Kill Bill Vol. II: QT influences (probably spoilers, too)

[scottcsmith]

I'll put in some spoiler space, although what I'm going to reveal is not going to ruin the movie.













I remember reading interviews with Tarantino and he mentioned that his influences for "Kill Bill" would be the grind house movies of the 1970s. In the first installment of "Kill Bill" most of the film seemed to me inspired by Japanese/Hong Kong martial arts flicks.

That theme continued to Volume II. Did anyone else catch Tarantino's tribute to Italian zombie flicks? I'm thinking mainly of Lucio Fulci. For instance, the scene where The Bride is buried alive is reminiscent of a scene in Fulci's "City of the Living Dead." In that movie, a woman is buried alive and when she's freed, the pick used to bust open the coffin comes very close to hitting the actress in the face. In "Kill Bill" it's a little different, but when Uma Thurman is in the coffin, and as it's being nailed shut, the nails come very close to hitting her in the face.

When The Bride finally frees herself, she's like any Fulci zombie coming to life and out of the ground in such films as "Zombie," "The Beyond" and of course, "City of the Living Dead."

Tarantino also has scenes involving eyes, again a device used by Fulci in many films.

I don't know if I'm right or not. Has anyone else seen volume II? What did you think?

[FDRrocks]

1. I thought it was decent.. (spoilers)

It got a bit wordy and I don't think it was Tarantino's best dialogue, but it was still entertaining. The Pai Mai chapter, while being short, was easily my favorite chapter of the two films.

I caught the zombie reference most definately, I thought the whole coffin-to-the-diner shot was well done.

I've never seen a Fulci film, afaik, but they sound interesting.

The only thing remarkably interesting I can say about that scene is that the blade Uma uses to cut her hands free was the same exact kind of blade Madsen used to cut off the cops ear in Resevoir Dogs.

Oh yea, I was REALLY disappointed with the absence of the Bill/Michael Jai White scene that I had heard would be in the film, but, eh.