Tricksy Treats

[selenak]

Getting into the Halloween spirit, I read this really cool Harry Potter/X-Men crossover by penknife, which you can read here. Tom Riddle meets Erik Lehnsherr, anno 1950. Shall we say neither young man wins any awards for emotional stability? Thankfully, a certain character andrastewhite likes very much also makes an appearance...

Moreover, I went and watched Kill Bill, Vol.I. Well now, as Avon would say. The most disturbing thing about it is how entertaining all the violence is. The one thing which really threw me out of being amused by Tarentino going wild with love of B-movies again was



The sequence in which we learn that hospital employee regularily rented his comatose patients out for sex. That was horrible to me in a way all the lost limbs were not, and suddenly Uma Thurman's character ceased to be an icon and become someone vulnerable I was hurting for. I was grateful we didn't actually see any of this - the revelation was horrible enough.

Also? rozk is right - this film is asking for very dark femme slash.

Comments

Actually...

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

I liked that part. No, not in the that-arouses-me-and-I'm perverted way, but because I felt it gave the story a more mythic (if warped and grotesque) resonance. I'll skip a few lines before I get into it, so I don't give anything away to people who don't want to be spoiled...











In many early versions of the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale, the prince who wakes her up is not the first to have reached her. Before she wakes up from her 100 year slumber, in some early incarnations of the tale, she is raped repeatedly by different wandering princes, and even gives birth to children, while still in her coma (see Robert Coover's novel/fairy tale meta, "Briar Rose" for a deconstruction of this concept). Similarly, The Bride is certainly a Sleeping Beauty in the same situation, although instead of being finally woken up by a prince, she is woken up by a mosquito, a creature which fittingly, is out for blood. Also, fittingly, just like this version of Sleeping Beauty, we discover at the end of Volume 1 that The Bride herself also gave birth while still in her coma.

For more reasons why I enjoyed "Kill Bill," I'll reprint what I posted in response to shadowkat67 (http://www.livejournal.com/users/shadowkat67)'s review:

Watching the film feels a bit like watching QT's love affair with pulp action films, you can almost feel him lovingly bringing each style to life. Say what you will about QT, but the man loves films, particularly the ones that sit on the back rack at the local video outlet, which only a true film buff ever sees or appreciates.

Completely agreed. It's funny, because, based on the plot alone, it doesn't sound like the type of film I'd love. In fact, from the plot, it could be a real downer of a film. And yet it's not. There's just this amazing kinetic energy and sense of playfulness to the film, and also, paradoxically, an absolute conviction on the part of the actors, particularly Uma Thurman, which completely sells the piece. When we get that shot of Uma staring directly into the screen, demanding, "Wiggle your big toe!" like an drill sargeant barking out an order, I completely bought it. That is the point where I realized what an amazing performance she was giving. It is easy to ignore, since the film is primarily a group of action set pieces. Another moment that really knocked me off my socks was Lucy Liu's don't-f***-with-me monologue after taking her place as the head of crime in Hong Kong.

Also, this is the most visually stunning films I've seen since "Moulin Rouge," and interestingly has a similar operatic flair, despite the divergence in subject matter and the fact that nobody actually breaks into song. Even the bloodiest scenes are completely artistic; in fact, there is a poetic beauty to the gore in this film. Rather than be shocked by the huge amount of blood, I noticed how beautiful the bright red of the blood complimented the yellow of The Bride's outfit, against the blue of the sky and the white of the snow, and how gracefully the blood sprayed. Quite odd, actually, but so is QT.

I have actually heard that Volume 2 is where the story actually begins to deepen characterwise, and that it is a more psychologically complex film than Volume 1. Whereas Volume 1 is mostly a kung-fu flick, Volume 2 is a spaghetti Western. I am especially interested in seeing both parts of the film together, so that the psychological insights we gain in the second can help add more depth to the events of the first. For now, I'm almost revelling in the fact that this is one of the few films I've seen recently that I can honestly say is brilliant, despite the fact that its story is (for now) intentionally one-dimensional. Writing it out almost doesn't seem to make sense, and yet there it is. Artistically, its directing, acting, editing, composition, chronological jumps, animated sequences are just so amazing...It is one of those rare films that elevates and transcends the genre to which it is an homage. We haven't seen QT in a long time...no new films in years and already almost 2 years since his ultra-hip guest star appearance on the first season "Alias" 2 parter. I'd forgotten how cool he is.

I didn't say...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

...QT shouldn't have put this information in. Just that this was terrible for me in a way all the stylized violence was not. Though I didn't catch the Sleeping Beauty resonance; you're quite right there.

There's just this amazing kinetic energy and sense of playfulness to the film, and also, paradoxically, an absolute conviction on the part of the actors, particularly Uma Thurman, which completely sells the piece.

This is true. Uma Thurman is fabulous; the way she looks at the other characters alone conveys backstory and feelings. Or her words to the child which get yet another resonance once she tells us O-Ren's backstory and once we learn, at the end of the film, that her own daughter lives.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

The one thing which really threw me out of being amused by Tarentino going wild with love of B-movies again was

The sequence in which we learn that hospital employee regularily rented his comatose patients out for sex. That was horrible to me all the lost limbs were not, and suddenly Uma Thurman's character ceased to be an icon and become someone vulnerable I was hurting for. I was grateful we didn't actually see any of this - the revelation was horrible enough.


I agree that it was a horrible thing to put the Bride through. But I've seen revenge movies before -- I'm thinking specifically of The Black Angel (http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0149899/) (unless I'm misattributing the rape stuff, which might have been in Gonin 2) and Bandit Queen (http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0109206/) -- and I'm really, really grateful that Tarantino didn't show it, because those movies, from what I can remember, were much more explicit.

(There's way too much b-movie rape out there. I was recommended the movie Ninja Scroll by a guy I knew in high school. There's a gratuitous demonic rape scene in it. He didn't seem to understand why I didn't share his appreciation of the movie.)

One of the things that made Kill Bill enjoyable for me was that, obscene amounts of violence aside, it wasn't sexually exploitative of women. The Bride didn't get her outfit ripped to shreds revealingly. The female characters didn't wear band-aids instead of clothes. No nudity. The use of sex as a means to an end by O-Ren Ishii as a child was implied, but it was the *revenge* that was shown. While there is plenty of violence against women in Kill Bill, the emphasis is definitely put on women as free agents who act of their own volition and who have the perogative of avenging themselves. We're spared the victimisation (on a sexual level, at least) onscreen, but we're shown the retaliation.

It's sort of refreshing, and empowering, as much as violence can ever be empowering...

agreed on the non-exploitative aspect

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Rape scenes on film are more often than not gratitious, as you say. Whereas when the hospital guy turns back, offering his "customer" the dirty vaseline, everyone in the audience is bound to feel sick and angry on the Bride's and the other women's behalf, not tiltilated.

I also thought it was clever to choose anime for O-Ren's flashback for many reasons, not the least of which was the avoidance of exploitation.