Like many other cool kids, I went to go see Kill Bill the weekend that it came out. Like many other cool kids and several respected movie critics, I thought it - in simple words - kicked ass. But my reasoning for this opinion of ass kickage comes from a different viewpoint than Roger Ebert's. He loves it because it's an explosion of postmodern filmmaking (which I love it for, too. One of my quotes upon leaving the theater was "That was the moviest movie I've ever seen"), and I love it because I'm an anime fan.
Part of me almost wants to be mad at Quentin Tarantino. This is manipulation! Of course I'll enjoy a movie that evokes the same reaction from me as my favorite anime! Of course I'll be entertained by blood and violence that has never existed outside the world of ink and paint before. That bastard! He's done nothing new, innovated on little, he... he... God, Uma Thurman is hot with a katana.
The anime fan who watches Kill Bill will get a different sort of appreciation than the average moviegoer. Joe Q. Never-Seen-Ninja-Scroll will simply be startled and probably laugh a little when Thurman's Bride slices a man clean in half down the middle, but I - and no doubt others - could only think of Vampire Hunter D. Kill Bill uses some of the most classic elements of anime violence, like the delayed reaction. Blood only spouts from a decapitated man's neck after a few seconds have passed for dramatic effect; I can't even begin to name how many anime have used this blood-spurting device.
Kill Bill resembles anime in more than just the flavors of its violence, but in its overall structure and makeup. I've been watching anime for around ten years, so I've become desensitized to two-dimensional characters, people whose only defining characteristic is their costume and the type of weapon they use, and disjointed, abstract, occasionally incoherent storytelling. But seeing it in an actual real life movie is strange and refreshing. And also soaked in blood.
Oddly enough, one of the only sequences in the film that didn't really evoke the feeling of anime was the sequence actually done in anime. The style was different from standard anime, or any animation I've seen, for that matter. There was something more visceral, more violent, more real in the sequence that gave me goosebumps.
I recommend Kill Bill to just about anyone with a taste for chicks with swords, and especially those who like them animated.
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