen" O-Ren Ishii visiting "Aoba House", which can be said to be both stylish and interesting.
8. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Santa Esmeralda
Crisp clapping, passionate and charming guitarist, typical Mexican-style music. In fact, it is a disco piece, and the whole song is divided into two parts: vocals and pure instruments. It's not referenced in its entirety in the movie, only a portion of it is used at the start of "The Bride"'s final showdown with O-Ren Ishii. Because it has the style of flamenco dance and the rhythm is lively, Quentin uses it to match the movements of both sides in the decisive battle. It can be said that "dance" and "wu" are integrated.
9. The Flower of Carnage - Meiko Kaji
This song is also from a popular Japanese TV series in the 1970s. It is used at the end of the movie. When O-Ren Ishii falls to the ground, the music starts to play. The nostalgic and sad female voice matches the flying sky on the screen. Xue, suddenly pulled the audience into the sentimental mood of the "bride" in the film.
10. The Lonely Shepherd – Zamfir
is a piece of music that many people are familiar with, and it has been used in countless movies, TV and commercials. It is used twice in the movie, with a soothing and melodious tune, which is very suitable for the task of "opening the past". When the audience walks out of the theater in the music at the end of the film, it will definitely add a little nostalgia to the movie and the second episode. of infinite expectations.
11. Ironside excerpt - Quincy Jones
This explosive music comes from Quincy Jones' film and television works in the 1960s and 1970s. It is not only very popular in the West, but also very popular in Hong Kong and Japan in the East. In fact, Quentin heard and was impressed in the 1973 old Hong Kong film "The World's First Punch" (starring Luo Lie). For him, when such explosive music plays, it shows that the protagonist is going to go crazy. Therefore, he uses this music in the film when the "bride" first sees her revenge object, which is the moment when Vernita Green has just opened the door. He wants the audience to have such an association: "The bride" is about to start! Sure enough, in the next shot, the "bride" punched the other party back into the house...
Of course, the soundtrack included several other songs and music clips, ranging from Japanese contemporary pop rock to American urban rap, and a progressive rock called Krautrock. However, because they are not closely related to classic film and television works, the author will not describe them in detail here.
However, the officially released soundtrack album did not include all the musical material used in the film itself. The following are the missing, but still strong-style soundtrack fragments from the album:
1.7 Notes In Black – Vince Tempera
also Remember this scene in the movie: the bad doctor named BUCK came in to "clear the scene", only to find that the "client" he introduced had blood splattered on the doctor's bed; at this time, the camera slowly moved from the close-up of BUCK's face to the ground, There's the angry face of "The Bride"... the music is very eerie, and it's fair to say that without the soundtrack, that scene would have been a lot less terrifying.
2. Truck Turner – Isaac Hayes
Another Isaac Hayes score from the 1974 film of the same name. In "Kill Bill", it appears in the "bride" in a wheelchair looking for BUCK's "**car". In fact, this film is also the only time Ishak Haye has a leading role.
3. Wound that Heals – Lily Chou Chou
Seeing Lily Chou Chou, did viewers familiar with Japanese films think of something? By the way, this vocal humming comes from Shunji Iwai's 2001 work "All About Lily Chou-Chou" (All About Lily Chou-Chou). The original style was rather sentimental, but after Quentin used it in the scene when the "bride" first saw Hattori Hanzo's collection of famous swords, there was an atmosphere of both joy and sadness: the joy is that there are so many The good swords, the worry is that they are all first-class killing tools. This kind of emotion is probably also a true portrayal of the mood of the swordsmith played by Chiba Shinichi in the film.
4. From Man to Man – Ennio Morricone
In my opinion, this is the most important track that was missed from the soundtrack album of the film. It appeared at the climax of the film: "The Bride" chopped off the arm of O-Ren Ishii's assistant, and the crowd of "Aoba House" fled wildly , a battle is about to begin! The chorus of the vocals perfectly sets off the atmosphere of this climax, no less than the rendering of the opera. In fact, the vocals come from the 1968 classic spaghetti western "Death Rides a Horse," and just listening to the music, you can imagine the excitement of a very flashy fight.
5. After Nobody But Me– Human Beinz finishes
watching Kill Bill, the audience will be impressed by the scene in which the "bride" swings two swords, rolls on the ground, and chops her legs like a melon. The music used in that section is this song, but the vocals are removed.
6. Urami Bushi – Meiko Kaji
didn't know why Quentin didn't include the song on the soundtrack album, but when the soundtrack for the second volume was released the truth came out: it was included on the soundtrack for the second episode. In fact, this is the first title song. The previous article also said that the entire storyline of "Kill Bill" is a tribute to the 1973 Japanese movie "Lady Snowblood". This song is the theme song of that movie, and also " The theme song of "Kill Bill" appeared in the end credits period. I wonder how many viewers insisted on listening to it?
[End]
Judging from Quentin's performance in "Kill Bill", as well as his interest and taste in movies, we should all feel that "movies" are rich and colorful, and the fundamental to maximize the enjoyment of appreciation lies in The way you watch the movie, not the type of movie you watch.
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