since todays the opening nite of kill bill volume 2, i thought id point out this insightful article from the ny times. for anyone who just cant keep up with tarantino flinging references left and right, dave kehr provides nice cliff notes for the myriad of eastern and western movie references found in the two kill bills. while i couldnt point out all the eastern movie references myself, im at least more familiar with those than the spaghetti western references prevalent in the second chapter. westerns fly right over my head. some of the coo references kehr points out:
sonny chiba | streetfighter! this guy is diesel…he’ll punch your head and make it explode. its all the more funny then that hes played for comedy in kill bill.
pai mei (white eyebrows) | a mainstay of a ridiculous number of old shaw brothers movies. all kung-fu masters have long beards and extended eyebrows yo.
o-ren ishii | potentially a reference to lady snowblood, a japanese movie about a young woman who swears revenge on her familys killers.
stylized killing | shit, any samurai chambara film yo. kehr points out specific movies like lone wolf and cub, and zatoichi.
budd (sidewinder) | is a reference to budd boetticher, a protege of john ford and a pioneer of westerns.
kehr also nicely pointed out how both eastern and western movies have influenced each other for decades now. their genres have in fact been entertwined since the days of kurosawa borrowing from john ford westerns to make the seven samurai, which in turn was adapted back into a western as the magnificent seven. and tarantino is merely following in their footsteps. so for those who bitch about how hackneyed he is, go and watch the first star wars…then go watch the hidden fortress…
> charting the tarantino universe (via ny times)
