“The Bride: You and I have unfinished business.
Bill: Baby, you ain’t kidding.”
– Kill Bill, Vol. 2 (2004)
It’s 2025 and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is actively developing his 10th, and rumored final, film. Though incredibly divisive for the dialogue of his characters and, frequently, for the circumstances they find themselves in, Tarantino has no doubt made an indelible impression on an industry that he himself is famously influenced by. One need only look to his two Kill Bill films to see the actors, genres, and cinematic approaches which intrigued him before becoming a filmmaker himself as his typical individual homages in a line here or a song there take shape as the entire film itself. This film, split in twain and released roughly six months apart from each other (Kill Bill Vol. 1 in October 2003 and Vol. 2 in April 2004) are among the best of his catalogue, never losing their sharpness, their depth, or their heart over time. Now, for the first-time, Lionsgate is offering a 4K UHD standard edition of the films, as well as limited edition steelbooks through their Lionsgate Limited label. Placed within new packaging and including all the legacy features going back to their original home release, Kill Bill fans have a chance to see the whole story with an increased clarity of detail via a brand-new remaster handled by FotoKem.
In Vol.1, The Bride (Uma Thurman) wakes from a four-year coma and begins her roaring rampage of revenge in which she gathers her strength, her tools, and her plan to take out the first two members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad on her kill list. In Vol. 2, The Bride grows ever closer to her confrontation with her former lover, Bill (David Carradine), but, first, she must survive against his younger brother Budd (Michael Madsen) and his new lover Elle (Daryl Hannah).
Everything that follows is based on the 4K UHD standard edition retail copies provided by Lionsgate Home Entertainment for the purpose of review. Let’s start with what isn’t new before diving into what is.
As mentioned in the introduction, both of the individual films include all of their respective legacy features. This means that there’s not a single new addition to either release. This is important to note as one might presume there would be something else to pull out beyond either the 4K UHD remaster or the remaster + steelbook. Instead, dating back to the original 2004 DVD releases of both films, what made it onto the HD Blu-rays from the originals is replicated here in that original presentation. Also worth noting is that the Blu-rays accompanying the 4K UHD standard edition are just reskinned versions of, at minimum, the 2012 Kill Bill double-feature Blu-rays, trading The Bride in a yellow jumpsuit of Vol 1 for a black disc with yellow title and The Bride sitting on her motorcycle awash in red and trading The Bride in black brandishing her Hanzo sword of Vol 2 for a scene of The Bride fighting Pai Mei (Gordon Liu Chia-Hui) as the disc covers. Everything else about them, from menu presentation to on-disc options, is identical. The 4K UHDs, however, feature the new art from their respective covers and the menus are unique.
For a more drastic and different design, look to the limited edition steelbooks (designed by Oliver Barrett) which include more dynamic imagery representative of each half of the story, as well as a slipcover incorporated into the art design.
KILL BILL, VOL. 1 4K UHD steelbook packshot. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate/Lionsgate Limited.
Whichever edition you select, Lionsgate Limited warns that, “Digital Codes are for US only and will not work worldwide.”
According to the Lionsgate Limited website, the remaster for both films was handled by FotoKem and was fully-approved by Tarantino. This means that the aforementioned bonus features match his intent for what’s accessible and the remaster of the video is up to specifications. This matters because it means that, for good or bad, this 4K UHD edition released with his stamp on it. Keep this in mind as there is no audio remaster included in any version of the 4K UHD edition, just the original 5.1 Dolby that was included with the films going back to their DVD editions. Of course, the Blu-rays include a lossless track, as well, if you want a different audio experience, but not the 4K UHDs. Thankfully, coming through my 5.1 Yamaha surround system, the audio is still magnificent whether reproducing dialogue, scoring or song (as organized/constructed by RZA), or action; but it may matter to those hoping for a different auditory experience.
KILL BILL, VOL. 2 4K UHD steelbook packshot. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate/Lionsgate Limited.
The video is similarly a mixed-bag. Especially in the close-ups, the clarity of detail is astonishing. When the first half begins on the black and white visage of The Bride’s bloodied face, I audibly reacted to the impressive sharpness of the image, the tighter contrast enabling more noticeable differences between newly-bruised skin and blood on her injured face. Thanks to the use of Dolby Vision HDR, the enhanced range of color also makes the contrast of color in the final act of the first-half when The Bride is wearing the jumpsuit awash in red far more intense, evoking a greater sense of menace and pent-up rage. That said, the bulk of the film maintained a bitrate within the 70 Mbps range, sometimes dropping to the 50s and rarely above 80; a technical fact that implies that, while an improvement over the Blu-ray (which has a ceiling of 40 Mbps), it’s not able to reach heights befitting a 4K UHD presentation (with a ceiling of 120 Mbps). The same for Vol. 2, which holds strong in the 70s with the occasional quick jump into the 100s during the extreme close-ups of nails entering wood as Budd and his friend nail the coffin shut before burying The Bride alive. There are more moments where the bitrate hangs in the 50s than the 70s, yet one cannot argue too much with the presentation as it looks on screen. During the scene in which The Bride meets Bill’s father figure, Esteban Vihalo (Michael Parks), the details of Parks’s face are remarkable in close-up as we’re able to see the roadmap of this character’s face through the varied shading of skin, tanned areas which may suggest leisure at a distance, but breaches of white implying a series of scars made from a life of violence. Fans of grain are going to be particularly happy with the wedding dress rehearsal sequence as there’s plenty of visible grain there, as well as during the Pai Mei sequence, though that’s part of Tarantino’s matching the visual language of the Shaw Brothers/Golden Harvest-style of films he’s referencing with the character and training sequence. In all cases, there’re only improvements to longtime contributing cinematographer Robert Richardson’s (Django Unchained; Once Upon a Time in … Hollywood) work; it just may not look as improved as one might expect from a Tarantino-approved remaster and one that utilizes the largest data storage compacity, 100 GB.
Well before this reviewer found themselves investigating the work of Yuen Biao (Project A) and Sammo Hung (Warriors Two), had come to explore the works of directors King Hu (Come Drink with Me) and Lau Kar-leung (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin), or understood the significance of Hong Kong and Japanese cinema (or the politics surrounding Hong Kong, Britian, China, and Japan), there was Kill Bill (among many other American approximations of Hong Kong cinema). The first half dazzles in its presentation of vicious warriors balanced against righteous fury and a need to confront past mistakes, whereas, by contrast, the second looks more inward, slowing down so that the violence sheds its façade of simple bloodletting and comes to realize that all are culpable in some shape or form. Only now, more than 20 years after the release of the total film, with time, age, and knowledge, audiences are able to realize that this love letter to Hong Kong and Japanese cinema is more than just including soundbites or homages, like the culminating fight against Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii not only staged like a scene out of Lady Snowblood (1973), but includes the song “The Flower of Carnage” sung by Lady Snowblood actor Meiko Kaji. That may appear hollow at first until one explores the source material and sees how Taratino merely integrated his flavor of violence and humor, with a splash of his favorite collaborators, seamlessly into the cinematic language of the stories he loved. The whole film is a love letter to a type of storytelling that’s been riffed upon, remixed, and remade, even by modern productions, in trying to recapture a moment in time. Somehow, even now, Kill Bill remains a marvel because it doesn’t try to replace, but integrates, transforming the tropes of a Japanese revenge tale the likes of which filmmakers Seijun Sezuki (Tattooed Life; Underworld Beauty) or Yasuharu Hasebe (Black Tight Killers) might have made involving killers, revenge, and redemption in a world wherein violence is key to survival and collateral damage tomorrow’s problem. In my youth (22/23), I couldn’t see the pain that existed within each of the central characters, from The Bride all the way to Bill, their regret, their frustration, and, in at least one case, their unwillingness to understand the consequences of their choices. Whereas, now, not only being older but possessing more knowledge of the history Tarantino pulls from, that’s almost entirely all I recognize, making the pain that flows through this film far more pronounced and raw. The films still resonate, it’s just that the vibration hits differently.
All in all, what you want to know is whether or not I can recommend these two films. The short answer is yes-ish. There’re no new bonus materials and no new audio track, so the main reason to pick this up is either the video remaster or the remaster + steelbook. As a massive fan of the films, I didn’t find myself let down by the video remasters in any way: coloring is vibrant and dynamic and details are enhanced allowing for greater appreciation for costuming, makeup, production design, etc. If you’re a steelbook fan and like the designs available, then, yes, you’re not going to be disappointed by the purchase. If the steelbook isn’t for you, then it won’t hurt to wait a bit to pick up both standard 4K UHD editions when they go on sale as you’re not missing anything beyond the video remaster in the versions you already have. And, before you think to ask, no, there’s no mention of The Whole Bloody Affair being released in any of the press materials, so this edition may be it for now. That said, the fact that a remaster of the two halves was made does give one hope that, one day, American audiences who couldn’t get to the few screenings Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema held might get to see it for themselves in the near future. Until then, this is what we’ve got.
Kill Bill Vol 1. Legacy Special Features:
- The Making of Kill Bill Volume 1 (22:05)
- The “5, 6, 7, 8’s” Bonus Musical Performances (5:51)
- Tarantino Trailers
Kill Bill Vol 2. Legacy Special Features:
- The Making of Kill Bill Volume 2 (26:03)
- “Damoe” Deleted Scene (3:37)
- “Chingon” Musical Performance (11:32)
Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray, 4K UHD Blu-ray limited edition steelbook, and digital January 21st, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Lionsgate Limited Kill Bill Vol 1. and Kill Bill Vol 2. webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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