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Black
Mamba's quest for vengeance takes her to suburban California and Japan
where she comes face to face with Vipers Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox in
a wonderfully sassy and athletic turn) and Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu who
rules the yakuza with freckle-faced feminine ferocity). Black Mamba's
battles with Copperhead and Cottonmouth are quite distinct and designed
to highlight the skills of each Black Mamba adversary. The
Copperhead/Black Mamba knife fight sets off Volume 1's action with a
gusto that is further heightened in the Cottonmouth/Black Mamba
contest of samurai will.
In Black Mamba's duel with Cottonmouth, Tarantino
captures his most poignant images. In a visually stunning snow-capped
scene of samurai swords-womanship, Black Mamba and Cottonmouth engage
in a sensuous dance to an assassin's rhythm, where the silence of the
wintry evening is cut by the occasional thud of a teetering water
fountain.
Tarantino employs a talented ensemble cast for
Volume 1's tale that jumps forward and flashes back. Most notably, he
casts a cadre of thirtysomething actresses to portray the quartet of
lethal badass mama jammas and resurrects legendary "Streetfighter"
Sonny Chiba to portray Hattori Hanzo.
But even with strong acting and instances that
pique interest like California Mountain Snake's Twisted Nerve intro,
Gogo's spherical guillotine dance and the Crazy 88's exhaustive battle
royale, Volume 1 lacks the distinctiveness Tarantino has achieved in
past works. Tarantino can usually be counted on for choice dialogue to
spice up his tales. But in Volume 1, the writing lacks pizzazz and
Tarantino's attempts at sardonic humor occasionally miss the mark. For
instance, the sound effects are annoyingly pronounced and seemed to be
warped efforts at humor - the loudly buzzing, blood-sucking bug; the
writhing and bloodied Crazy 88s and the nonsensical acquiescence to a
command to stay put.
Admittedly, Volume 1 is half the story. Be that as
it may, Tarantino's effort to create an engaging cliffhanger fails and
is more akin to a needlessly long intermission between acts.
Sometimes
a carefully crafted production will yield a serendipitous cliffhanger
(i.e., the "What happened to Big Pussy?" craze at the end of
season one of The Sopranos) and spawn an almost insatiable desire to
know. However, Volume 1's cliffhanger is foolishly suspenseful and
it's forced. During the post-production phase, Kill Bill was split in
two because the film was too long. Tarantino didn't want to cut
crucial elements and Miramax didn't want to release a 3-hour film.
Moreover, Black Mamba's aim is to kill Bill and come hell or high
water, she'll do so or go down in a blaze of glory trying.
Kill Bill's
audience won't have much to wonder about in Volume 2. The only
intrigue is Tarantino's method of spinning the tale and unveiling
Black Mamba's moniker. The battle of 6-foot blondes is inevitable as
is Black Mamba going mano a mano with the men who tried to hasten her
demise.
While there aren't enough original touches to
distinguish the film and it's hampered by trite dialogue as well as
over the top gore, Volume 1 has its moments and those are properly
appreciated on the big screen.
M
October 2003
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