Vol. 2 (2004)

“Volume 2 is more indebted to the spaghetti western (it borrows quite a lot of Ennio Morricone’s music from Sergio Leone films) and less to martial-arts movies than was its predecessor.” Philip French, The Observer, 2004 The second instalment in writer-director Quentin Tarantino’s revenge drama about former hitwoman The Bride (played by Uma Thurman) exacting bloody payback from the colleagues who tried to murder her, this finally sees its heroine attempt to deliver on the promise of the film’s title, with her former lover Bill (David Carradine) firmly in her sights. With combat sequences handled deftly by Tarantino – drawing especially on Hong Kong martial-arts films – this is an undeniably violent movie, but the body count is far less than that of its predecessor, and the pace less hectic. The extended flashback to the training of The Bride by martial-arts master Pai Mei (played by Hong Kong veteran film star Gordon Liu) is especially atmospheric. Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1967), A Professional Gun (1968) and Death Rides a Horse (1969) are among the lesser known spaghetti westerns directly referenced in Vol. 2.