Customer Reviews

Kill Bill: Volume 1

5 star:		(104)
4 star:		(55)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Since we have quite a wait for the DVD (as of this writing), the best way to experience some of our favorite moments from KILL BILL at home is to get this CD. The opening song performed by Nancy Sinatra is here, along with Luis Bacalov's "The Grand Duel" theme, heard in the film during the animated "Origin of O-Ren" chapter. Bernard Herrmann's "Twisted Nerve" is here (begun in the film as the tune Daryl Hannah whistles in the hospital corridor). Al Hirt's rendition of "Flight of the Bumblebee," better known as the theme from "The Green Hornet," is on board (heard in the film accompanying the Bride's flight over Tokyo and arrival in Japan), as is Tomoyasu Hotei's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity," the guitar riff and brass fanfare heard over the grand entrance of O-Ren and her party at the House of Blue Leaves (and used quite memorably in the film's first trailer). "The Flower of Carnage," the theme song from LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973) sung by its star, Meiko Kaji, and heard in the film following the O-Ren/Bride sword duel, is on the CD as well.

Some great cues from the film are not on the CD or not presented as they were in the film. Missing in action is Ennio Morricone's memorable percussion-woodwind-and-vocal Italian western theme, "Death Rides a Horse," heard as the Bride and O-Ren first confront each other in the House of Blue Leaves. Also missing is the Lily Chou-Chou number, "Kaifuku Suru Kizu," the enchanting wordless vocal heard as the Bride gazes at the array of swords in Sonny Chiba's upstairs room. Only one number ("Woo Hoo") of the three or so performed by the Japanese female pop trio, the 5.6.7.8's, in the House of Blue Leaves sequence is on the CD. The Latin-flavored instrumental number heard over the O-Ren/Bride duel and performed by Santa Esmeralda is suddenly a vocal rendition of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on the CD. "Seven Notes in Black," heard during the Bride's ambush of the hospital orderly, is heard on the CD only under a rap song performed by the RZA, a number not heard in the film at all. (In fact, one wonders how the "Original Music" credit awarded to The RZA came about, since there doesn't seem to be any original music in the film.)

It's clearly time for a number of record companies to get on the KILL BILL bandwagon and reissue soundtracks and recordings that contain music from KILL BILL with a tag slapped on saying, "Featuring the music from KILL BILL." The first candidate would, of course, be Nancy Sinatra's 1966 album, "How Does That Grab You?" which contains the recording of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" used for the opening credits of KILL BILL. All it needs now is a tag stating, "Featuring the theme song from KILL BILL." The second and third candidates, of course, would be anything by the 5.6.7.8's and the fictional "Lily Chou-Chou." Calling all imports!

As much as Kill Bill was a terrific movie, the soundtrack contains some really good pieces, a couple of which are worth buying the whole CD for. While there are some odd pieces here and there, particularly the 'ode to o-ren-ishii', a fairly annoying rap, and 'queen of the crime council' which is dialogue lifted from the movie, the rest of the songs really describe the feel of the movie and are excellent to listen to.

The song 'Bang Bang' is the opening theme of the movie and is very easy on the ears, with a soft, sad, melodic tune. Track 2 is 'That certain female' which sounds like an elvis song, but nothing too spectacular. 'The grand duel' is a very moving song that is played during the anime sequence in the movie. When this song reaches toward the middle it gets very dramatic and emotional. 'Twisted Nerve' is the whistling song in the hospital, and is also very good coupled with the subtle orchestral tones. Too bad its only a minute and twenty seven seconds long. The next two are the 'oddities' I mentioned, and after that its 'Run fay run' and 'green hornet', both of which, while not as good as the next two songs that follow it, are still very 70s in their tune which is what the film tries to capture. 'Battle without honor or humanity' and 'Don't let me be misunderstood' are my two favorite tracks, the former being the bit where O ren ishii and her group walk toward the House of Blue leaves dance square. Its a very authoritative and badass song that also has a 70s feel to it and I love it. The latter is an extremely catchy and lengthy tune (at 10 minutes), part of which is played during the final fight in Kill Bill. It sounds very much like a latino song but, again, has that 70s touch to it, with fast guitar and trumpet rhythms. Next up is 'woo hoo', the song played by the japanese band in the House of Blue Leaves. A very very 60s-70s-ish dance song that you might not want to play in a room full of today's teen generation, but still strangely attractive in its tune. Next is 'Crane/white lightning' which I think was played during the climactic fight of the movie which is heavy on the synthesizers and sounds very tense. 'The flower of carnage' is a melodic japanese song that best describes O-ren ishii's character. 'The lonely shephard' is the movie's closing theme that, like 'the grand duel', has a very moving tune done mostly in flute. 'You're my wicked life' is another dialogue bit from the movie, which more or less prepares you for the next half of it. The rest of the soundtrack are brief bits of musical effects used throughout the movie, labeled by the CD case as 'kung fu stings and sfx'.

All in all this is an excellent soundtrack that features a a number of great songs that definitely keep with the whole feel of the movie. Highly recommended.

The movie is good, but the soundtrack is terrific outstanding! The carefulness and cleverness to use of various songs and music for this movie are truly amazing. This soundtrack drives audiences to the right mood, the right tone, and the right atmosphere. It really takes you to immerse into the story, to feel the atmosphere, and to sample the bride's feelings. Like the song "Bang Bang (My baby shut me down)" sets you up the exact tone of the bride's sadness. And the "Twisted Nerve" builds an anchor into the audience mind. Whenever hearing whispering, you will think of the nurse coming to kill the Bride in the hospital. Other songs and music like "Run Fay Run", "Green Hornet", "Battle Without Honor or Humanity", and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" vividly lead you to the peak of your emotion along with the fighting scenes in the movie. Last but not least, the Japanese song "The Flower Carnage" sadly ends the life of O-Ren who got killed by the Bride in the Crazy-88 battle.

I haven't seen such a real outstanding soundtrack for a long while. This is a no doubt FIVE-STAR TWO-THUMBS-UP quality. Besides the music, the soundtrack CD comes with couple bonus video clips from the Kill Bill vol.1 movie as well. Overall, highly recommend!

Almost in spite of myself -- because I am really not much of a Quentin Tarantino fan -- I HIGHLY enjoyed this movie! And one of the things I particularly liked about it was the marvelous soundtrack.

So, naturally, I rushed to buy it.

There are some incredible songs on this CD. Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang" is so haunting that I keep singing it; "The Grand Duel" makes me just want to see the movie all over again, as does "Run Fay Run" (both of which are played in the anime sequence that cuts into the film, the background of Oren Ishii); "Twisted Nerve" creeps me out deliciously; I love "Green Hornet"; "Battle Without Honor or Humanity", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", and "Crane/White Lightning" are three of my favorites, though I almost wish that there WERE no words to "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" because it's so great with just the music!; "Woo Hoo" is funky and fun, even if it is a bit repetitive and strange; "The Flower of Carnage" is also wonderful, as is "The Lonely Shepherd," both of which (especially the latter) really remind me a lot of the Japanese culture; and I'm glad they included the little excerpt, "Ironside."

That's a lot of tracks to be impressed with. However, there were also some disappointments. I wish they had included a few MORE tracks, in particular the one (which I don't know the name of) where Oren Ishii first sees Uma Thurman in the restaurant -- in the movie, it cuts into "Woo Hoo." I was looking for that track! It's got a great sound, and I wish they had included it. There were a couple of the other tracks during the massive fight scene at the end that I wish they had included on this.

And as for a few of the other ones that they DID include...the most disappointing one was "Ode to Oren Ishii." I absolutely ADORED that particular music in the movie, and then they went and superimposed this awful rap garbage over it, which in my opinion totally ruined it. Ordinarily, I don't mind rap all that much, and sometimes I even enjoy it, but NOT when it interferes with something else I'm trying to listen to! And this particular rap I thought was frankly lousy.

There are several extra tracks -- most of them under 10 seconds -- that are not actually included in the track listings on the back of the CD. (Though I notice that amazon actually DOES list them all.) I thought they were fairly unnecessary, but they don't really bother me too much, they mostly just seem superfluous and I think they should have taken that time used for those tracks and instead put something else there -- like that song where Oren first sees Uma. ;-)

It should be noted, there IS a parental advisory on this soundtrack, and with good reason. There are a couple of excerpts from the actual film, and the "Queen of the Crime Council" in particular is rather offensive and involves a nasty bit of language -- which personally I think is rather annoying for a soundtrack. There are plenty of people who might enjoy this soundtrack, even if they WOULDN'T have enjoyed the movie, and this track might ensure that some people won't even buy the soundtrack.

Overall, I do enjoy this CD, in spite of its weaknesses. The tracks I like more than make up for the tracks I do NOT like, and maybe some of the tracks I'm missing will appear on the second volume, who knows. :-) I would still recommend this as a good album to purchase -- just skip those tracks that don't appeal to you, and enjoy the rest of them.

Curiously, the liner only has lyrics for "Bang Bang" by Nancy Sinatra and "Flower of Carnage" by Meiko Kaji.

That's really the point, though. Tarantino wrote the film to be a "struck down woman exacts revenge on her would-be assassins". What more do you need? The lyrics to the other songs are really pointless, except for The Rza's Ode to Oren Ishii, but the small background music makes it easy to understand.

There's a little bit of rockabilly that only Elvis people can appreciate: Charlie Feathers' "That Certain Female" and "Woo Hoo" by the 5.6.7.8's just make you want to get up and boogie.

Those of you who noticed the yellow tracksuit should be pleased to know that the Theme Song to "The Green Hornet" is on this CD. Yep, this is all about Lee exacting revenge on Carradine.

Besides the Sinatra and Kaji tracks, the other two that really set things off are The Lonely Shepherd by Zamfir and The Grand Duel by Luis Bacalov. Both feel like they belong in a Sergio Leone film, except they borrow from other styles: The Lonely Shepherd has a Mexican/SW flavor as it builds, and The Grand Duel starts off with an Asian flavor.

The cool thing is you can almost see the carnage, smell the blood and hear the steel slice through flesh when listening to it, especially after watching the trailers.

The number one reason to own this CD: the theatrical trailers. There's the teaser that played before Gangs of New York as well as two full trailers that you can only see on this CD and in theaters. (The Full Trailer at Quicktime is much different than either of these.) The kicker: the "Quentin Tarantino Bootleg" trailer uses similar shots to what one would see in the trailer to Sergio Leone's "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". It seems like a shot-for-shot remake of that trailer, except they use Kill Bill footage.

This is one weird soundtrack but before I go into that I need to reassure you that "yes" the fantastic music including the "stings" from the trailers is on this disc. It's called "Battle without Honor or Humanity" by Tomoyasu Hotei. I've watched the teaser trailer numerous times just for this music.
The mix goes from the dulcet tones of Nancy Sinatra and Meizo Kaji to a 'man with no name' whistle in the wilderness Ennio Morricone to some unnecessary profanity from track 5.
Most of the music is fun but one of the best parts of the disc apart from the above mentioned track 9 are the 3 previews.
Buy it! It's well worth the money.

I loved this CD, but of course... it's missing quite a few songs. The Hattori Hanzo sword song and every song missing from the cd can be found at killbill2.net in the rare music section. Would've gotten 5 stars if it had those songs in the first place.

I picked up this soundtrack 2 days after I saw the film and was immediately impressed. Every piece that was selected brought me back to the portion of the film from which it was from. Like all of Tarrantino's previous soundtracks, this piece fully lived up to the movie.

One of my favorite pieces is the Charlie Feather's track. It was a breath of fresh air to hear some Rockabilly used in a mainstream movie. Flower of Carnage is a hauntingly beautiful piece, that seems to underlay the violence of the scene that it is used in. I was pleasently suprised with Zamfir's piece, never really having been a fan of his work in the past.

I would recommend this album to anyone who wnats to hear music that doesn't fit the conventional mold of soundtracks that hollywood pushes out

Ok, first of all I have to say that this is a really great album period. I bought the album just for one track and ended up liking the entire CD. The song I bought it for was "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" the scene for which is used in the movie is the dual between Uma Thurman and Lucy Leu. The version used in the movie is instrumental only, however it IS heard on the CD. The song on the CD is 10:30 in length!!! The part used in the movie kicks in at about the 4:00 mark, so for anyone looking for that song, it's in there! The other song that I really like is the Zamfir track, now like most everyone else I just assumed Zamfir was just a late night TV commercial!! The track though is very haunting. The last stand out track for me is Nancy Sinatra's reading of "Bang Bang" the song is used to perfection in the film. At first I wondered why this cover version was used instead of Cher's original version from 1966. After hearing Sinatra's version though, I have to say it is superior to Cher's take (although Cher's remake of her own hit in 1987 is pretty good too, but still not right for this movie). All in all this is great CD, the mix of songs is odd to say the least, but they all work together to create a very atmospheric listen. If you loved the movie, you'll love this CD!!!

Much like that of the film, Kill Bill Volume 1: The Soundtrack manages to pay homage to the essential elements of classic films.

Opening with the famous "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", and "That Certain Female", Kill Bill Volume 1 quickly moves from Hollywood classics to trademarks of cult Japanese and Asian cinema. Easily the shining star of the album "The Lonely Shepherd" is an emotional pipe tune that is used to tremendous effect in the film as the opening to the chapter "Showdown at House of Blue Leaves".

Kill Bill Volume 1 manages to incorporate many different styles and genres while still being a cohesive whole. With the likes of the fast paced "Green Hornet", the overwrought hit "Battle without Honor or Humanity", the party track "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and the slow sounds of "The Flower of Carnage", Kill Bill Volume 1 could have easily found itself into the "trying to be too much and therefore doesn't work" category. Like the film, these various elements come together and DO work.

But, as you may have guessed from my 4 out of 5 star rating, this collection is not perfect. One element that doesn't work for me is the script samples from the film. The only thing that tracks such as "Queen of the Crime Council", and "You're My Wicked Life" do is mean that I wouldn't play this album to my family, which I would otherwise be quite happy to do. As someone has already pointed out, the Crime Council track is the only one that justifies the album a "Parental Advisory" label. Another track that doesn't come off for me is "Ode to Oren Ishii". I'm a fan of other RZA work, the Samurai-HipHop thing worked well in Ghost Dog but doesn't fare so well here. As far as I know this track doesn't appear in the film (correct me if I'm wrong). Most of the sound effects don't do anything for me, except for the classic "Ironside" sample. All of these gripes however, would be forgotten if one more track had been included in the collection. "Death Rides a Horse", appearing at one of the most tense scenes in the film, is unfortunatly missing from the soundtrack.

Overall this is a great album, its strongest appeal will be with those who are fans of the film. I suggest anyone who is a big fan of cinema in general, especially to asian cinema fans that they have a listen to this album. Chances are you won't be disappointed.