REVIEW: Kill Bill: The Whole Blood Affair

Quentin Tarantino has built a distinctive body of work by drawing phenomenal performances from his casts and daring to be audacious in both story and style. No two of his films are alike, and sitting down to see one for the first time still comes with a charge of anticipation. Viewers can argue over which title qualifies as his best, but Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair may be the most satisfying viewing experience of the batch.

The nearly four-hour extravaganza screened at Cannes on May 23, 2004, before being cut down and split into two parts for theaters. Last winter, Tarantino finally reassembled the film to his liking and released it. Now Lionsgate has done us the favor of issuing it in glorious 4K. The release comes in two versions: a simple 4K and Blu-ray package, or a more deluxe edition with bonuses — a 40-page behind-the-scenes booklet, a pair of theatrical posters, five double-sized art cards, a 70 mm filmstrip containing six different frames from the film, and a Movies Anywhere Digital code — packed into the case. In both versions, the only on-disc special feature is a new animated sequence, but it is worth it.

“The Lost Chapter” is a 10:29 Tarantino-directed animated sequence that fits into the film’s story and uses the cast’s voices. Its animation has a Fortnite-like look, which makes it fascinating in its own way and sharply different from the O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) animated origin story.

The story follows a pregnant Bride (Uma Thurman), gunned down on her wedding day and left in a coma. Four years later, she awakens, realizes her baby is missing, and goes hunting for revenge against the Deadly Vipers, the four would-be murderers who betrayed her. The violence is over-the-top, and the fun is extreme. Each sequence, as she hunts them down one at a time, has its own identity. My favorite may be her battle with Copperhead (Vivica A. Fox) in a suburban household, where they trash the place and pause only when Fox’s daughter returns home from school. Why was the Bride targeted? She dared to leave Bill (David Carradine), who would not have it. Instead of succeeding in killing her, he has to face her in his own home for the climax, but not before delivering a wonderful soliloquy.

As usual, Tarantino gets great performances from his cast and uses beloved figures from his film-watching days, including Sonny Chiba, Michael Parks, and Gordon Liu. There’s even a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from Samuel L. Jackson.

So, you ask, if I saw the two parts, what’s different? Part One ended with the cliffhanger news that the Bride’s daughter, B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine), was still alive. That reveal is gone, since it wasn’t needed, and so was the Part Two recap. The MPAA insisted on toning down the violence, so Tarantino removed the color from the battle with the Crazy 88s; here, the rainbow and blood return. Sequences such as O-Ren’s origin and the interrogation of Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus) are extended. The theatrical version’s two-minute intermission remains in place at the end of disc one.

Interestingly, the film’s original opening featured a Klingon proverb, which the Whole Bloody Affair theatrical release replaced with a dedication to Sergio Leone; on this disc, the dedication is to Kinji Fukasaku.

The HEVC/H.265-encoded 2160p transfer in 2.39:1 is a delight, capturing the film’s grain and preserving the rich color palette employed throughout. The upsample from 1080p is strong, just not as strong as the Jackie Brown 4K, which benefited from being struck from the negative. It is accompanied by a superb DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, letting us enjoy the needle drops and bone-crushing sound effects.

I adored the film in parts and love it even more as a whole; I cannot recommend it highly enough.