Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
★★★★½ — Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 arrived in cinemas in October 2003 and announced itself as something genuinely unusual: a Hollywood revenge picture built almost entirely from borrowed parts, worn proudly and without apology. Quentin Tarantino constructed the film as a conscious patchwork of genre influences, drawing on Japanese samurai cinema, Hong Kong martial arts pictures, Italian spaghetti westerns, and American grindhouse exploitation films. The result is less a straightforward action film and more a kind of extended cinematic argument about the films Tarantino grew up watching. The story itself is elemental: a former assassin, known only as The Bride, survives an attempt on her life by her own team and sets out to settle the score, one target at a time. Released in two separate volumes (you can find my thoughts on the follow-up at Kill Bill: Vol. 2), the first instalment was produced through Miramax alongside Tarantino's own production company, A Band Apart, and clocks in at a brisk 111 minutes that rarely feel anything less than purposeful.
By 2003, Tarantino had already established himself as one of the more distinctive directorial voices working in American cinema. His earlier features, including Jackie Brown, had demonstrated a willingness to slow things down and let character breathe inside genre frameworks, but Kill Bill represented a deliberate shift toward something more visually aggressive and formally playful. The film incorporates an animated sequence produced in Japan, shifts between colour and black-and-white photography, and structures its narrative non-chronologically, the last of which had become something of a Tarantino signature by that point. The action choreography was handled with considerable ambition, drawing on talent from Hong Kong cinema to give the fight sequences a particular weight and rhythm.
The cast assembled here is worth taking a moment to consider. Uma Thurman, who had previously worked with Tarantino on Pulp Fiction, takes the central role and carries an enormous amount of the film's physical and emotional load. She is convincing in both registers, polished but never remote. Lucy Liu plays one of the primary antagonists with a cool, controlled menace, while Vivica A. Fox appears in an early sequence that sets the film's tone with some efficiency. Daryl Hannah and David Carradine are present throughout in ways that become more significant across both volumes. It is, on paper and on screen, a strong ensemble built around a single, driven performance at its centre.
*nurse whistle is now stuck in your head* Tarantino wears his influences like blood-soaked badges of honour here. From the spurting arterial sprays straight out of classic samurai flicks to the unmistakable Bruce Lee homage with Uma Thurman’s yellow tracksuit. Kill Bill is a love letter to Asian cinema, martial arts epics, and the revenge genre at large. It’s Tarantino at his most kinetic, his most gleefully violent, and arguably his most stylish. The film is a masterclass in controlled chaos, blending genres like a late-night film marathon gone feral. The anime sequence is a daring but genius interlude, and let’s be honest, the entire House of Blue Leaves fight is one of the greatest action set pieces of all time. If there’s one sour note, it’s the lingering disappointment that Tarantino (who so clearly reveres Bruce Lee here) would later go on to mock him in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But I digress. From the grindhouse aesthetic to the blood-drenched ballet of its action sequences, Kill Bill is a pulpy, adrenaline-fuelled masterpiece. And honestly, who doesn’t love a roaring Pussy Wagon?
For me, that House of Blue Leaves sequence is the kind of thing you find yourself describing to people who haven't seen it yet, always slightly worried you're overselling it, and then watching their faces when they finally do. I think what keeps Kill Bill: Vol. 1 so rewatchable is precisely that quality of controlled excess, the sense that Tarantino knows exactly how far he can push each scene before it tips over. It's a film that rewards attention to its references without requiring you to catch them, which is a harder balance to strike than it sounds. If you've got any appetite at all for action cinema, whether that's closer to The Raid 2 end of the spectrum or something more stylised, this one belongs on your list. It's the sort of film that makes you want to watch more films.
Rating: ★★★★½ | Year: 2003 | Watched: 2025-04-02
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) on YouTube
Where to watch
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Quentin Tarantino: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) · Inglourious Basterds (2009) · Pulp Fiction (1994) · Reservoir Dogs (1992)
More with Uma Thurman: Pulp Fiction (1994) · Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
