23 years ago, Quentin Tarantino returned to theaters with a film that would abandon the gangsters who had granted him stardom. By 2003, he had already established himself as one of Hollywood’s most distinctive directors. With Reservoir Dogs he brought his distinctive style of crime drama to audiences, and with Pulp Fiction he became a cultural phenomenon and won an Academy Award. He followed up with an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s Rum Punch, Jackie Brown, starring Blaxploitation legend Pam Grier. After a six-year hiatus from the director’s chair, Tarantino returned with a bloody martial-arts revenge epic that paid homage to the movies he grew up watching.
Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released on October 10, 2003, and starred Uma Thurman as The Bride, a former assassin who wakes up from a four-year coma after her former colleagues try to kill her. She sets out to kill the five responsible for the act, including her ex-lover and boss Bill, played by David Carradine. The story was so big it was separated into two theatrical releases. More than two decades later, some argue that, taken together, Kill Bill is the best movie Tarantino has ever made.
Tarantino has never been one to shy away from borrowing from his favorite movies, but Kill Bill takes it to a whole new level. One of its most significant influences is the 1973 Japanese revenge film Lady Snowblood, directed by Toshiya Fujita and starring Meiko Kaji. The film tells the story of a woman raised to kill those who destroyed her family. The influence is especially apparent in The Bride’s snow garden confrontation with Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii. After the duel, Tarantino even uses Kaji’s recording of “The Flower of Carnage.” Here’s that track:
Another significant influence was the Shaw Brothers movies, which Kill Bill opened with the studio’s iconic ShawScope logo. The Hong Kong studio helped make kung fu and wuxia films popular around the world, and Tarantino cast one of its biggest stars, Gordon Liu, who appeared in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Liu plays Johnny Mo, leader of O-Ren’s Crazy 88, before reprising his role of legendary martial-arts instructor Pai Mei in Volume 2. The big fight in the House of Blue Leaves is a relentless display of sword fighting and blood. Tarantino also enlisted Japanese animation studio Production I.G. to animate a sequence about O-Ren’s childhood. Even The Bride’s signature yellow-and-black motorcycle suit is a reference to Bruce Lee’s outfit in Game of Death. Tarantino also cast Sonny Chiba, star of the 1974 martial-arts movie The Street Fighter, as legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō. Chiba had previously played a version of the character in the Japanese TV series Shadow Warriors.
And then there’s David Carradine, a star in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu, who played Kwai Chang Caine. Casting him as Bill added another martial arts icon to the production. Add in the influences of spaghetti westerns and exploitation movies, and Kill Bill becomes a celebration of the films and performers that influenced Tarantino as a filmmaker.
Picking the best Tarantino movie is not easy. Pulp Fiction revolutionized independent cinema. Inglourious Basterds is loaded with some of his best dialog and most unique characters. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a beautiful tribute to the industry that made him famous. But Kill Bill arguably combines everything Tarantino does best. For one, it’s one of his cleanest stories. Beatrix Kiddo’s old hit squad, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, betrayed her. She awakes from a coma with one thing on her mind: revenge. There’s a lot of non-linear storytelling, but you never lose the plot. It doesn’t engage in the revisionist history Tarantino would employ in Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
It also includes some of his best writing for female characters. Thurman’s Beatrix is a killer with a heart, and her emotional vulnerability becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses. Vivica A. Fox’s Vernita Green has traded her criminal life for a suburban mom, and Lucy Liu’s O-Ren Ishii has a complex backstory. Daryl Hannah’s Elle Driver is just as lethal as Beatrix, and their showdown in Volume 2 is one of the film’s highlights. The two volumes also are a beautiful complement to each other. The first half is a lavish martial arts spectacle. The second plays up spaghetti westerns and develops the character relationships. The final showdown between Beatrix and Bill is not so much another fancy sword fight but more of their complicated history. In December 2025, Tarantino’s decision to release the full story as Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair finally got a wider theatrical release.
The film’s cultural impact is undeniable. The Bride’s yellow motorcycle suit became an instantly recognizable costume, and that yellow movie poster was apparently hanging on half the dorm-room walls in America. For years there was talk of Kill Bill: Volume 3, which would follow Vernita Green’s daughter Nikki as she sets out to get revenge on Beatrix for murdering her mother. Fox even tried to do fans a solid and mentally cast Zendaya in the role. Tarantino ruled out the sequel but returned to the franchise in 2025 with The Lost Chapter: Yuki’s Revenge, an animated short produced using Fortnite technology that brought back Uma Thurman as The Bride. For those that may have missed it, here’s the short:
But there is still reason to wonder if Volume 3 might happen someday. Tarantino is at a point in his career where he’s open to letting other directors tackle his screenplays again. His next, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, is being directed by David Fincher, with Brad Pitt reprising his role from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. If he’s willing to hand the reins of that sequel to another filmmaker, maybe there’s still life left in Kill Bill: Volume 3. After twenty-three years, the Bride’s story may still not be over.
