Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Making Of-(26:03) Featurette-Chingon Performance From Kill Bill Vol. 2 Premiere (11:04) Deleted Scenes-Damoe (3:35)
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	131:19
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (77:52)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Quentin Tarantino
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Uma Thurman David Carradine Michael Madsen Daryl Hannah Chia Hui Liu Michael Parks Perla Haney-Jardine Christopher Allen Nelson Bo Svenson Jeannie Epper Claire Smithies Clark Middleton Larry Bishop
Case	?
RPI	$36.95	Music	RZA Robert Rodriguez

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired English Titling	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    I'll presume that if you're reading this, then you've experienced Kill Bill Volume 1 and are familiar with the events leading up to Kill Bill Volume 2. If by some bizarre chance you aren't familiar with this story, you may want to skip the below synopsis as I plan to make a few references to the first film that could easily be interpreted as "spoilers".

    The Bride's list now has two names scratched off it, with her former colleagues O-Ren and Vernita meeting violent ends at the hands of our vengeful bride in Volume 1. The next two names on her 'to kill' list are Bill's brother Bud (Michael Madsen) and blonde beauty Elle (Darryl Hannah), both of whom have fallen into obscurity since the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad was disbanded. It seems Bud has made a career change and is now living out of a decrepit trailer in Texas, working part time as a bouncer in a seedy titty bar. Bill makes contact with his brother in an attempt to warn him of The Bride's imminent arrival, but is met with apathy on Bud's part - it seems that while appearing nonchalant on the outside he is in fact intently confident that he can give The Bride a run for her money.

    It's during The Bride's confrontation with Bud that the plot side-steps (flashback style) into her prior training under her master Pai Mei, a cruel tutelage that sees her slowly gain the approval of her lonely, elderly master. The conclusion of Kill Bill is satisfying and a great many loose ends are tied up neatly. We discover how Elle Driver came to lose her eye, The Bride's name is finally revealed and the major give-away at the end of Volume 1 is realised in an emotional and heart-wrenching scene.

    Volumes 1 and 2 of Kill Bill are vastly different pieces of cinema, each with specific strengths over the other. Most notably, the intense gore and action of Volume 1 is seriously juxtaposed in Volume 2 by long scenes of witty dialogue and plot development. I wasn't surprised at all to find that some non-Tarantino fans who loved the action of Volume 1 found Volume 2 disappointing. It's a matter of personal preference, and for me Volume 2 is by far the superior of the two. It contains much more of Tarantino's signature dialogue exchanges, interesting characters and dramatic tension - which is essentially what I loved about Tarantino's work in the first place. Such arguments will eventually become obsolete, as the film will undoubtedly be spliced together in the future to create a complete, single film. That, my friends, will be worth seeing.

    As I said in my review of Kill Bill Volume 1, "In essence, Kill Bill is Tarantino's tribute to the classic yakuza and samurai films of the 70s, with fragments from all kinds of cinema, including anime, spaghetti westerns and European suspense. The broad range of influences and styles that Tarantino has brought to this film results in a richly crafted and highly rewarding cinematic experience like no other". The same applies for Volume 2, and then some.

Video

    This video transfer is as impressive as the presentation that was bestowed on Volume 1. The transfer itself has been slightly overmatted to 2.40:1, framing it relatively closely to its intended theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Black bars appear on the left and right of the frame for almost fifty seconds, beginning at 29:47 and reducing the frame to 1.33:1. This is an artistic decision on the part of the director, applied to lend a claustrophobic feel for a short period.

    As with Volume 1, this is a sharp and very well defined transfer. The level of clarity and detail is high, with very little grain or imperfection to speak of. The chapter focussing on The Bride's tutelage under Pai Mei has a much grittier, 70s feel and contains a noticeable wash of grain over the image. This effect is consistent with the film's theatrical exhibition and given the action contained in the scene it is likely to represent yet another artistic decision. Shadow detail appeared realistic throughout and black levels remained similarly true. There was no low level noise evident in the transfer.

    Aside from several short black and white scenes, colouring throughout the film is bold and rich, with no signs of bleeding or oversaturation to be seen. Skin tones remain realistic and consistent.

    The video transfer has been encoded at a variable bitrate with an average of 5.8Mb/s, almost 1Mb/s lower than Volume 1. Despite the lower bitrate, MPEG compression artefacts are thankfully nowhere to be seen. I noted a couple of very minor examples of aliasing but these were so slight they barely warrant mentioning. I didn't note any positive or negative film artefacts during the film. As with the transfer of Volume 1, it would be very hard to fault this transfer as far as artefacting is concerned.

    Three English subtitle streams are included. The first is a standard English effort, followed by an English for the Hearing Impaired stream - both of which translate the dialogue of the film well. An English Titling stream is the third and is activated by default. The default stream translates some passages of Cantonese found during Pai Mei's scene.

    This disc is dual layered, with the layer change placed during a scene transition at 77:52. The pause is barely noticeable as it occurs in a black, silent moment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three soundtracks accompanying this film on DVD. The default soundtrack is a Dolby Digital 5.1 stream encoded at 448Kb/s and a dts alternative is included which is encoded at a noticeably broader 768Kb/s. I listened to both the dts and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks in their entirety. An English Descriptive Audio track is also available on the disc, presented as Dolby Digital 2.0 and encoded at 192Kb/s.

    The English dialogue is clear and succinct at all times, while the film's ADR is seamless and natural. Audio sync is absolutely spot-on and doesn't present any issues at all.

    The use of the surround channels is subtle and enveloping for the most part, contrary to the action packed sound stage of Volume 1. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of examples of dedicated surround usage, just not to the extent of the first volume. The rear channels are used most often to carry the score, and really kick into action as the soil falls from all angles at 35:20. Voices are generally confined to the front centre channel and rarely stray.

    Obviously the dts track was my favourite of the two soundtracks here, offering a decidedly clearer and more realistic rendition of the mix. The Dolby Digital option appears to be mastered at the same level, however it just doesn't manage to attain the same degree of depth as the dts track, particularly during gunfire and the like.

    This is my first experience with a Descriptive Audio soundtrack, and I was rather impressed. The narrator is a plain speaking English chap, with a non-offensive British accent. The narration keeps up with the pace of the film well and doesn't refer to The Bride by her real name until it is mentioned on screen. During Pai Mei's main scene, the narrator speaks over the top of the Cantonese dialogue and announces to the viewer when subtitles appear on screen. I noted a couple of very minor pronunciation errors as some of the names are read during the closing credits (RZA for example), but overall the vision impaired will greatly appreciate the inclusion of this soundtrack.

    Along with several very well chosen pieces of retro music, the soundtrack score of Volume 2 includes some original contributions from Robert Rodriguez, marking the first time an original score has been included in a Tarantino film. The score is highly suited to the pace of the film and features some beautifully melodic passages of guitar work.

    The subwoofer manages to make itself felt on many occasions, most notably at 34:40 as several nails are heavily hammered. The score also utilises the LFE channel effectively - check out the deep bass rumblings at 13:40. Beautiful!

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    This is a pretty mediocre effort, given the status of the film. It would appear that the real extras have been withheld for a super-duper edition in the future. It's better than nothing, I suppose.

Menu

Featurette-Making of (26:03)

    In this Making Of, Tarantino discusses his thoughts behind Kill Bill's simple revenge story premise, augmented by many lengthy excerpts from the film. Short interview excerpts are contributed by Uma, David Carradine, Tarantino, Michael Madsen and Darryl Hannah. Some time is also spent discussing Robert Rodriguez's contribution to the score, and the fact that he did it for free! This featurette is presented in an aspect of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Featurette-Chingon Performance From The Kill Bill Vol. 2 Premiere (11:04)

    We are treated to a performance from Robert Rodriguez and his band Chingon, performing songs from the films From Dusk Till Dawn and Kill Bill for the crowd at the Kill Bill Vol. 2 premiere. This footage is of decent quality, presented in 1.78:1 but sadly not 16x9 enhanced.

Deleted Scene-Damoe (3:35)

    In this short deleted scene, Bill (David Carradine) takes on a couple of stooges who are cranky at him for snuffing their former master. Very good action to be found here, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this scene reinserted when the two films are cut together. The scene is presented with the same video quality as the feature, but accompanied only by an overly loud Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack.

    The Region 1 disc has an additional French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, but seems to lack our English Descriptive Audio option.

    The very pricey Region 2 NTSC Japanese box set includes the following additional features:

• Teaser trailer
• A Kung Fu T-Shirt
• "Love Bride" Bearbrick
• Pai Mei Keyring
• 10 Memorial Card Set
• 24 Page Booklet

    Most people I have spoken to are waiting for the inevitable box set to arrive with a truckload of extras and both films in the one package. If you must make the purchase now, it wouldn't hurt to buy local with this one.

    The video transfer is excellent.

    The audio transfer is excellent.

    The extras are good, but there must be more.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall