"Kill Bill” centers on an assassin named only as the Bride (Uma Thurman), who was shot in the head on her wedding day by the mysterious Bill. Four years later, the Bride wakes from a coma to find out she’s not only lost four years of her life, but also her child (she was pregnant at the time of the shooting). So she sets off in her quest for revenge, her quest to kill Bill. But before she can get to Bill, the Bride must first get through Bill’s Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (Lucy Lui, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah and Michael Madsen). Let the body count begin.
UMA THURMAN BEST LINKS!
Kill Bill 1 Premiere
Kill Bill gallery:
Quentin Tarantino
Talks Revenge
Associated Press
Vengeful rage is at the heart of "Kill Bill - Vol. 1," a two-part
saga starring Uma Thurman as a former assassin exacting grisly retaliation
against ex-comrades (David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox and
Michael Madsen) who left her comatose after slaying her entire wedding party and
her unborn daughter.
"You've heard of mother's love. This is mother's fury," Tarantino
told The Associated Press.
"Kill Bill," whose conclusion hits theaters in February, is awash
in references and homages to Tarantino's beloved Italian spaghetti Westerns,
Japanese samurai movies and Hong Kong martial-arts flicks, in which vengeance is
a common theme.
Tarantino also cites the sci-fi revenge tale "Star Trek II: The
Wrath of Khan," opening "Kill Bill" with that movie's "Klingon proverb":
"Revenge is a dish best served cold." The line actually first appeared in the
18th-century French novel on which "Dangerous Liaisons" was based, but Klingons
are well-known literary usurpers.
"I've always loved revenge movies," Tarantino said. "You don't
need to be told that much about a revenge movie, a revenge story. You've seen
them before, you know what they're supposed to do. ... Where you have the five
people who did me wrong, and I'm going to track them down one by one and make
them wish they never did."
Tarantino's favorite vengeance movie? "Rolling Thunder," a 1977
gore-fest starring William Devane as a Vietnam vet avenging his family's
murders. "I saw it on a double feature with `Enter the Dragon,' and it's better
than `Enter the Dragon,'" Tarantino said.
On par with "Rolling Thunder" is 1973's
"Coffy," featuring Pam Grier, star of Tarantino's "Jackie Brown," he said. In
"Coffy," Grier plays a nurse going after druggies who turned her sister into a
junkie.
"Talk about getting an audience into a bloodthirsty state,"
Tarantino said. "This movie could wake somebody up out of a coma."
October 13, 2003 —
The New York Times talks to Lucy Liu, one
of the stars of Kill Bill, Volume 1, about her many tough as nails roles in her
career.
If all the roles for women in Hollywood
were housed in one giant file cabinet, among the folders marked bookish
schoolgirl, wide-eyed inginue and wanton temptress, hardened district attorney,
lonely soccer mom and rocking-chair-bound granny, there would be one labeled She
Kicks Butt. Lucy Liu imagines that this is where you would find her picture.
"I bet you my head shot is right there,"
she said with a self-deprecating chuckle. "Right up front."
In the decade or so she has been in the
business, Ms. Liu has fashioned a lucrative career out of playing the icy sex
kitten -- first as the emotionally barren Ling Woo on Fox's popular legal
series, "Ally McBeal," then as a coldblooded dominatrix in "Payback," a frosty
princess in Jackie Chan's "Shanghai Noon," a federal agent in the box office
bust "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" and as Alex Munday, the bikini-waxer by day,
private investigator by night in the "Charlie's Angels" franchise.
But it is her role as O-Ren Ishii, a kimono-clad femme fatale in Quentin Tarantino's blood-drenched, slice-'em-up "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" (which opened Friday), that has elevated Ms. Liu, 34, to an entirely new level of ruthlessness and secured the actress's position as one of America's leading action heroines, at the risk of being typecast as a dragon lady.
LUCY LIU
A native of Queens, New York, Lucy Liu attended NYU and later
received a Bachelor of Science degree in Asian Languages and Cultures from the
University of Michigan. During her senior year at Michigan, she auditioned for a
student theater production of Andre Gregory's Alice in Wonderland. Hoping to be
cast in a supporting role, Lucy was instead cast as the lead, and her acting
career was born.
On television, Lucy appeared as the unforgettable Ling Woo in
the hit Fox series Ally McBeal. (1998-2001) That immensely popular role brought
Lucy a great deal of industry recognition and fan support. In 1999, she was
nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy
Series and, in 2000, a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Comedy
Series. She guest-starred on HBO's Sex and the City and has lent her voice to
such popular animated series as The Simpsons, Futurama, and King of the Hill.
After playing significant supporting roles in several films,
including Jerry Maguire (1996), City of Industry (1997), and Gridlock'd (1997),
Liu made a strong impression on the big screen playing a snide dominatrix
opposite Mel Gibson in the box office hit Payback (1999) and in a sassy starring
role with Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson in Touchstone Pictures Play It To
The Bone (1999).
Her blossoming film career was thrust into over-drive in 2000
when she joined Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore in the blockbuster hit Charlie's
Angels. She also appeared that year opposite martial arts legend Jackie Chan in
Universal's hit comedy Shanghai Noon. In 2002 Liu starred opposite Antonio
Banderas in Warner Bros.' action-thriller Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever and in the
Oscar-winning Miramax movie musical Chicago. She can currently be seen flying
high in Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle.
She recently signed a deal to executive produce and star in a
contemporary big-screen version of Charlie Chan for 20th Century Fox.
HATTORI HANZO
