Uma Thurman....  The Bride a.k.a. Black Mamba

David Carradine....  Bill

Lucy Liu....  O-Ren Ishii a.k.a. Cottonmouth

Vivica A. Fox....  Vernita Green a.k.a. Copperhead

Sonny Chiba....  Hattori Hanzo

Chiaki Kuriyama....  Go Go Yubari

Julie Dreyfus....  Sofie Fatale

Daryl Hannah....  Elle Driver a.k.a. California Mountain Snake

Michael Madsen....  Budd a.k.a. Sidewinder

Michael Parks....  Sheriff

Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino.  Based on the character The Bride created by Q & U.

Kill Bill Vol. 1s opening shot is of its heroine, The Bride (Uma Thurman), beaten nearly to death and then shot in the head.  The shot will startle anyone because its so unexpected.  This begins Quentin Tarantinos opus and the best movie so far this year.  It is a homage to Chinese kung fu, Japanese Samurai and Anime (or Japanese animation), spaghetti western and revenge movies that shaped his idea of film.  Do not expect anything when you walk into the theater because it is akin to nothing else.   It isnt like his earlier films whose trademarks were criminals discussing pop culture and similar minutia while about to do something unthinkably despicable.

After being shot in the head, The Bride goes into a coma and wakes up four and half years later in a hospital to discover that her unborn child was killed when she was shot by her former employer, Bill (David Carradine), unseen in Vol. 1.  After leaving the assassin business to raise her child and start a family, Bill decides that this is unacceptable and sets the rest of their assassin team, known as the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS), on her and massacres the rest of her wedding party, totaling nine dead.  The other members of DiVAS are O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Lui), Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox), Budd (Michael Madsen) and Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah).

Realizing what happened, she decides to set out and get revenge for the death of her child from the other members of DiVAS.  Told in true Tarantino style, the events are told out of sequence for dramatic effect and this really helps it move along.  We first see her take care of Vernita in her Pasadena, California home.  This begins right after the opening credits and is my favorite fight sequence in the whole movie because it moves so quickly and ends when Vernitas four-year-old daughter Nikki walks in and brings reality back to us, making us feel a little bit ashamed.

After that we see the crime scene of the chapel in El Paso, Texas, where the wedding massacre took place.  In a nod to another Tarantino-written movie, the sheriff (Michael Parks) almost reprises his role from From Dusk Till Dawn and explains how the atrocity had to be done by professionals.  We next see the bride in the coma ward in a local hospital and by using split screen we see Elle Driver in an attempt to slay the Bride in her coma.  She is stopped when Bill calls her on her gigantic cell phone and says to lay off. 

When The Bride wakes up we learn that she was used for the last few years by an orderly named Buck who likes toShe takes care of that problem and steals Bucks horrifically named Pussy Wagon and wills herself out of entropy.  While she does that she tells the back-story of O-Ren, shown to us in Japanese Anime.  The anime is particularly entertaining because in it people are like balloons filled with blood and when shot or stabbed gush blood like a roaring river.

The Bride next goes to the island of Okinawa in Japan and meets Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba).  Chiba reprises his role of Hattori Hanzo from the Japanese shoe titled in America Shadow Warriors.  He is a famous sword maker whom The Bride wills out of retirement to help her take care of a former who student of his whom she also has a problem with. 

After getting Hattoris best sword he ever crafted, she heads to Tokyo to take care of O-Ren, who has become leader of the Underworld there.  Her character is half Chinese half Japanese, so you might wonder how she became leader of the underground there, and it was by the help of Bill and his lawyer Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus) who is now O-Rens personal attorney.  O-Ren is the leader of a gang called the Crazy 88 who encounter the Bride in an amazing battle.

The battle takes place in a Tokyo bar named The House of Blue Leaves, and it is arguably the best fight scene in years.  She takes the whole Crazy 88 one by one in true kung fu movie style with her sword and her will.  What makes the fight so unbelievably good is many things but the cartoonish super violence were blood pours and flows like nothing ever seen, well maybe Freddy vs. Jason.  To protect its R-rating, the fight sequence switches to black and white and then to silhouette, which make it an even stronger sequence because this 25 minute gore fest is truly original in that it is taken from hundreds of Tarantinos favorite films.  The most memorable part of the battle is her fight with Go Go Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) who fights The Brides sword with an amazing mace.  After taking care of O-Rens minions she takes care of O-Ren is snow covered Japanese garden.

There is so much to love about Kill Bill Vol. 1, in jokes and references to movies most havent seen, lovable characters like Hattori Hanzo, and one of the bloodiest things ever seen.  The movie is only insanely bloody when in Asia but when in North America the violence is much more realistic.  As an action movie goes the performances are all top notch and will of course be looked over for awards.  The way that Tarantino mixes the genres of film to make Kill Bill is admirable, most notably the use of southwestern style guitar playing during the final showdown with O-Ren Ishii.  Something that is also quite good is the soundtrack that is a good sampling of the films soundtrack.