OK I had an appointment today and thought I could squeeze in a showing if Kill Bill. Low and behold the previews must have run longer than I anticipated because I had to leave at the end…and I don’t know what I missed.
I saw Cottonmouth (Lucy Liu) get scalped and fall, then I had to go.
What (if anything) happened after that?
Gracias amigos!
The Bride dropped Sofie off at the hospital (Literally. There was a hill, and she rolled the one-armed woman down). In back-and-forth chronology, The Bride threatened torture in exchange for information on the other Deadly Viper Assassination Squad members, and told her the second reason for letting her live, which was to let Bill know she wanted him to know what happened.
Interspersed between The Bride’s threats, Bill stood behind Sofie and she related what The Bride said.
The final line was Bill asking, “Does she know that her daughter is still alive?”
…And I loved every minute of this movie.
So the daughter lives!
Coo. Now I MUST see Vol II.
By the way, Uma is scrumptious…yummmy!
Uma Thurman is a force of nature. That movie was wild.
Awwww, yea. That movie was great!
But, I didn’t actually count the number of arms when she was rolling down the hill. What if her other one did get cut off during the interrogation?
-Tcat
I have a workprint on VCD, so I can fill in a little detail, transcription style.
THE BRIDE crosses O REN ISHII off her death list.
Cut to a shot of THE BRIDE putting SOFIE in the boot of the Ferrari.
Next shot is her being dumped at the hospital as described and staff running out to pick up her mutilated body.
Dissolve to a close head and shoulders shot of SOFIE, desaturated and high-contrast for effect. She is clearly still in shock and blinking back tears. She is apparently in a wheelchair and has an IV drip. BILL is standing behind her. (You just see his hands as he makes comforting gestures.)
BILL: Sofie, Sofie, my Sofie, I’m so sorry.
SOFIE: Please forgive my betrayal –
BILL: Hush…
SOFIE: But, still –
BILL: “But still” nothing, except my breaking heart over what she’s done to my beautiful and brilliant Sofie.
CUT TO: Reverse shot of THE BRIDE looking down into the trunk.
THE BRIDE: I’ve kept you alive for two reasons: the first reason is information.
Cut to SOFIE in the trunk.
SOFIE: (In Japanese) Burn in hell, you stupid, stupid blonde. I’ll tell you nothing.
THE BRIDE: (whispering) But I am going to ask you questions-- and every time you don’t give me answers, I’m going to cut something off. And I promise you-- (shouting) They will be things you will miss!
Cut back to SOFIE closing her eyes as she remembers her torture.
THE BRIDE: (Voice over) GIVE ME YOUR OTHER ARM! I want… all the information on the Deadly Vipers. What they are doing, and where I can find them.
BILL: If you had to guess why she left you alive, what would be your guess?
SOFIE:Guessing won’t be necessary. She informed me. She said I could keep my wicked life for two reasons.
CUT BACK TO REVERSE SHOT OF BRIDE SPEAKING INTO THE TRUNK:
THE BRIDE: As I said before, I’m allowing you to keep your wicked life for two reasons-- and the second reason is so you can tell him, in person, everything that happened here tonight. I want him to witness the extent of my mercy… by witnessing your deformed body. I want you to tell him, all the information you just told me. I want him to know what I know. I want him to know I want him to know. And I want them all to know, they’ll all soon be as dead as O Ren.
FADE TO BLACK
TITLE CARD: Written and Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Some more credits go by, with soothing Zamfir pan-flute on the sound track.
Cut to a shot of a plane, apparantly flying back to the USA.
Close shot of THE BRIDE’s hand writing DEATH LIST FIVE at the top of a blank scribbler page and underlining it.
The next shot is interesting-- A medium shot of her writing, taken from across the aisle. Again, she has her samurai sword beside her. This time, though we see that there is another samurai sword in the foreground, belonging to whoever is sitting across the aisle from her.
HATTORI HANZO: (Voiceover, in Japanese) Revenge is never a straight line.
Cut to Hattori Hanzo sitting crosslegged, in a flashback to his address presentation of the sword.
HATTORI HANZO: It’s a forest. And like a forest it’s easy to lose your way… to get lost… to forget where you came in.
Cut back to THE BRIDE’s notebook. She is writing: (3) – Budd
Dissolve to the Stetson-wearing Budd, squinting into the sun and speaking to someone off-screen.
BUDD: That woman… deserves her revenge. And we deserve to die.
Cut back to THE BRIDE’s notebook. Next line: (4) – Elle Driver
Dissolve to Elle, smoking and speaking to someone on the phone.
ELLE: She must suffer to her last breath.
Cut back to THE BRIDE’s notebook: THE BRIDE puts down her black pen and picks up a red one, with which she writes: (5) – BILL
Dissolve to overexposed shot of THE BRIDE in better times, looking up with a slightly wistful smile.
THE BRIDE: How did you find me?
BILL: (Off screen) I’m a man.
THE BRIDE’s smile broadens and she looks away.
Cut back to the shot of the disfigured SOFIE, closer to tears than ever. BILL rests both hands on her shoulders.
BILL: One more thing, Sofie: Is she aware… that her daughter is still alive?
Fade to black – Roll Credits.
It was a surprisingly good ending, considering. I thought it would be more…abrupt, considering that it was (as I understand it) a post-production decision to cut the movie into two pieces. Now I suppose they could have added stuff in post to smooth off the edges, but it was still a pleasant surprise to have an ending to Vol. 1 that wasn’t too jarring or overly cliff-hangerly.
Just one correction, Larry Mudd.
I don’t have a “workprint” and only saw the film once earlier this evening, but this is a detail that I specifically noticed at the time so I feel I am correct (but feel free to correct me if I am in error).
When The Bride first speaks to Sophie in the trunk and Sophie answers “Burn in hell, you stupid, stupid blonde. I’ll tell you nothing,” she says this in FRENCH not in Japanese. As she said this I am pretty sure I recalled The Bride’s (or the movie’s) description of her earlier as half French, half Japanese, or something similar.
A minor detail, but it is not often I can add something informative to a thread.
Overall, a very fun movie.
QUESTION to Larry Mudd, since you have a workprint:
In the scene with Viveca Fox, when the daughter comes in and they are both talking to her, Viveca Fox twice mentions The Brides name and each time a funny electronic sound covers up her name. The first time it happened it seemed kind of odd, but could of been some technical thing or who knows what, but the second time they do it again so it is clearly intentional.
Afterwards, I could think of two possible reasons Tarantino did this. One would be to let the audience know specifically that for some reason we are purposely being kept in the dark about the characters true name. It would not be enough to merely not ever say her name, as that would seem to be just one of many stylistic devices in the movie. By specifically censoring the name as it’s being spoken the audience understands that the name is being specifically withheld.
A second reason could be that when the scene was originally shot, the movie was intended to be one film, not two. Perhaps when the decision was made to split the film into two some additional “stuff” was added in, some of which included the need to now keep The Bride’s name from being revealed too early. But since the scene was already shot before this decision was made, they decided to censor out the name instead of reshooting the entire scene. Or something.
Does your workprint contain this? If you have a workprint, perhaps you also have some inside info. Care to shed any light on this for me?
Thanks!
ISTR it happening three times; I’m sure the Bride says her own name once.
Any road up, anyone who can lipread could tell you that the Bride’s name is Beatrix or Beatrice, and Vivica Fox has confirmed the former.
For sure it was planned that way from the start.
Here’s an early draft of the script, (before it was split up into two films.] Q.T.'s stage direction from after the first instance:
O-Ren utters the inutterable in the script, too:
:smack: You’re right, of course – she says “brûlure en l’enfer, salope blonde.” (Approximately – I don’t speak french – “Bad Canuck, no donut.” Did recognize that one word from the wiping-your-ass-with-silk bit in another recent wire-fu blockbuster, though…) I think she switches to Japanese in mid-address – at least it sounds that way to me, it goes by too fast for my poor synapses to process, I can’t pick out a single word, but the inflection sounds Japanese to me. I wouldn’t be overly-surprised to find out it was french, too, but with a heavy Japanese accent. In that early script, their entire exchange is in Japanese, but it’s also substantially different.
Another mistake in my quick-and-dirty transcription-- It’s no Ferrari she’s driving, it’s a tiny little Japanese sports car. I guess I was still thinking of the Otaku’s fatal chat-up of Yuki. Eesh.
Actually, I can add one more thing to this French conversation. She calls The Bride a blonde slut. Saloppe=slut. And that’s also what it said on the subtitles.
Zoggie, I thought it said “bitch” on the subtitles. “Salope”, while literally meaning “slut”, is used more generally, like “bitch” is in English. So “bitch” is actually a more accurate translation.
Also, the second part of the statement is in French, she says IIRC, “Je ne te dirai rien”, i.e. “I’ll tell you nothing.”