4K Review: The Epic Continues in KILL BILL VOL. 2

Editor, U.S.; California (@m_galgana)
4K Review: The Epic Continues in KILL BILL VOL. 2

After annihilating a bevy of assassins including Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), her Crazy 88s and her advisor Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus) in a veritable tsunami of blood in Kill Bill: Vol. 1, The Bride (Uma Thurman) goes on to the other names on her list. Bud (Michael Madsen), Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), and the most evil of them all, their leader Bill (David Carradine).

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 has more character development and backstory than Vol. 1, though Tarantino did spend a good amount of time on O-Ren Ishii’s past via an animated segment, which no doubt saved the production a few million dollars.

For example, both Bud and Bill are brothers and murdering bastards but they have a gentler side to them that they use to fool people. In both cases, showstopping vengeance is on the menu for The Bride as she goes on her quest for bloody satisfaction. We get a backstory for the character in terms of her training with notorious jerk (to put it mildly) master of martial arts, Pai Mei (Chia-Hui Liu). We later find out that Elle had the same master, and find out why she’s only got one eye. Soon, she’s got zero eyes after a knock-down fight sequence that ends in the greatest revenge I think I’ve ever seen.

But before that --- imagine being surprised by rock salt (used by Bud) in a shotgun instead of bullets, then injected with something to paralyze you. Now, then, imagine being buried alive. Jesus, that’s brutal. Then we get to that training backstory and this remembrance is how The Bride escapes, then lays in wait for the deadly Elle, who hates The Bride maybe more than anyone’s ever hated anybody, it seems. Once Elle’s left sightless with no eyes, The Bride travels to Mexico. She meets one of Bill’s criminal father figures in the form of an elderly, yet still vicious character played by Michael Parks in an incredibly unsettling performance.

From there, she learns Bill’s whereabouts and goes to cross that last name off her list… but not before discovering that he’s raising their daughter, the one she was pregnant with and thought dead at the time of her own attempted murder.

So, yes, I am spoiling this film that’s now over 20 years old, but it really is the journey, not the destination, that is the most incredible cinema to witness. Tarantino’s writing and direction are razor sharp, and many of these roles are probably the finest in these actors’ careers. The fact that Uma Thurman was pregnant during filming in all of these insane action scenes just blows my mind. Yes, I know that she had a kickass stuntwoman in Zoe Bell, but Thurman still got injured driving that rickety old car in one of those Mexico scenes.

I’m thrilled to have been able to revisit both of these films, Vol. 1 and 2. The filmmaking is just so damn good, satisfying, and inspiring. We need more of this. I hope Hollywood is aware.

The picture looks great, though there is some flickering during the Pai Mei scenes at times. Seeing how Tarantino went full-tilt on stylizing and emulating different ages and genres of cinema, I wouldn’t be surprised if the flickering was planned to give the celluloid the feel of an older era.

Special Features

SteelBook® art by Oliver Barrett

The Making of Kill Bill Volume 2

"Damoe" Deleted Scene

"Chingon" Musical Performance

Screen Display & Aspect Ratio

16x9 (2.40)

4K UHD Audio

English 5.1 DTS HD-MA

French 5.1 Dolby Digital

Blu-ray Audio

English 5.1 Uncompressed Audio

English 5.1 Dolby Digital

French 5.1 Dolby Digital

Subtitles

Spanish

SDH

English

Captions

None

4K UHD Resolution

2160P High Definition

Dolby Vision

4K UHD Disc Format

1BD100

4K UHD Region

Blu-ray Resolution

1080P 23.98 High Definition

Blu-ray Disc Format

1BD50

Blu-ray Region A

I had a lot of fun watching the featurettes, and the Chignon performance by Robert Rodriguez and that band performing at the premiere was astounding. The energy on display was inspiring.

Grab both Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and 2 in this 4K/Blu-ray release from Lionsgate and make movie night spectacular. They each come either standard with slipcase or you can go all out for the lovely steelbooks.

Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Director(s)
  • Quentin Tarantino
Writer(s)
  • Quentin Tarantino
  • Uma Thurman
Cast
  • Uma Thurman
  • David Carradine
  • Michael Madsen
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4K reviewLionsgateQuentin TarantinoUma ThurmanDavid CarradineMichael MadsenActionCrimeThriller

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