Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

Saw this in the cinema last night and after years of waiting wasn't disappointed.

The film feels as fresh and odd now as it did when I saw parts 1 and 2 on DVD back in the day.

The more seamless spit between the films also enhances the narrative with one plot detail held back from the audience as it was initially intended.

The film is very, very long at 4hr 15 mins with the intermission and like Snyder's Justice League makes me ask if theres a happy middle ground to trim a bit off the film to make it a bit more palatable.

But beside that I would say this is the best way to watch Kill Bill from this point. Here's hoping that they keep this and the other versions in print on disc going forwards.

Last thing - dont bother to stay for the Fortnite BS they stuck on after the credits. Calling it 'The Lost Chapter' is correct as its clear it was excised before it was shot by QT, but telling it in Fortnite is bloody awful. It manages to slightly sour the previous 4hrs and 15 mins (which is why I dont count inmt in the run time).

Kill Bill is a martial arts epic with great dialogue, a cornucopia of references, and that signature Tarantino flair for violence and a deep passionate love for cinema as a medium. This film, to me, acts as the perfect fusion of samurai movies, spaghetti westerns, and Hollywood spectacle. The Showdown at The House of Blue Leaves, where The Bride must face-off against O-Ren Ishii and the Crazy 88, is a masterclass in how to create an action scene, and the rest of the action in the movie has a level of quality only slightly below that. Do yourself a favor; if you truly love movies, go see Kill Bill, because you will almost certainly love it too.

Brilliantly cast and beautifullly shot by Tarantino. A tale told by two movies each with their own identity yet flow seamlessly together. Funny. Horrifying. Poetic. Gentle. Brutal. Beautiful. Efficient and minimal yet expansive and vast at the same time. A tale of revenge told through a stunningly beautiful lens. A Shakespearean Tragedy and comedy. A masterpiece.

A young woman is shot and left for dead at her wedding. Her entire wedding party is massacred in cold blood. After four years in a coma she awakes and systematically sets out to wreak revenge on the people responsible, especially their leader, Bill...

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is the single-film version of Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2. It isn't simply the two films joined together but a reedited version of the two films, though much of the two films stays as and where it is.

Having enjoyed Kill Bill Vols 1 and 2 immensely I knew I wasn't going to be disappointed by this. Solid, original plot, good character depth, cool dialogue (as you would expect from Tarantino), great action scenes. Good use too of time-jumps, a Tarantino trademark. Solid performances too.

Tarantino has a habit of wearing his influences on his sleeve and this is homage to martial arts films. The fact that he cast Sonny Chiba in a role in Kill Bill bears testimony to that.

This all said, I'm not sure I watched the actual Tarantino edit but more likely watched a fan edit. It's been a while since I watched Vols 1 and 2 so I can't say for sure but pretty much everything looks exactly like Vols 1 and 2, except for the end credits to Vol 1 and the start credits to Vol 2 being missing, of course. Plus, apparently it's impossible to get hold of the actual Tarantino version.

I've waited for years to see this. I'm a Fan of "Q". But Kill Bill has always been my least favorite film from him. I always understood that the studios made him chop the film up into two parts. SO I always considered parts One and Part Two as 1 release. I saw the Whole Bloody affair in 2025 in the cinema. And while I feel It still contains a major pacing flaw pertaining to last 1/3 of the film, I also feel this presentation shown in it's long form REDEEMS a lot of the flaws.

Seeing it like this has altered my opinion on the film and makes me appreciate it more.

There is no denying that visually, This Q entry is by far the greatest "Looking" film in his catalogue. Each scene is a stunning feast for the eyes that recalls the cinematography work seen in the films of Brian Dipalma, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese and Orson Welles.

The storytelling and dialogue are superb, the music selections and sound design are legendary. The Ennio Morricone scores, re-used from the the classic "Dollars Trillogy." are some of the greatest movie scores of all time and they perfectly heighten the experience.

I personally feel this should be edited down to 3 hours 40 minutes. Creating the world's greatest piece of cinema. By somehow reworking the nonlinear editing of the storyline to build the climax of the film towards the end of the picture instead of in the middle... To me this still remains the film's greatest flaw. However, despite this major flaw the collective of everything else still puts this movie in the 8 1/2 to 9 star range.

It's just an amazing spectacle to witness. IT MUST BE SEEN AS ONE FILM!