Kill Bill Vol 2

Reviewed by EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating * * * *)

Quentin Tarantino rewinds the tape considerately by opening the second part of his homage
to kung fu schlock with a lengthy explanation of the first part.

The Bride (Uma Thurman) reminds us that she is out to kill Bill because, when she was pregnant, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad ruined the biggest day of a girl's life by massacring her entire bridal party at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel.

Bill (David Carradine) was responsible, possibly because he was upset that she planned to give up contract-killing, marry a second-hand record store owner and lead a normal life.

Of course, as we know from the first movie, the Bride survived the spree and when she'd wakened from a years-long coma set off to sort out Bill,
Vernita Green, O-Ren Ishii, her teenage bodyguard Go-Go Yubari and the Crazy 88 martial arts killing team.

In that movie the Bride's secret weapon was provided by the legendary sword-maker, Hattori Hanzo.

This time she will encounter another Asian legend, the warrior master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). He was Bill's master; we will learn that Bill ensured that the Bride learned and suffered at his hands, too.

She will have to overcome more dangerous rivals such as the one-eyed Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), who also graduated from Pai Mei's academy of martial arts, and Bill's brother, Budd (Michael Madsen), possibly named for the beer, a strip-club bouncer who lives in a trailer home.

Both fights graphically display Tarantino's warped genius and infatuation with cheap movies. Against Budd, the Bride must escape from being buried alive; against Driver, they will battle with samurai swords in the confines of Budd's trailer.

And just when it seems that Tarantino has lost the plot, the story is filled in and the purpose of the Bride's quest takes shape and makes sense. He is a masterful movie-maker, even if many viewers may not appreciate where he's coming from or going to.

The DVD is a scrawny offering that tells you there'll be a box-set coming out sometime around Christmas. There's a "making of" during which Tarantino wonders why the critics didn't really, really love his movie like he did. He'll also walk you through the trailer-home brawl and Pai Mei training sequence.

In the deleted scene Carradine takes on a black, samurai-wielding cockney while Thurman watches.

The only other extra comes from Robert Rodriguez, director of Once Upon A Time In Mexico and Desperado, playing their "Mexican spaghetti western" tunes with his band Chingon at a cast party.

DVD, video rental