The Whole Bloody Affair: Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2 Deep Dive


Kill Bill Isn't What You Think It Is—And That's Why It Still Hits
The yellow tracksuit. The Hattori Hanzo sword. That whistle from Twisted Nerve. Kill Bill burned itself into pop culture over 20 years ago, but most people remember the spectacle and miss the grief. In this episode of Parallel Frequencies, Just Blane and Coco dissect Tarantino's whole bloody affair—not as a revenge thriller, but as an operatic meditation on stolen motherhood, toxic control, and the cost of reclaiming your identity through violence.
We're breaking down The Bride's journey beyond the fight choreography, exploring how Tarantino's genre-mashing soundtrack becomes its own character, and asking the hard question: does revenge actually heal trauma, or just create distance from pain? From the House of Blue Leaves to that quiet final confrontation with Bill, this is Kill Bill stripped to its emotional core.
Whether you're a longtime fan or discovering it fresh, this conversation will change how you see one of the most influential films of the 2000s.
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frequencies with Just Blaine and Coco. We're back for a all new week of shows. We just passed the weekend. The Oscars were last night. We gotta talk about that.
Courtney Pearl (00:13)
So yeah, yeah, I'm not very good at making sure I watch all of the nominees before the Oscars come around, but we still love to print the ballots and do our guesses before everything starts. I got the kids involved this year, they were cheering for their winners. It was a lot of fun.
Just Blane (00:31)
That's correct, you guys didn't invite me. I didn't get my ballot picked.
Courtney Pearl (00:35)
You gotta do that for your kids. You gotta get your kids involved and get them excited. It's like a sporting event at our house. So we're just watching and most of us are like, don't know what that was. We should at least watch the trailers on some of them before we.
Just Blane (00:37)
Okay.
So, ⁓ who
took ⁓ the wind last night for you at the house?
Courtney Pearl (00:54)
My husband, he had 10 picks, 10, 10 categories that he got correct. And he was like, that's crazy. I haven't seen any of these. I was just guessing on most of them.
Just Blane (01:05)
As you can probably do with a lot of them, you can look at the names of who's in it and who directed. You can look at a lot of that and kind of figure things out. I just wanna toot my own horn here for a minute because this was months ago. Do you remember this months ago on the show when I said this?
Courtney Pearl (01:14)
Yeah, but.
how
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (01:27)
I caught it right there!
And I even call this, what's this?
Courtney Pearl (01:56)
⁓ Sean Penn.
Just Blane (02:02)
Look at me, look at me like I know what I'm talking about.
Courtney Pearl (02:04)
Yeah.
Nailed it.
I would have won more of those categories last night if I had listened to you because I kept going through and I was like, one battle after another. Nah, I'm going to pick sinners on this one and I'm going to pick this on this one. I think I picked Ethan Hawke for best supporting actor. Of course, Penn won. So I was kicking myself all night like, I should have listened. Should have listened.
Just Blane (02:35)
I'm a pretty good judge of Oscars and, except for when it comes to Toni Collette. Did she win last night? I don't care if she was nominated or not, she should win every year. She should get an award every year.
Courtney Pearl (02:46)
You should have.
Yeah, I didn't see her. I didn't see her on the red carpet. I wasn't paying attention enough to make sure I saw her.
Just Blane (02:51)
But yeah,
I still feel like one battle after another is your winner. I'm glad I said it back months ago. I didn't change. I didn't think the change because that movie to me did stand out. Sure, there were a lot of other ones. And I said it right there. said, Sinners is not gonna win because one battle after another will. Michael B. Jordan got that award though. He well deserved. Like, come on.
Courtney Pearl (03:16)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just Blane (03:19)
He went to In-N-Out, right where I used to live. I saw the video he posted. It was literally my backyard of where my apartment was in Hollywood, but he was at In-N-Out celebrating with that Oscar last night. I liked that. I love when they do that.
Courtney Pearl (03:31)
my
gosh, it's amazing. ⁓ Just the energy of what that must be like to be at the Oscars, to be at the after parties.
Just Blane (03:34)
You're mad.
Well, the after party at In-N-Out, that's literally about a block from where the Chinese did, where they had the Oscars. A lot of people don't know that. It's in Hollywood. a lot of people don't realize that the Oscars are filmed at the mall. It's a mall. That's the Hollywood Highland Mall.
Courtney Pearl (03:56)
Mm-hmm. Yep. was telling my kids that we
were just there last ⁓ August or September, early September. We were just there doing our our red carpet event. For Promise to Live. No, but we walked right through that theater, the same red carpet, the area that they do that. And I was telling my kids and I was like, you know, it looks really jazzed up right here on TV. But but it really is just a mall. I'm like, when you're there in real life, you're like,
Just Blane (04:09)
Look at us, right? Yeah, look at us.
It's a mall!
Courtney Pearl (04:27)
Okay, it's fine.
Just Blane (04:29)
It's a
mall. I've been to the theater. I've went and watched movies there. Like it's just a mall. I will tell you this. I've been, I lived on Hollywood Boulevard. And when the Oscars are going on, that is a little bit different of a whole street there and a mall because my first year there, it looked like a war zone. I'm not gonna kid here. You walk down Hollywood and right there at La Brea, there were...
Concrete barriers put up and it was, they were stacked. It was wild. You couldn't drive down it. It was to keep out anything that you could think of that would be harmful to that area. I'm not gonna name off stuff, because we're not gonna give people ideas if they don't already have them, but they did. They had these big concrete barriers all put up and it's a whole lot different right there on Hollywood Boulevard.
Courtney Pearl (04:58)
Hmm.
Just Blane (05:22)
I should pull up, I got pictures of that. I should have got those ready for this episode right here. I'll show them another time.
Courtney Pearl (05:28)
We always
have time we always have time
Just Blane (05:30)
Yeah, but I think that's, I just thought about that. Like the way that they did things right there. Hollywood Boulevard between La Brea and Orange and Highland really all that area. But yeah, that's a mall. It's just a mall. It's crazy that all the celebrities are right there. I've been to, I've been to red carpet. Yeah, I've been to red carpet premieres. I've been to all that kind of stuff right there. But I've also shopped in eight right there. know, it's crazy. It's crazy.
Courtney Pearl (05:46)
Wow. So much great energy,
Yep, that's what we did.
Just Blane (05:59)
This is movie Monday and we should have done one battle after another. We really should have, but we already had a schedule.
Courtney Pearl (06:06)
It's on the list
for the freaks that are waiting for us to talk about some of these Oscar movies. Don't worry. It's on the list. We've got we're going to be covering them for sure. So just stay tuned. We're just not the type to go with just the hype of what's going on right now. We're going to go at it on our schedule, on our time. And that's what I love.
Just Blane (06:17)
They're not going anywhere.
on our time, that's right. And
our time right now is we're in March and we're giving our credit where credit is due. It's women's history month. We had international women's day, but it's the whole month if you ask me. And that's what we're doing here. And yeah, yeah.
Courtney Pearl (06:31)
Mm-hmm.
⁓ And it would be the whole year if it was up to me. Same
with Black History Month, same with all of it. Let's just celebrate everybody.
Just Blane (06:50)
I've always understood
this could be controversial, but I've always understood the months dedicated to certain things, but I have not understood the months dedicated to certain things because it should be all the time. But I get it. get, got to, we got to, yeah, we get credit where credit is due once again.
Courtney Pearl (07:04)
Yeah, I think that's the... Yeah.
Yeah, we're
doing a focus on it and that is nice. It's nice to highlight these groups at the time that we do and then celebrate them all the time.
Just Blane (07:19)
And
this one today, I love a good revenge, women's revenge flick. And you know what, we'll actually get into that. We'll probably wrap up with something about that. And was the bride really getting revenge or was it something else? Listen, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. But I'm talking about a movie that has lived rent-free in my head since 2003.
Courtney Pearl (07:43)
Mmm.
Just Blane (07:48)
when it first dropped and it's Kill Bill part one, part two, the whole bloody affair. We're talking about it all. And Tarantino, first of all, is one of my favorite directors. He is probably my favorite. And every movie he's put out, I've enjoyed. I studied him in college. Believe it or not, I went to college. Can you guys, can you freaks believe that? I did, I went to college. Not only that, but I went to...
Courtney Pearl (08:06)
I believe it. I believe it. You put on a good
show at not at being ignorant, but you're not. We know we can see it.
Just Blane (08:20)
All right, all right, all right. Well,
Tarantino though, to me, is one of the greats. He's up there with the greats and he's gonna be, he's one of those that's very polarizing. It's either you love his movies or you hate them. Pulp Fiction came out and it was the greatest masterpiece of all time or a piece of shit, depending on who you asked, because they didn't like the order of the movie. Why, how do you do something at the end and then it go back?
Courtney Pearl (08:27)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (08:45)
You know, not everything is linear. And Tarantino was the one that showed us that Kill Bill's really no different. This is like eight movies in one. And it's not rushed because the whole bloody affair, which is what we watched, I've seen every version, but the whole bloody affair is the way that he intended it. And it's four and a half hours long of just.
Courtney Pearl (08:48)
yeah.
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (09:09)
everything that you can think of. Am I right? Was that your first viewing? What was your initial thoughts here?
Courtney Pearl (09:15)
My first viewing, listen, I've seen Kill Bill. I haven't seen it, but I have seen it being presented to me all these years, right? People talking about it. It's obviously got its huge fandom. I don't know what it was about it that I just wasn't like, gotta see that. I gotta watch it. I was just like, yep, it's probably pretty cool. I probably like it.
And then it just right past me every time, every time, every time. So we're getting ready for this. I'm like, I'm gonna watch it for the very first time. I'm gonna go ahead and go with the whole bloody affair. I'm just gonna go for it. So if I have a unique perspective at all, it might be that my very first time, my first exposure was not to watch it as volume one, volume two, but to watch the whole bloody affair and all the extras. And that's the perspective that I'm coming at it with.
Here we go. This is it.
Just Blane (10:13)
which is totally different.
Me being a huge Tarantino fan, and that was, as I'm gonna age myself, that was when this came out, I was in college. So I was studying film and I was doing all this. I had to watch it in the two parts, but I do remember it being a really cool time because movies back then, you had to wait for part two or the sequel, you had to wait years. And I remember Kill Bill part one,
And here's the thing, Tarantino wanted this to be one movie from the beginning, but they told him nobody's gonna sit in the theater for four hours or whatever. You gotta cut it into two. And.
Courtney Pearl (10:46)
Mm-hmm.
How
hilarious that is now. The people are sitting at movie theaters watching marathons all day now.
Just Blane (10:53)
right? Right.
We've got right here
in our backyard right now, Coco, there's a Jurassic Park marathon going on. And I'm thinking, yeah, people are sitting there for literally, Lore of the Rings marathons, Harry Potter marathons, Twilight marathons. They're not wanting to leave the theater. We're sitting in our homes and we're binge watching 12 hours of TV shows in a row. So yeah, years ago, this was, it was too long. You didn't want to be in a theater for longer than two hours or it was frowned upon. It was like, well you're not going to make any money.
Courtney Pearl (11:03)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (11:27)
And a lot of it did go to money. If a movie's passed two hours long, guess how many times you can use that theater a day? Not as many times as an hour and 20 minute movie that you can get more screenings of, put more butts in the seats. So I get it. But it was cool then because I remember this. came out, part one came out, and part two was like four months later. So it was awesome. was like, holy cow, you get to see this and the sequel within six months. Like that's awesome.
Courtney Pearl (11:35)
Yeah.
Sure. Yeah.
Wow.
Just Blane (11:57)
for timing and this is when, you know, DVDs, they came out and it was always, you always had to wait. We didn't have all these streaming services and stuff. So you always had to wait, wait, wait and you didn't have to for this. But even that.
Courtney Pearl (12:06)
Yeah.
Yeah. movies would go,
they would be released and they'd be out for as long as they could make the most money, as long as it was selling out tickets for, I mean, so it could be there for a long time if it was really popular movie. And then, and then it would go to the $5 theaters. You remember that? There was always like a less good theater in town. So you go see it at the Cineplex or something, you know, where they built luxury seats, maybe that was a new theater.
Just Blane (12:22)
Yeah.
yeah!
Courtney Pearl (12:36)
Then we'd go to the $5 theater that was like the old theater, still falling apart a little bit. Maybe the popcorn machine didn't work, that kind of thing. And then you would have to wait for it to get through that run for it to go out into the movie rental, the blockbuster. ⁓ Our town had great American video that was just a little video store. You'd go rent it on VHS or DVD. And then they would sell it to you in the stores after a period of time.
Just Blane (12:40)
Yeah!
Man!
My
hometown video store was called the video store. Not even kidding. That was it. That's, but you're absolutely right. And
Courtney Pearl (13:10)
You
we also had
a Hollywood video in our town. I just, side note, it is now a funeral home.
Just Blane (13:19)
there you go.
⁓ makes sense.
Courtney Pearl (13:25)
I thought that was hilarious last time I visited my hometown.
Just Blane (13:27)
That's very fitting.
That's very fitting. So up until this point in Tarantino's career, we'd seen him pay homage to different types of movies and Kill Bill itself. mean, well, we had Pulp Fiction, like I said, you had Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs. You had seen him mix all these different stuff, these different styles together. Even... ⁓
Courtney Pearl (13:30)
Sure.
Just Blane (13:54)
Even in Pulp Fiction, you had a samurai sword at one point and you know, there's certain things that you start seeing in all of his movies and that's the Tarantino universe. But this Kill Bill movie, we knew it was gonna be a hot one when it was coming out. He was starting to get to the peak. He was really talked about and this was his love letter to revenge samurai films, spaghetti westerns, which was kind of a forgotten genre and...
Courtney Pearl (14:01)
Yeah.
Just Blane (14:22)
Basically every exploitation flick he ever watched at 2 a.m. He took a reference from it and put it into the Kill Bill. And he did this later on too, but this was when he really, to me, started to shine. And it was one of his on-screen ⁓ actor, you know, respect, whatever, but Uma Thurman, that's a staple in his movies. And she, the bride, is
Courtney Pearl (14:47)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (14:52)
gotta be one of the most iconic revenge characters in the history of Beatrix Kiddo. Beatrix Kiddo is their name, but you don't find that out for, yeah. What'd you think about the bride though?
Courtney Pearl (14:57)
loved it yeah the black mamba ⁓
Well, I loved when doing some research and finding out that she really kind of wrote that with him and she was credited at the end, ⁓ thanks to Q and A or Q and you at the end of the credits. ⁓ Just giving her credit for like coming up with this idea that she was going to be a bride and ⁓ that that was like a kind of creative collaboration and her character, you know, almost right from the beginning. ⁓ My my hair today, I'm trying to pull
Just Blane (15:17)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (15:35)
⁓ inspiration from what this character reminded me of. And I don't know if you remember seeing the X-Files episode Kill Switch. That character, she had black eyes and slick back ponytail, blonde, gorgeous, but kind of dark and really into... ⁓ It was this whole episode about ⁓ uploading yourself to AI so that you can live forever.
Just Blane (15:40)
Mm.
Courtney Pearl (16:00)
super cool episode of X-Files by the way, but that's kind of what it pulled from right at the beginning. I was like, ooh, this warrior, but very feminine at the same time. I am so into it and I have a lot to say about it, but I'll just say first impressions. was like, all right, I'm here for it. All girls, whether we're athletic or not, we want that warrior part of us. We want that to...
We want to be able to be that in some form or another. We want to be able to hold our own. We want to be able to know that we're not weak. We're not subjective to whatever our situation is, that we can hold our own basically, right? Whether it's words or physically.
Just Blane (16:43)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (16:44)
It satisfies that for us, I think.
Just Blane (16:47)
And this movie right here, you said it, the women, the cast, holy cow, Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Darryl Hannah, Uma Thurman, like stacked with powerful women. And Tarantino knew what he was doing. putting those women together, he knew what that was gonna do. it's, like I said, it's that revenge story, but not only is the bride taking revenge against men, she's taking a revenge.
against the women and everybody else who all had a part to do in basically the setup to the movie where she gets shot in the head on her wedding day. She wakes up in a coma, makes a list and starts checking the names off of all the people who wronged her. So sure, it sounds simple.
Courtney Pearl (17:35)
starting with the
first guys that she wakes up to. I mean, those kind of things in movies, they're just they taste so good. And I will just say personally, for my perspective on Quentin Tarantino, I'm not a big fan of violence. Like I don't like seek out violent movies to watch personally. But I love his movies because they always feel like the violence is so juicy, like like
Just Blane (17:40)
my gosh.
Mmm.
Courtney Pearl (18:05)
Yeah, we're going to want to see Nazis getting killed. going to want to see, you know, we want to see the revenge. We want to see people who have harmed others to get their just rewards. And there's just a part of us, even the kindest and the gentlest and the most peaceful people. I like to think of myself in that category because it's hard for me to even picture myself enacting any kind of violence. And I'll talk about this more later when we get to it, but.
There are certain situations where you're like, I would like to think that I could be that violent in that situation. I would like to think I could.
Just Blane (18:41)
I this guy, Bill, took four years of her life and her baby, really, so she thinks. So you gotta, I think you would be revenge. I think you'd be looking for yours too. You'd be violent.
Courtney Pearl (18:47)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
And I don't think it's
totally psychotic to be like, that's good when you see a scene where it's just really that bloody and gory. The blood spraying everywhere. mean, most of the time I watch a movie and I go, ⁓ a little bit, but not in his movies. I don't do that. go, yeah, let's go. So.
Just Blane (19:19)
And yes, that
scene, the scene was really bloody ⁓ by design, by Tarantino, let's just say. And no, it was practical effects, no CGI, none of that stuff for most of the scenes. But that was going back to some of his genius. It's like, on paper, this movie sounds simple. But when you got Tarantino involved, you've got basically a movie that is...
Frankenstein's Monster of Influences. It's Quentin Tarantino's Monster of Influences. Shaw Brothers Kung Fu. Japanese Samurai Cinema. Sergio Leone. You know, that's huge. Blacksploitation, even a little bit of animes in there. It's like he went through his VHS collection and said, how do we do all this at once? And how do we make it work?
Courtney Pearl (19:55)
Mm-hmm.
⁓ I love the end.
Yeah, and make it work, which is hard
to do. mean, I don't think just anybody could do that. And a lot of people would just be like, ⁓ it's a copycat. Look, they're just copycatting all of these things. And his was more of like, I'm going to take inspiration from these things and I'm going to amplify it and make it my own. And it's next level. Right. I mean, that's very different and very hard to do.
Just Blane (20:18)
No.
Yeah.
I mean, underneath all of the genre mashup madness, there's a beating heart. And that's what gives this movie what it is. And the beating heart is Uma Thurman as the bride. She's the anchor for this film. Let's talk about her, cause she's more than just a bad ass. Sure, she's a stone cold killer, but she's got a whole lot deeper human meaning, emotion.
Courtney Pearl (20:50)
Yeah.
Just Blane (21:02)
It's there. it's, basically her life is ripped away from her. Unborn child, she doesn't know the future, her identity's gone, she didn't even have a name for the first, what, two thirds of the movie. She's just called the bride even. You know, so, she really wakes up and she's one of these people that's got nothing to lose. She's not, you know, there's nothing that she can.
Courtney Pearl (21:03)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Just Blane (21:28)
Dude, it's any worse. That's terrifying because that's somebody that you can't hurt. She's already been hurt and you don't want that coming at you. Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (21:34)
Yeah, yeah, she's already died, technically. I mean,
shot and came back. She's like.
Just Blane (21:44)
That's scary to me. That's not somebody who won't come in after you. Somebody that's got literally nothing to lose who thinks she's already been dead once. Got shot in the head.
Courtney Pearl (21:55)
yeah. I love the line that ⁓ Bud or ⁓ was his name Sidewinder? I'm getting that right. ⁓ His line where he says that woman deserves her revenge and we deserve to die. That was one of my favorite lines in the movie. I love that these assassins, all of these cold, hard killers, they've got killing in their blood. They know what they're doing. They're super skilled.
Just Blane (22:02)
I think so.
Yes.
Courtney Pearl (22:23)
They're also trained to kind of remove all the emotions out of it and go for it. What you need to do, that comes first. You don't think about anything else. And even still, there's this element of rule following and respect for each other that skill and ⁓ just professionalism, I guess, is maybe what it would be. But this ⁓ almost code of conduct they have for each other is incredible. Like we can't just kill her while she's in a
She deserves better than that. This kind of thing where it's like they're cold-heart killers, but they're also going to consider these things and go, this is this is somebody we respect quite a bit as well. And I got that feeling from everybody.
Just Blane (23:05)
They have like,
yeah, they got like unwritten rules is what it is. It's like unwritten rules in the assassin world that you can't go against, like killing her in a coma. Sure, that'd have been easy, but they don't do that way. I love that you pointed that out because yeah, that's.
Courtney Pearl (23:10)
Mm-hmm.
I think she might have. think that that character maybe didn't have quite the rule following that everyone else did because she killed the master, you she reveals at the end. I don't think she had scruples about any of that. But ⁓ I want to point out that her, the bride, Beatrix, as the hero of this story, I loved following along with how it fell in line with these archetypes that we know of in literature and ⁓
Just Blane (23:38)
Nah!
Courtney Pearl (23:54)
almost like that Christ archetype character where they have to be found worthy. They're the only ones who can do it. There may even be ⁓ the, in this it would be more subtle, but the hint of a prophecy of the one, you know, the kind of thing. And it kind of alludes to that with her. It's not as obvious, it still has, it follows a lot of those same archetypes of story. And it's shown mostly with the sword, the sword with, ⁓
Just Blane (24:22)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (24:24)
Hattari Hanzo, the steel samurai sword, know, for him to come out of retirement, you know, he has his blood oath, but he's forsaking that just to make her one more sword. I mean, how many times do we see that special sword is given to the one that is worthy in fairy tale, right? King Arthur, the legend in Arthurian legend of getting the one sword. So he's almost kind of a
Just Blane (24:44)
Yes.
Courtney Pearl (24:52)
takes the place of a sovereignty goddess that we see in other mythology, where it's like, I have deemed you worthy of this sword that I will make for you. And it's almost mythical, magical. There's something about this sword. In this case, it's just the level of craftsmanship that goes into it. But there is something kind of other level, other worldly about it, right? Like she gets the sword and then it's like, whoa, he made you a sword. Everyone's noting it.
Just Blane (24:55)
Mmm.
Courtney Pearl (25:21)
taking note.
Just Blane (25:22)
Now, so you just brought another genre into it that I didn't even think about, and that's fantasy. He's got some fantasy in here. He's got that mixed in. Let's talk about, we've talked about the genres and stuff. Let's talk about the structure and style of the movie, the Tarantino touch, because it's not a traditional three act film. It's not that structure at all. I mean, the movie came out in two parts. It's more like a series of chapters, literally. They're named volume one,
Courtney Pearl (25:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's very subtle.
Yeah.
Just Blane (25:53)
Pure adrenaline, the bride verse for needed green. Then you got the O-Ren Ishii and the crazy 88. That is an iconic fight scene. That's the one I was talking about with all the blood. Yeah. But then you go to volume two or if you're in the whole bloody affair after the intermission, it slows down, it gets more introspective, more emotionally complex.
Courtney Pearl (26:04)
Yes. Took two months to film? Insane.
Just Blane (26:21)
So we went from a bunch of violence in this first half of this movie to, all right, let's slow this thing down, which is totally opposite of what most movies do. It's usually that buildup, bunch of violence, roll the credits, not this one. Yeah, we get the backstory. We start getting backstory about like, Pi-May and the truth about what happened, the final confrontation with Bill, which is by the way, not a big fight, violent scene. It's just conversation. It's a reckoning.
Courtney Pearl (26:33)
Big battle. Yeah.
was
ready for it. was like, my kids were coming in and out as we were trying to watch this. I'd have to pause it and be like, okay, help the kids and then get them out of the room so we could watch the super violent. I was getting ready for a big violent battle with Bill and got the kids out of the way and then hit play. I was like, ⁓ they probably could have stayed for this. Too bad.
Just Blane (26:56)
Yeah.
Yeah.
But I think that's something
that's the way that they ended that was very beautiful though, because when confronting a person that basically destroyed everything and you want to take back power, it's not through violence. That would be well, technically, yeah, sure, she did go through some violence, but it's not through just violence, it's through closure. That she gets what she wants.
And I think that's a big thing. I think she's getting closure on all this stuff. It's not necessarily about killing these people. But if that's what it takes to give her her closure, then so be it.
Courtney Pearl (27:44)
Yeah.
It was about letting go, letting them go kind of. And that symbolism too of the five steps, I loved that because I mean, I was taking it very ⁓ not literally like I thought, okay, you do the five point, whatever it's called that she learned from Pai Mei. then it would be like the timing of five steps and his heart would explode.
Just Blane (27:50)
Yeah!
yeah.
Courtney Pearl (28:16)
I thought that's what was going to happen. But the literal five steps was just epic. mean, just it was the absolute perfect ending, I thought, to let him go. He gets to have his dignity. She gets to maybe not forgive him, but forgive, let go, kind of. ⁓ Letting go of you did what you did. We did what we did. It is what it is. Now you may go. And knowing that the whole time
Just Blane (28:20)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (28:45)
even as their conversation maybe would have gotten to a point where they were both like, all right, we each understand each other. We understand why we understand, you know, maybe we let go of any resentments towards each other about what happened. But knowing deep down, I kept feeling like, yeah, but he can't live. I mean, she knew it. There was just this understanding and that's kind of the back to the whole assassin's rule. It's almost like he knew it. She knew it. It was like.
Just Blane (29:04)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (29:14)
I can't let you live. This is how this is going to end, right?
Just Blane (29:19)
Would it have been different? I'm sure, I know it would have, or was it necessary for them to have a big violent battle at the end after all we've seen so much? I don't think so. I think that's a, like you said, that's the perfect ending. The absolute perfect ending. Let's talk about the soundtrack. Tarantino's known for great music in all of his movies, but this one to me, next level, you had
Courtney Pearl (29:31)
I don't think so.
Hmm.
Just Blane (29:45)
Everything from Bernard Herrmann's haunting strings, any old Mario Cone. Most of the soundtrack was him. You even had RZA in the Wu-Tang Clan. And then that whistle from Twisted Nerve that still gives people chills. You know, every needle drop, let's just say, is intentional. Every song choice is doing its work. Setting the mood, building attention, celebrating violence even.
Courtney Pearl (29:56)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that was fantastic.
Just Blane (30:13)
It's not just the background. It's not background noise in this movie at all.
Courtney Pearl (30:14)
Yeah.
It's
almost part of the set, you kind of feel, right? Like the music playing when she goes to Sidewinder's trailer ⁓ to confront him and the music playing, it's like he's playing it out of his trailer or possibly not. Maybe it's playing in the background of the movie, but it feels like it's part of the set.
Just Blane (30:20)
It is.
Yeah.
I mean, in the crazy 888 fight scene, you got the sirens going off. That's absolutely setting the tone. Bang, bang, my baby shot me down. When that hits any time now that anybody plays it anywhere, you think about this movie and it's an instant emotional gut punch when you hear that song. And that's what this movie, this movie sets cultural tones for us too.
Courtney Pearl (30:59)
Yeah.
Just Blane (31:06)
There are so many movies that have taken inspiration from just Kill Bill alone, not just Tarantino, but Kill Bill alone. And you'll start seeing
Courtney Pearl (31:14)
yeah.
Just Blane (31:15)
it, you probably, even though you've never seen a movie, you've seen movies that were inspired by this one, by Kill Bill. You know, like that's huge to me.
Courtney Pearl (31:25)
Yeah,
the iconic yellow jumpsuit. mean, that was something that I know was taken from another movie, another reference, right? But ⁓ then it became kind of the Kill Bill thing, right? The image of the sword, opening the sword. I found myself researching how to get myself a samurai sword while watching it. I may have tried to maybe see how much it would be to find one.
Just Blane (31:37)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (31:53)
all part of the experience that this movie created.
Just Blane (31:53)
This was
I'm gonna say too about the violence. The violence in this movie, even though it was so much and absurd, it was needed because it's like Terry Tan on Youth of Violence as opera. I mean, think about it, the House of Blue Leaves sequence alone is 20 minutes of ballet carnage. Limbs flying, blood spraying, bodies piling up. And the thing is,
Courtney Pearl (32:18)
Ooh, I love it. Yeah.
Just Blane (32:24)
It's not realistic, it's stylized, it's almost cartoonish. That's the point. That's the point. Like you said earlier, you don't normally seek out violent movies, but in this, it's so violent, but he's not trying to do it in a way to make you sick like some of the other movies. He's theatrical. It's violence as a performance, and it's so over the top that it creates distance for the viewer at home.
Courtney Pearl (32:29)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Just Blane (32:53)
And I think that's okay.
Courtney Pearl (32:53)
Yeah.
Just Blane (32:54)
I don't think we're sitting there thinking, oh, I can't watch this because you know blood doesn't squirt up out. You know, like that's not how things work. We assume, yeah.
Courtney Pearl (33:03)
We assume that.
Don't know. Never decapitated a person at a boardroom. But if I could, I'd want to do it like Lucy Liu. The little footsteps. ⁓
Just Blane (33:09)
Yeah, right.
⁓ yeah. Let's talk about.
All of this, these women, there's a lot of motherhood and identity in there too. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (33:26)
Yeah,
and that's what I was going to say was ⁓ getting to that point, the balance between the masculine and feminine, because it's very, I mean, the violence and the swordplay, that feels very masculine. feels like ⁓ requiring a lot of skill and strength and on training and things like that you mostly see with men warriors, or that's the way it's been depicted for us for thousands of years. But to have this sort of ⁓
Just Blane (33:47)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (33:54)
other side to it that was represented in this movie. I loved all the murders. Anybody that was killed in this movie was taking place. All women. Women were the only ones that killed anybody, which I loved. And then to show that there was this other human side where the second, the second Beatrix gets a positive pregnancy test, everything changes for her. Everything. Her purpose.
Just Blane (34:03)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (34:22)
She says it, it's not subtext in the plot. She's telling Bill that changed everything. In that moment, I could not put my life on the line anymore because it wasn't my life. what better way to explain what it means and what it feels like to be a mother? And not everybody has that experience. Some people are like, well, I don't think I was meant to be a mother. I don't want to be a mother. Totally fine, no judgment there. But for those with that maternal desire or instinct,
It is so exactly like that in our whole world. I think that the world likes to ignore it. I think that the world likes to think that women could have careers or do whatever and they would just keep going like they've always been. get to be, they want them to be the maiden forever and never transition into what it means to be the mother. And I think that the bride showed that so well in this movie to be like, I am an assassin. I do.
Just Blane (35:11)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (35:22)
kill, like it's in my blood to kill. I fully acknowledge that. And yet I have this other part of me. It's going to drive the ship now, the mother part, right, for my child.
Just Blane (35:34)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And she really gives it to Bill, in a way that's sure. I think violence would have been what he would have wanted. Like, that would have been almost like a he won type of thing, even if he did die. But the way that it happened was poetic. And because we find out...
Courtney Pearl (35:54)
Yeah.
Just Blane (35:57)
that when Bill shot her, and this is in volume two or halfway through the movie, but that's when she finds out that she's pregnant and we think the baby died. Then she finds out that the baby's not dead. it's a lot of this push and pull of emotions that she's going through.
Courtney Pearl (36:14)
Yeah.
Yeah, and she's
a complex character. She's not just a cold-hearted killer assassin. She is also this woman, mother.
Just Blane (36:21)
Exactly.
That is shown very early on even when she's in that first battle with the first person on the list. And she sees the school bus come and they take a break from killing each other.
They literally take a break from trying to kill one another.
Courtney Pearl (36:39)
my favorite.
Just Blane (36:40)
Let's talk about Bill too. David Carradine, rest in peace, David Carradine. But he plays this ⁓ weird mix of charm and menace. He is pretty cool, and collected, and almost fatherly at times. To not just, you know, to everybody. Which makes him even more terrifying.
Courtney Pearl (36:41)
BEEP BEEP
Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, it feels unsettling. Almost all of the scenes are like this because you know they're assassins and you don't know what's going to happen next. Like, ⁓ wait, they're talking. like somebody what? But that he plays that really well because he's he could have killed her. I mean, we know from the very start, but you've got this feeling like she's totally vulnerable or she's exposed. What's going to happen? Is he going to?
Just Blane (37:22)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (37:32)
be gentle with her or is he going or is that killer instinct gonna kick in and he's going to go at her like we don't know for most of the scene in the end. Unnerving.
Just Blane (37:34)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, big time. He, he, I can't see anybody else in that role of Bill. Other than, than a David Carradine.
Courtney Pearl (37:53)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Just Blane (37:56)
It's hard to put anybody else in any of these roles. I always think Tarantino does a great job of casting ⁓ most of his roles and he uses the same type of people. He uses the same actors in most of his movies. He's got his own posse, let's say, and his ensemble, his total ensemble. I love this movie.
Courtney Pearl (38:13)
Yeah, yeah. Ensemble.
Just Blane (38:21)
and we could talk six hours about this movie. We may actually do this movie again somewhere down the road and just pick another part of it or pick another aspect that we could run with because there's so much to take from this. And like I said earlier, the cultural influence is not going anywhere. This came out 20 years ago. That's hard to believe. 20 plus. And we see it still influence filmmakers today.
We're talking about it. Like, you know, we're talking about it. People will watch this because we're talking about Kill Bill. That's how important this movie is to film in general. And I know that Tarantino, I know the people out there who don't like him, they're tuning out right now. But you know what? Like, you gotta say that this guy's done a lot for film. And when AI...
Courtney Pearl (38:49)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah
Just Blane (39:15)
When AI takes over making movies, I don't think that AI is going be able to make these Tarantino type of movies.
Courtney Pearl (39:18)
Yes.
No, details, the details and choices that were made in this movie particularly, but I think he does in all of his movies. I think you can see the attention to detail and I'll point out one part that that is highlighted to me and it happens throughout the whole movie, but I loved when ⁓ she's fighting, what's her name? Elle. She's fighting the, is it Daryl Hannah's character? Yeah.
Just Blane (39:33)
Yeah.
Darryl Hannes. Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (39:51)
and they're in the trailer and they each kick each other and fall back and the split screen where it shows both of them fall back. The attention to detail to create something like that, to show that, I just thought that was so signature Quentin Tarantino. That was perfect.
Just Blane (40:07)
S tier A plus for that scene. That whole trailer scene. First of all, I have a legitimate phobia of snakes. legitimate. It's a phobia. I'm serious. Don't play pranks on me. Anybody out there, don't play that. It's a legit phobia. That's the only thing in the world I'm scared of. Legitimate scared of. So that, but I love that scene, but the whole time I've got to pick my feet up off the ground.
Courtney Pearl (40:16)
⁓ am legitimate.
Yeah,
Just Blane (40:36)
I've got to be like this. I've got to be... And I'm like this. I'm like...
Courtney Pearl (40:36)
you're like, where's the snake? Where's the snake? Where's the snake? The whole time.
Just Blane (40:41)
And I'm like this. And I'm like, my God. And I'm thinking about it all the time. I'm like, my God, that snake's on the floor. It's got to be like right about here, right about, you know. So I'm watching that scene all the time already kind of on edge, but that scene's incredible. As so many in this movie are. And it's wild because you take that fight scene and then you take the crazy 88 fight scene and it's like two different movies.
You show those out of context and don't show the character. You could even show Uma Thurman. Doesn't matter.
Courtney Pearl (41:06)
Yeah.
Yeah,
you would think you should be just playing a different character in different movie, right? Yeah.
Just Blane (41:14)
in a different movie, but it's the same
movie and I love that. And that's what I always get from this is it's one of those that I watch frequently and it'll be one of the times when I don't know what kind of movie I wanna watch. Well, I'll just watch them all at once. I'll just watch like nine genres at one time, because I'll put on Tarantino, Kill Bill.
Courtney Pearl (41:33)
Yeah.
Yeah, we're still waiting for that volume three. It's been teased, but we don't know. I don't know if it's been confirmed, but a lot of people are like ⁓ the daughter, Nikki, ⁓ comes back at Beatrix for revenge for her mother. And ⁓ I'd love to see the two daughters grown up and trained and see what happens. I don't know.
Just Blane (41:53)
Aw man.
Maybe Tarantino will give it to us. Maybe he'll do that for us, or at least, I don't know, tell us, give us something. Give us a, he could write a graphic novel for all we know. Like, whatever, it don't matter at this point. He could.
Courtney Pearl (42:07)
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I would love to see a little bit more Beatrix's backstory, the way that we got the anime backstory on Oren. That was so incredible. I almost wanted to see that for each of them. I was like, oh, are we going to get this for each of the people on her list? So there's a lot of opportunity there. It's a lot of potential.
Just Blane (42:19)
Yeah.
Let me make a note on that because I think that the anime in the whole bloody affair that just released recently on digital might be on blue right now. I believe the anime on that is a little bit longer than what they showed originally. I think it was an extended version because I don't remember sitting there for that long. That was a long sequence in the whole bloody affair to the point to where you're like.
Courtney Pearl (42:49)
Mm.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (43:01)
Holy crap, I just watched like 30 minutes of anime before you even realized it. And I don't think it was that long during the theatrical run. I could be wrong. Somebody out there will know one of our freaks will get at me and tell me if I'm wrong. But it did feel a lot longer and it sucked me in more and gave me more depth, more care about O-Ren. Like I was like, ⁓ I can see some of this now. So.
Courtney Pearl (43:05)
Yeah, yeah, and it was fantastic.
I would not
Just Blane (43:30)
Final thoughts from you on this.
Courtney Pearl (43:32)
Final thoughts. ⁓ I really
⁓ I guess I just want to highlight the great focus it was on women in this whole movie. We tend to think of all of these types of movies, if it's a kind of a violent warrior revenge. mean, even all of the movies that Quentin Tarantino pulled from to make this movie, all of his inspirations, it would typically be
men fighting men and this kind of thing. But there was a scene where they were talking about, I'm the boss of you. And the word I'm the boss of you came out and I realized how much. ⁓ was a sidewinder was that the bar that he works for and he was asking for work and the boss was like, I'm the boss of you. And I remember thinking, man, is that not just the perfect thing to just zoom in on?
Just Blane (44:06)
No.
Courtney Pearl (44:28)
to see a wider picture of this whole movie, but in one little part to see that this sort of I'm the boss of you hierarchy, this masculine energy of patriarchy that's like, I'm the boss of you and you're the boss, and then this boss has a boss, and then somebody is king, and somebody is emperor, and it really is designed to control everybody underneath that, especially men. So for him to be like,
Just Blane (44:55)
Yeah
Courtney Pearl (44:57)
you're not the boss, I'm the boss of you. And then for that guy to go out into the world and to be like, well, now who am I the boss of? And to have his ass get kicked. I don't know. It just felt like if you just zoom in on that little part, it also kind of highlights the theme of the entire movie as a whole. Yeah.
Just Blane (45:07)
Yeah.
I love that. Kill
Bill is a master class in style meeting substance. This movie will never be forgotten. It will only be mimicked in probably the best kind of ways. And I will watch it again and again and again. But I do got a question for the freaks out there. Did the bride get justice or revenge?
Or is there even a difference? We wanna hear from you. But that's it right here for parallel frequencies with Just Blaine and Coco. This week's a big week because we got Ted Lasso coming up tomorrow. We got Alien, Sigourney Weaver and Alien Wednesday. I can't wait for that one because that's the biggest heroine there's ever been. And I'll get into my take on why Alien is the scariest movie.
ever. Okay, I know there's scarier movies, but I'm tell you why it is. And we'll get to that Wednesday. We got Treader Park Thursday coming up again. All women, we'll do it all women again. Treader Park Thursday. And then Friday, what we got Friday? What is it? The last show girl?
Courtney Pearl (46:24)
Friday, do it. yeah, Pamela
Anderson, the last showgirl. For those who haven't seen it, it may be a little bit of a ⁓ tucked away movie many people haven't gotten a chance to see yet. And so this is your chance to make sure you get to watch it before we talk about it on Friday, because it's worth the watch.
Just Blane (46:43)
That's what we like to do on Feature Friday. We like to bring up movies that maybe you didn't see but need to. So that's gonna be a good one. I don't know if I've seen it. That's not the one she got the bar bar tattoo for, right? No, that movie was called bar bar. I think that movie was called bar bar. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (46:57)
don't think so, it's more recent. Yeah.
Just Blane (47:03)
We'll get into our panel Anderson and the last show girl on Wednesday. But yeah, freaks out there, we appreciate each and every one of you for hanging out with us. Keep riding this ride. We're gonna keep on blowing up and having fun. That's what we're doing. But until next time, we'll see you right here, parallel frequencies.