"Wow, this guy is really into it". This was what Quentin Tarantino remarked once when watching martial arts movies. He really likes Kung Fu movies, especially those that came out in the 1970s. Thus, it wasn't surprising when he decided to come up with Kill Bill. It is an undisguised, flat-out tribute to those Hong Kong kung fu heroes whom he admired when he was in his teens. And this movie was to commemorate the decades of sword-fighting, martial arts movies that made Hong Kong the centre of cinematic attention at one time. In Kill Bill, you will find plenty of traces of those who Tarantino admired and adored in kung fu movies.
First, The Bride's yellow jumpsuit is based on the one worn by Bruce Lee in Game of Death. We can see Bruce Lee was foremost on Tarantino's mind. Then you see Gordon Liu prancing about wearing a mask as a baddie. In Kill Bill Vol 2, Gordon Liu plays that sifu monk.
Secondly, the masks worn by the members of the Crazy 88 are the same style that Bruce Lee's character Kato wore in the TV series The Green Hornet. The music played during the Yakuza and Bride's heading for the teahouse before the en-masse swordfight is also a nod to the series, which used Al Hirt's jazzy trumpet rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" as its theme. This homage to Bruce Lee's work combines in the Crazy 88 fight to pit Bruce Lee's first screen incarnation (Kato) against his last (Game of Death). Bruce Lee was snubbed for the lead role in the Kung Fu TV series in favor of David Carradine (Bill). Kato usually had to wear his black mask and did not get many lines or close-ups with his mask off. Tarantino, paying homage to the success of Asian cinema with Kill Bill, has the "Game of Death" incarnation of Lee defeating the "Black Mask" version of Lee. And, of course, the film ends with the defeat of David Carradine's character.
Thirdly, Tarantino pays homage to the kung-fu film Master of the Flying Guillotine by the brief use of the film's droning theme music, an excerpt of the song "Super 16" by Neu!, during the House of Blue Leaves sequence. Many kung-fu sound effects are taken from this movie as well.
Fourthly, the finale between The Bride and O-Ren Ishii bears a stylistic resemblance to the finale of Bruce Lee's The Chinese Connection, in that both take place outside of a Japanese building with fusuma sliding wood and paper doors, in a small, enclosed garden area. More blatant is that both scenes begin quietly and the silence is permeated by the rhythmic sound of a water cup on a hinge being filled outside from a fountain's spout, pouring out, then raising back up.
Finally, the scene in Kill Bill Volume 2 were David Carradine plays his flute, while sitting near the fire and talking to Beatrix is almost identical to a similar scene in Circle Of Iron, which Carradine also starred in. The flute that Bill plays is actually one of the prop flutes from the original "Kung Fu" TV show, that Carradine kept as a memento.
Perhaps the success of Kill Bill should thank to those oriental elements. Kill Bill: Volume II was released in the United States on April 16, 2004. Its US gross box office receipts were US$66,208,000; its box office receipts for the rest of the world came to US$85,951,000, for a total of US$152,159,000. In addition, Kill Bill was regarded as one of the most violent movies. The entire movie is covered with blood. Heads are chopped off, blood splashes over from scene to scene.
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