Man, Kill Bill vol. 1 was pretty fun in theaters. It's one of those movies that's way more fun in theaters than to watch at home.... You bought the Japanese version? How much did that cost you? And isn't the only difference, the black and white scene was in color? I actually really liked the black and white scene, I thought it was cool how it turned black and white when she ripped the eye out, was pretty remarkable. That scene in the snow was neat too. That whole scene was like Hard-Boiled/The Killer/A Better Tomorrow 1 & 2, but with swords instead of guns. I remember Tarantino said John Woo, and Wong Kar Wai (Woo's beautiful choreopgrahy and Wai's editing/color/style -- he'd just got done watching ASHES OF TIME when writing the script) were influences. Gotta love the long take with the camera showing the party, the 5 6 7 8's, and the bathroom. Decent little flick.
I watched
UNCLE GODDAMN! - 6/10
FACE OF ANOTHER - 9/10
WOMAN IN THE DUNES - 7/10
and I re-watched
GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER - an easy 10/10. Whereas Takeshis' was a compilation of every film Kitano had ever been apart of in any way, this film was a compilation of every film Kitano
hadn't made. As such, it is sorta for fans of "The Master" only, but wow, what a film! Won "film of the year" at... Venice?... I believe.. the Venice Film Festival, and now there is a PERMANENT film award specifically named after Kitano called "glory to the filmmaker award", for outstanding directors. You just can't beat Kitano's often-maligned "Director's Trilogy", where he went the Godard route and decided to completely rip apart the fabric of cinema, make films that can't be pigeonohled in any way whatsoever, yet still possess his brilliant colors, music, elliptical editing, "emotionless"-to-the-point-of-near-stasis acting, odd singular cryptic vision, and dark minimalist humor. This film benefits from wacky performances (truly HILARIOUS, his funniest film since Getting Any?, maybe even eclipsing some of the weird editing/acting in Kikajiro), a wacky computer-animated part (which is by far the weirdest part in any Kitano film ever made, and one of the weirdest things I've ever seen, period), and a lot of self-referential fanservicing; if you're familiar with Kitano -- and more importantly, a big fan like I am -- you're going to be in love with this film. Everyone else might want to stick his yakuza classics. Amazingly/shockingly, his next film, ACHILLES AND THE TORTOISE, was somehow
even better than this film, a fact that wasn't lost on most people, thank god (I haven't heard any criticsm directed at A&tT, only the highest praise.. and some indifference). I saw A&tT in theaters -- the only Kitano film I've seen in theaters, unfortunately -- and all 20 of us clapped at the end, and I remember telling my friend, "Kitano is the greatest filmmaker in the world, isn't he?" And he sure is. THE OUTRAGE will be out on DVD in exactly 1 month, and I am
so there.