Metallica :: Fade To Black

[postlink]https://yoursoundtrackfilm.blogspot.com/2013/01/metallica-fade-to-black.html[/postlink]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E94VOZStcMwendofvid
[starttext]

Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Certificate: R 169 min  -  Action | Drama | War  -  24 July 1998 (USA)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Robert Rodat
Stars: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore

Saving Private Ryan, the 1998 Oscar winning war epic from legendary film maker Steven Spielberg, is widely considered to be the most realistic depiction of the D-Day landings ever bought to the screen. A box office smash in the cinemas, no expense was spared in recreating the horror experienced by the American troops on Omaha Beach, and the film’s opening scene has gone down in cinema history as one of the greatest sequences ever made. The film unfolds to tell the story of the daring rescue of Private Ryan, the last surviving brother in his family. But just how accurate really is the landing scene? And was there a real Private Ryan?

In Saving Private Ryan – The True Story, Historians, eye-witnesses and weapons experts reveal amazing new insights into the detail of Spielberg’s graphic depiction of the landings. Veteran Harley Reynolds was one of the first men to make it off Omaha Beach on D-Day and gives us his powerful eyewitness testimony. Pete Niland tells why his family story is thought by many to be the inspiration for the film, and why his uncle is the real Private Ryan. We take to the seas in one of the last surviving landing boats, see the real effects of an exploding mortar shell on the human body and test whether a sniper really can shoot an enemy straight their scope as shown in the film.

NILAND BROTHERS

Saving Private Ryan is loosely based off the Niland Brother's experiences during WWII. The Allied invasion to liberate Europe is the backdrop to the main plot of film, which revolves around Tom Hanks’ character Captain Miller and his small unit of men as they are sent to rescue Private Ryan played by Matt Damon. Ryan is the last of four brothers left alive, the others all killed in action. Although the story of Captain Miller’s rescue mission is fictional, the story of the Ryan brothers and the military policy that leads to Private Ryan being bought home are based on incredible, and tragic, true stories.

The sole survivor policy was introduced in 1942 and it’s this ruling that allows Matt Damon’s Private Ryan – the last Ryan brother - to be rescued from the frontline. This policy, designed to prevent an entire family being wiped out, was bought into force after the tragedy of the five Sullivan brothers. Professor of military history Geoff Wawro uncovers the dramatic events that led up to all five of the Sullivan brothers being killed in the South Pacific and the creation of the army policy.

One family which benefited from the sole survivor policy and was spared the ultimate tragedy of losing all their children were the Niland family. In a case that is strikingly similar to Saving Private Ryan, three of the four Niland brothers took part in the D-Day landings, but only one came back. The surviving brother, Fritz Niland was bought home from the front, but the real story has an incredible twist not even Hollywood could imagine.

Plot

On the morning of June 6, 1944, the beginning of the Normandy invasion, American soldiers prepare to land on Omaha Beach. They struggle against dug-in German infantry, machine gun nests, and artillery fire, which cut down many of the men. Captain John H. Miller, the company commander of Charlie Company, 2nd Ranger Battalion, survives the initial landing and assembles a group of soldiers to penetrate the German defenses, leading to a breakout from the beach.

In the United States Department of War in Washington, D.C., General George Marshall is informed that three of four brothers in the Ryan family have all died within days of each other and that their mother will receive all three telegrams on the same day. He learns that the fourth son, Private First Class James Francis Ryan of Baker Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division is missing in action somewhere in Normandy. After reading to his staff Abraham Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby, Marshall orders that Ryan be found and sent home immediately.

In France, three days after D-Day, Miller receives orders to find Ryan. He assembles six men from his company (Horvath, Mellish, Reiben, Jackson, Wade, and Caparzo), plus one detailed from the 29th Infantry Division (Upham), a clerk who speaks fluent French and German, to accomplish the task. With no information about Ryan's whereabouts, Miller and his men move out to Neuville. On the outskirts of Neuville they meet a platoon from the 101st. After entering the town under heavy rain, Caparzo is wounded by a sniper in the chest, and slowly bleeds to death, since nobody can go out into the open without getting hit. Jackson is able to kill the sniper after Caparzo dies. They locate a Private James Frederick Ryan from Minnesota, but soon realize that he's not their man. They find a member of Charlie Company, 506th, who informs them that his drop zone was at Vierville and that Baker and Charlie companies had the same rally point. Once they reach it, Miller locates a friend of Ryan's, who reveals that Ryan is defending a strategically important bridge over the Merderet River in the town of Ramelle.

On the way to Ramelle, Miller decides to take the opportunity to neutralize a small German machine gun position close to an abandoned radar station, despite the misgivings of his men. Wade, their medic, is fatally wounded in the ensuing skirmish. The last surviving German, known only as "Steamboat Willie", incurs the wrath of all the squad members except Upham, who protests to Miller about the proposed execution of the German soldier. "Steamboat Willie" pleads for his life and Miller decides to let him walk away, blindfolded, and surrender himself to the next Allied patrol. Viewing Miller's decision as letting the enemy go free, and no longer confident in Miller's leadership, Reiben declares his intention to desert the squad and the mission, prompting a confrontation with Horvath. The argument heats up, until Miller defuses the situation by revealing his pre-war occupation as an English teacher, a question upon which the squad had set up a betting pool. Reiben then reluctantly decides to stay.

The squad finally arrives on the outskirts of Ramelle, where they come upon three paratroopers ambushing a German half-track. Among the paratroopers is Ryan. After entering Ramelle, Ryan is told of his brothers' deaths, and their mission to bring him home, and that two lives had been lost in the quest to find him. He is distressed at the loss of his brothers, but does not feel it is fair to go home, asking Miller to tell his mother "when you found me I was here, I was with the only brothers I have left," looking at the small band whose duty it was to defend a bridge and destroy an approaching German mechanized unit. Miller decides to take command and defend the bridge with what little manpower and resources are available.

The Germans arrive in force with more than 50 men supported by armor. In spite of inflicting heavy German casualties and destroying two tanks with sticky bombs (explosives stuffed into socks and then coated with axle grease) and Molotov cocktails, most of the Americans—including Jackson, Mellish, and Horvath—are killed. While attempting to blow the bridge, Miller is shot and mortally wounded. Just before a Tiger reaches the bridge, an American P-51 Mustang flies over and destroys it, followed by more Mustangs and advancing American infantry and M4 Sherman tanks who rout the remaining Germans. Upham, who was cut off from the Americans and hid in a ditch next to the advancing Germans, comes out of hiding as the Germans flee and orders them to drop their weapons, before executing one of them ("Steamboat Willie" from the radio tower, who had wounded Miller) and telling the rest to flee. Ryan, Reiben, and Upham are the only surviving Americans of the battle. Ryan is with Miller as he dies and says his last words, "James... earn this. Earn it."

In the present day, Ryan, now an elderly veteran, and his family visit the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-mer; Normandy, France. Ryan stands at Miller's grave. He asks his wife to confirm that he has led a good life and that he is a "good man" and thus worthy of the sacrifice of Miller and the others. He then salutes Miller's grave.

[endtext]

Metallica :: Fade To Black

Bernard Herrmann :: Twisted Nerve

[postlink]https://yoursoundtrackfilm.blogspot.com/2012/08/bernard-herrmann-twisted-nerve.html[/postlink]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E84OWq6z3IQendofvid
[starttext]
KILL BILL 2 [Drama - Thriller, 2004]

During the opening credits, we see the Bride's bloodied face again and hear her say "Bill, it's your baby." In the first scene, we see her driving an open car and saying that there is only one left to kill (which answers the question whether she believed that Elle died). She is on her way to Bill.

Chapter 6: The Massacre at Two Pines

Back at the beginning (a black-and-white segment), at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel in El Paso, TX, a dress rehearsal for a wedding is taking place. Reverend Harmony (Bo Svenson) and his wife (Jeannie Epper) decide that, since the bride will have no relatives present at the wedding, the groom's relatives and friends can sit on both sides of the aisle. The Bride (Uma Thurman) leaves the chapel to get some fresh air; on the way out, she is disturbed to hear flute music. On the front porch she finds Bill (David Carradine) sitting on a bench playing his bamboo flute. She asks him to be nice and he replies that he does not know how to be nice but will do his best to be sweet. They enter the hall and she introduces Bill to her fiancé as her father but rejects the fiancé's idea that, as her father, he should give her away at the ceremony. As the bride and groom are called to the front by the Reverend Harmony, no attempt is made to introduce 'father' to the rest of the fiancé's family. Bill stays at the back of the chapel.

Outside the chapel, four armed assassins appear, all dressed in black. In one line they move to the door, they enter, and the shooting starts, killing everybody inside except for the Bride and Bill.

Back in the present (in color), Bill visits his younger brother Budd (Michael Madsen), a.k.a. Sidewinder, at his trailer in the middle of nowhere and warns him about the Bride. She will kill Budd if Budd does not allow Bill to protect him. They had differences in the past but they should move on. Budd, drinking as they talk, replies that maybe they should get killed because the Bride deserves her revenge. He then infuriates Bill by saying that he pawned his priceless samurai sword (a gift from Bill) for $250.

Chapter 7: The Lonely Grave of Paula Schulz

Budd goes to work. He works as a bouncer in a local strip club. He arrives 20 minutes late and sees that there are no customers in the club. He talks briefly with the bartender, Jay, before he is called into the office by his hot-tempered, coke-snorting boss Larry Gomez. In the office, Larry argues with Budd over being late again, and Budd talks back, saying that there is nobody in the bar & there was no need for him to be there. Larry takes away all Budd's scheduled hours and tells him in a rude tone not to come back to work until he hears from him. In the bar, Budd agrees to clean up after a broken toilet that a stripper named Rockets says is overflowing.

Budd returns to his trailer but standing in front of it suddenly freezes. He enters the trailer but looks out the window. The Bride, who was hiding under the trailer, sticks to the wall so he does not see her. When she opens the door Budd shoots her in the chest with a shotgun loaded with rock salt. While she lies wounded on the ground, Budd is very pleased with himself and injects her with a sedative. He phones Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and offers to sell her the Bride's Hattori Hanzo sword for a million dollars. Elle agrees to bring the money in the morning. Her condition is that the Bride must die and suffer to her last breath.

Budd and an accomplice of his dig a large hole in the ground at a local cemetery to bury the wounded Bride alive. When the grave has been dug, the Bride is given a choice: if she does not resist, she'll be given a flashlight; if she does, Budd will burn out her eyes with mace and leave her buried alive in darkness. She chooses the flashlight, is put in a coffin and the lid is nailed down. Budd and his accomplice lower the coffin into the ground and cover it with soil. The Bride panics for a short time and recalls her training under Pai Mei.

Chapter 8: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei

In a flashback, Bill and the Bride (very much in love with him) sit by a campfire somewhere in China and Bill, who calls her "kiddo," plays his flute. He tells her about his kung fu teacher Pai Mei (Chia Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu) and his 'five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.' The technique involves five blows administered to particular pressure points on the body. Thereafter, the victim's heart explodes after he or she takes five steps. Pai Mei did not teach Bill the technique because he does not show it to anyone.

At the foot of the steps leading to Pai Mei's place in another part of rural China, Bill, who has just come down, informs the Bride that Pai Mei will take her as his pupil because he is lonely. Bill's bruised face shows that he was hurt but he refuses to say what happened. Bill warns her not to show any disrespect or disobedience to Pai Mei because Pai Mei will kill her -- "he hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women." She climbs the steps and quickly is humiliated by Pai Mei, who scorns her fighting skills and her ethnicity. He challenges her to land one blow on him while they engage in hand-to-hand combat and the Bride fails. Pai Mei threatens to chop her hand off with a single blow and declares that her hand belongs to him and she must strengthen it. Over the next several weeks, the Bride works hard (practicing martial arts forms and bringing buckets of water up the steps) and learns hard. She finds striking a blow with her fist to break a hole through a thick wooden plank at close range the most difficult skill.

Back to the present. Still inside the coffin, the Bride manages to remove her boots and the belt tying her feet together. She takes out a straight razor hidden in her boot and uses it to cut her hands free. She hits the coffin lid with her fist repeatedly. The lid becomes smeared with her blood but it finally cracks. She appears to swim up through the earth, and an arm emerges from the grave. The Bride crawls out. Covered in dirt, she walks into a diner, sits down and calmly asks for a glass of water.

Chapter 9: Elle and I

The Bride walks a great distance across the desert and through the mountains. She reaches Budd's trailer in time to see Elle arrive.

Elle enters the trailer and gives Budd a red suitcase full of money. He makes margaritas in a grubby blender and serves them in dirty jelly-jar glasses while she examines the sword. He opens the suitcase, gloats over the money, and is struck in the face by a venomous black mamba snake that was hidden among the bundles of cash. Before he dies, Elle tells him that she is sorry that such a "piece of shit" as himself was the one who managed to kill the Bride -- she deserved better. She phones Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed his brother but that she, Elle, has killed the Bride. Elle also reveals the whereabouts of the final resting place of the Bride (in the grave of Paula Schulz) and mentions the Bride's real name for the first time: Beatrix Kiddo.

Beatrix walks in and immediately attacks Elle. Their long and vicious fight destroys the trailer's interior. In a lull in the hostilities, Beatrix asks Elle how she lost her eye and Elle says that Pai Mei ripped it out because she offended him. Elle tells Beatrix that she poisoned Pai Mei in revenge and he died. They continue to fight and Elle gets hold of the Bride's sword. In a golf bag, the Bride finds another katana, inscribed "To my brother Budd, the only man I ever loved, Bill" -- apparently Budd did not sell it after all. As they face off, Elle relishes the irony of killing the Bride with her own sword. However, at close range, the Bride plucks out Elle's remaining eye and steps on it. Rather than finish killing Elle, Beatrix leaves the trailer, the black mamba hissing behind her as Elle shrieks and curses and flails.

Last Chapter: Face to Face

In Mexico, the Bride visits the courtly retired pimp Esteban Vihaio (Michael Parks), Bill's old mentor, and asks him to tell her where Bill is. He finally agrees because he thinks Bill would surely like to see her.

She enters Bill's hacienda carefully, a gun in her hand, but is shocked to the point of tears when Bill and their small daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine), alive, both play-shoot at her with toy guns. She spends good time with her daughter, who falls asleep. The Bride goes to speak to Bill.

Bill's warning shot pins Beatrix down in her seat, then he shoots her with a truth-serum dart. She explains why she left him: because she wanted to keep their child safe, not wanting her to grow up to be assassins like them.

Flashback to a hotel room: the Bride, who's been sent on an assassination assignment to Japan, discovers that she is pregnant. Another assassin, Karen Kim (Helen Kim), shoots a hole in the door with a shotgun. The Bride, pointing her gun at Karen, convinces her that she is pregnant and persuades her to walk away, promising that she will do the same. As she leaves, Karen congratulates the Bride.

Back in the present, Bill is puzzled because he believes that Beatrix is a natural born killer and could not change. He asks if she enjoyed killing the other people on her revenge list, and the truth serum forces her to admit that she did. They agree to fight with swords on the beach -- then Bill suddenly attacks her as they sit on his patio. At the climax of a brief skirmish during which both remain seated, she strikes him with the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique. She tells Bill that she did not mention that Pai Mei taught her the technique because she is a bad person. Bill disputes that. They share an affectionate farewell before he takes five steps and falls down dead.

Beatrix takes her daughter away to start a new life: "The lioness has rejoined her cub, and all is right in the jungle."

[endtext]

Bernard Herrmann :: Twisted Nerve

Meiko Kaji :: The Flower Of Carnage

[postlink]https://yoursoundtrackfilm.blogspot.com/2011/09/meiko-kaji-flower-of-carnage.html[/postlink]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJJ_dcbPducendofvid
[starttext]

The Flower Of Carnage

Shindeita

Asa ni

Tomorai no

Yuki ga furu

Hagure inu no

Touboe

Geta no

Otokishimu

Iin na naomosa

Mitsumete aruku

Yami wo dakishimeru

Janomeno kasa hitotsu

Inochi no michi wo

Yuku onna

Namida wa tooni

Sutemashita

Furimuita

Kawa ni

Toozakaru

Tabinohima

Itteta tsuru wa

Ugokasu

Naita

Ame to kaze

Kieta mizu mo ni

Hotsure ga miutsushi

Namida sae misenai

Janomeno kasa hitotsu

Urami no michi wo

Yuku onna

Kokoro wa tooni

Sutemashita

Giri mo nasake mo

Namida mo yume no

Kinou mo ashita mo

Henno nai kotoba

Urami no kawa ni

Mi wo yudanete

Honma wa tooni

Sutemashita

Shindeita

Asa ni

Tomorai no

Yuki ga furu

Hagure inu no

Touboe

Geta no

Otokishimu

Iin na naomosa

Mitsumete aruku

Yami wo dakishimeru

Janomeno kasa hitotsu

Inochi no michi wo

Yuku onna

Namida wa tooni

Sutemashita

Furimuita

Kawa ni

Toozakaru

Tabinohima

Itteta tsuru wa

Ugokasu

Naita

Ame to kaze

Kieta mizu mo ni

Hotsure ga miutsushi

Namida sae misenai

Janomeno kasa hitotsu

Urami no michi wo

Yuku onna

Kokoro wa tooni

Sutemashita

Giri mo nasake mo

Namida mo yume no

Kinou mo ashita mo

Henno nai kotoba

Urami no kawa ni

Mi wo yudanete

Honma wa tooni

Sutemashit

[endtext]

Meiko Kaji :: The Flower Of Carnage

The Lonely Sheperd :: Gheorghe Zamfir

[postlink]https://yoursoundtrackfilm.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-lonely-sheperd-gheorghe-zamfir.html[/postlink]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBws-gApi0Aendofvid
[starttext]

KILL BILL 2 [Drama - Thriller, 2004]

During the opening credits, we see the Bride's bloodied face again and hear her say "Bill, it's your baby." In the first scene, we see her driving an open car and saying that there is only one left to kill (which answers the question whether she believed that Elle died). She is on her way to Bill.

Chapter 6: The Massacre at Two Pines

Back at the beginning (a black-and-white segment), at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel in El Paso, TX, a dress rehearsal for a wedding is taking place. Reverend Harmony (Bo Svenson) and his wife (Jeannie Epper) decide that, since the bride will have no relatives present at the wedding, the groom's relatives and friends can sit on both sides of the aisle. The Bride (Uma Thurman) leaves the chapel to get some fresh air; on the way out, she is disturbed to hear flute music. On the front porch she finds Bill (David Carradine) sitting on a bench playing his bamboo flute. She asks him to be nice and he replies that he does not know how to be nice but will do his best to be sweet. They enter the hall and she introduces Bill to her fiancé as her father but rejects the fiancé's idea that, as her father, he should give her away at the ceremony. As the bride and groom are called to the front by the Reverend Harmony, no attempt is made to introduce 'father' to the rest of the fiancé's family. Bill stays at the back of the chapel.

Outside the chapel, four armed assassins appear, all dressed in black. In one line they move to the door, they enter, and the shooting starts, killing everybody inside except for the Bride and Bill.

Back in the present (in color), Bill visits his younger brother Budd (Michael Madsen), a.k.a. Sidewinder, at his trailer in the middle of nowhere and warns him about the Bride. She will kill Budd if Budd does not allow Bill to protect him. They had differences in the past but they should move on. Budd, drinking as they talk, replies that maybe they should get killed because the Bride deserves her revenge. He then infuriates Bill by saying that he pawned his priceless samurai sword (a gift from Bill) for $250.

Chapter 7: The Lonely Grave of Paula Schulz

Budd goes to work. He works as a bouncer in a local strip club. He arrives 20 minutes late and sees that there are no customers in the club. He talks briefly with the bartender, Jay, before he is called into the office by his hot-tempered, coke-snorting boss Larry Gomez. In the office, Larry argues with Budd over being late again, and Budd talks back, saying that there is nobody in the bar & there was no need for him to be there. Larry takes away all Budd's scheduled hours and tells him in a rude tone not to come back to work until he hears from him. In the bar, Budd agrees to clean up after a broken toilet that a stripper named Rockets says is overflowing.

Budd returns to his trailer but standing in front of it suddenly freezes. He enters the trailer but looks out the window. The Bride, who was hiding under the trailer, sticks to the wall so he does not see her. When she opens the door Budd shoots her in the chest with a shotgun loaded with rock salt. While she lies wounded on the ground, Budd is very pleased with himself and injects her with a sedative. He phones Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and offers to sell her the Bride's Hattori Hanzo sword for a million dollars. Elle agrees to bring the money in the morning. Her condition is that the Bride must die and suffer to her last breath.

Budd and an accomplice of his dig a large hole in the ground at a local cemetery to bury the wounded Bride alive. When the grave has been dug, the Bride is given a choice: if she does not resist, she'll be given a flashlight; if she does, Budd will burn out her eyes with mace and leave her buried alive in darkness. She chooses the flashlight, is put in a coffin and the lid is nailed down. Budd and his accomplice lower the coffin into the ground and cover it with soil. The Bride panics for a short time and recalls her training under Pai Mei.

Chapter 8: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei

In a flashback, Bill and the Bride (very much in love with him) sit by a campfire somewhere in China and Bill, who calls her "kiddo," plays his flute. He tells her about his kung fu teacher Pai Mei (Chia Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu) and his 'five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.' The technique involves five blows administered to particular pressure points on the body. Thereafter, the victim's heart explodes after he or she takes five steps. Pai Mei did not teach Bill the technique because he does not show it to anyone.

At the foot of the steps leading to Pai Mei's place in another part of rural China, Bill, who has just come down, informs the Bride that Pai Mei will take her as his pupil because he is lonely. Bill's bruised face shows that he was hurt but he refuses to say what happened. Bill warns her not to show any disrespect or disobedience to Pai Mei because Pai Mei will kill her -- "he hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women." She climbs the steps and quickly is humiliated by Pai Mei, who scorns her fighting skills and her ethnicity. He challenges her to land one blow on him while they engage in hand-to-hand combat and the Bride fails. Pai Mei threatens to chop her hand off with a single blow and declares that her hand belongs to him and she must strengthen it. Over the next several weeks, the Bride works hard (practicing martial arts forms and bringing buckets of water up the steps) and learns hard. She finds striking a blow with her fist to break a hole through a thick wooden plank at close range the most difficult skill.

Back to the present. Still inside the coffin, the Bride manages to remove her boots and the belt tying her feet together. She takes out a straight razor hidden in her boot and uses it to cut her hands free. She hits the coffin lid with her fist repeatedly. The lid becomes smeared with her blood but it finally cracks. She appears to swim up through the earth, and an arm emerges from the grave. The Bride crawls out. Covered in dirt, she walks into a diner, sits down and calmly asks for a glass of water.

Chapter 9: Elle and I

The Bride walks a great distance across the desert and through the mountains. She reaches Budd's trailer in time to see Elle arrive.

Elle enters the trailer and gives Budd a red suitcase full of money. He makes margaritas in a grubby blender and serves them in dirty jelly-jar glasses while she examines the sword. He opens the suitcase, gloats over the money, and is struck in the face by a venomous black mamba snake that was hidden among the bundles of cash. Before he dies, Elle tells him that she is sorry that such a "piece of shit" as himself was the one who managed to kill the Bride -- she deserved better. She phones Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed his brother but that she, Elle, has killed the Bride. Elle also reveals the whereabouts of the final resting place of the Bride (in the grave of Paula Schulz) and mentions the Bride's real name for the first time: Beatrix Kiddo.

Beatrix walks in and immediately attacks Elle. Their long and vicious fight destroys the trailer's interior. In a lull in the hostilities, Beatrix asks Elle how she lost her eye and Elle says that Pai Mei ripped it out because she offended him. Elle tells Beatrix that she poisoned Pai Mei in revenge and he died. They continue to fight and Elle gets hold of the Bride's sword. In a golf bag, the Bride finds another katana, inscribed "To my brother Budd, the only man I ever loved, Bill" -- apparently Budd did not sell it after all. As they face off, Elle relishes the irony of killing the Bride with her own sword. However, at close range, the Bride plucks out Elle's remaining eye and steps on it. Rather than finish killing Elle, Beatrix leaves the trailer, the black mamba hissing behind her as Elle shrieks and curses and flails.

Last Chapter: Face to Face

In Mexico, the Bride visits the courtly retired pimp Esteban Vihaio (Michael Parks), Bill's old mentor, and asks him to tell her where Bill is. He finally agrees because he thinks Bill would surely like to see her.

She enters Bill's hacienda carefully, a gun in her hand, but is shocked to the point of tears when Bill and their small daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine), alive, both play-shoot at her with toy guns. She spends good time with her daughter, who falls asleep. The Bride goes to speak to Bill.

Bill's warning shot pins Beatrix down in her seat, then he shoots her with a truth-serum dart. She explains why she left him: because she wanted to keep their child safe, not wanting her to grow up to be assassins like them.

Flashback to a hotel room: the Bride, who's been sent on an assassination assignment to Japan, discovers that she is pregnant. Another assassin, Karen Kim (Helen Kim), shoots a hole in the door with a shotgun. The Bride, pointing her gun at Karen, convinces her that she is pregnant and persuades her to walk away, promising that she will do the same. As she leaves, Karen congratulates the Bride.

Back in the present, Bill is puzzled because he believes that Beatrix is a natural born killer and could not change. He asks if she enjoyed killing the other people on her revenge list, and the truth serum forces her to admit that she did. They agree to fight with swords on the beach -- then Bill suddenly attacks her as they sit on his patio. At the climax of a brief skirmish during which both remain seated, she strikes him with the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique. She tells Bill that she did not mention that Pai Mei taught her the technique because she is a bad person. Bill disputes that. They share an affectionate farewell before he takes five steps and falls down dead.

Beatrix takes her daughter away to start a new life: "The lioness has rejoined her cub, and all is right in the jungle."

[endtext]

The Lonely Sheperd :: Gheorghe Zamfir

The 5.6.7.8 s :: I'm Blue

[postlink]https://yoursoundtrackfilm.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-5678-s-im-blue.html[/postlink]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjZvIWV5TW4endofvid
[starttext]

KILL BILL 2 [Drama - Thriller, 2004]

During the opening credits, we see the Bride's bloodied face again and hear her say "Bill, it's your baby." In the first scene, we see her driving an open car and saying that there is only one left to kill (which answers the question whether she believed that Elle died). She is on her way to Bill.

Chapter 6: The Massacre at Two Pines

Back at the beginning (a black-and-white segment), at the Two Pines Wedding Chapel in El Paso, TX, a dress rehearsal for a wedding is taking place. Reverend Harmony (Bo Svenson) and his wife (Jeannie Epper) decide that, since the bride will have no relatives present at the wedding, the groom's relatives and friends can sit on both sides of the aisle. The Bride (Uma Thurman) leaves the chapel to get some fresh air; on the way out, she is disturbed to hear flute music. On the front porch she finds Bill (David Carradine) sitting on a bench playing his bamboo flute. She asks him to be nice and he replies that he does not know how to be nice but will do his best to be sweet. They enter the hall and she introduces Bill to her fiancé as her father but rejects the fiancé's idea that, as her father, he should give her away at the ceremony. As the bride and groom are called to the front by the Reverend Harmony, no attempt is made to introduce 'father' to the rest of the fiancé's family. Bill stays at the back of the chapel.

Outside the chapel, four armed assassins appear, all dressed in black. In one line they move to the door, they enter, and the shooting starts, killing everybody inside except for the Bride and Bill.

Back in the present (in color), Bill visits his younger brother Budd (Michael Madsen), a.k.a. Sidewinder, at his trailer in the middle of nowhere and warns him about the Bride. She will kill Budd if Budd does not allow Bill to protect him. They had differences in the past but they should move on. Budd, drinking as they talk, replies that maybe they should get killed because the Bride deserves her revenge. He then infuriates Bill by saying that he pawned his priceless samurai sword (a gift from Bill) for $250.

Chapter 7: The Lonely Grave of Paula Schulz

Budd goes to work. He works as a bouncer in a local strip club. He arrives 20 minutes late and sees that there are no customers in the club. He talks briefly with the bartender, Jay, before he is called into the office by his hot-tempered, coke-snorting boss Larry Gomez. In the office, Larry argues with Budd over being late again, and Budd talks back, saying that there is nobody in the bar & there was no need for him to be there. Larry takes away all Budd's scheduled hours and tells him in a rude tone not to come back to work until he hears from him. In the bar, Budd agrees to clean up after a broken toilet that a stripper named Rockets says is overflowing.

Budd returns to his trailer but standing in front of it suddenly freezes. He enters the trailer but looks out the window. The Bride, who was hiding under the trailer, sticks to the wall so he does not see her. When she opens the door Budd shoots her in the chest with a shotgun loaded with rock salt. While she lies wounded on the ground, Budd is very pleased with himself and injects her with a sedative. He phones Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) and offers to sell her the Bride's Hattori Hanzo sword for a million dollars. Elle agrees to bring the money in the morning. Her condition is that the Bride must die and suffer to her last breath.

Budd and an accomplice of his dig a large hole in the ground at a local cemetery to bury the wounded Bride alive. When the grave has been dug, the Bride is given a choice: if she does not resist, she'll be given a flashlight; if she does, Budd will burn out her eyes with mace and leave her buried alive in darkness. She chooses the flashlight, is put in a coffin and the lid is nailed down. Budd and his accomplice lower the coffin into the ground and cover it with soil. The Bride panics for a short time and recalls her training under Pai Mei.

Chapter 8: The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei

In a flashback, Bill and the Bride (very much in love with him) sit by a campfire somewhere in China and Bill, who calls her "kiddo," plays his flute. He tells her about his kung fu teacher Pai Mei (Chia Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu) and his 'five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.' The technique involves five blows administered to particular pressure points on the body. Thereafter, the victim's heart explodes after he or she takes five steps. Pai Mei did not teach Bill the technique because he does not show it to anyone.

At the foot of the steps leading to Pai Mei's place in another part of rural China, Bill, who has just come down, informs the Bride that Pai Mei will take her as his pupil because he is lonely. Bill's bruised face shows that he was hurt but he refuses to say what happened. Bill warns her not to show any disrespect or disobedience to Pai Mei because Pai Mei will kill her -- "he hates Caucasians, despises Americans, and has nothing but contempt for women." She climbs the steps and quickly is humiliated by Pai Mei, who scorns her fighting skills and her ethnicity. He challenges her to land one blow on him while they engage in hand-to-hand combat and the Bride fails. Pai Mei threatens to chop her hand off with a single blow and declares that her hand belongs to him and she must strengthen it. Over the next several weeks, the Bride works hard (practicing martial arts forms and bringing buckets of water up the steps) and learns hard. She finds striking a blow with her fist to break a hole through a thick wooden plank at close range the most difficult skill.

Back to the present. Still inside the coffin, the Bride manages to remove her boots and the belt tying her feet together. She takes out a straight razor hidden in her boot and uses it to cut her hands free. She hits the coffin lid with her fist repeatedly. The lid becomes smeared with her blood but it finally cracks. She appears to swim up through the earth, and an arm emerges from the grave. The Bride crawls out. Covered in dirt, she walks into a diner, sits down and calmly asks for a glass of water.

Chapter 9: Elle and I

The Bride walks a great distance across the desert and through the mountains. She reaches Budd's trailer in time to see Elle arrive.

Elle enters the trailer and gives Budd a red suitcase full of money. He makes margaritas in a grubby blender and serves them in dirty jelly-jar glasses while she examines the sword. He opens the suitcase, gloats over the money, and is struck in the face by a venomous black mamba snake that was hidden among the bundles of cash. Before he dies, Elle tells him that she is sorry that such a "piece of shit" as himself was the one who managed to kill the Bride -- she deserved better. She phones Bill and tells him that the Bride has killed his brother but that she, Elle, has killed the Bride. Elle also reveals the whereabouts of the final resting place of the Bride (in the grave of Paula Schulz) and mentions the Bride's real name for the first time: Beatrix Kiddo.

Beatrix walks in and immediately attacks Elle. Their long and vicious fight destroys the trailer's interior. In a lull in the hostilities, Beatrix asks Elle how she lost her eye and Elle says that Pai Mei ripped it out because she offended him. Elle tells Beatrix that she poisoned Pai Mei in revenge and he died. They continue to fight and Elle gets hold of the Bride's sword. In a golf bag, the Bride finds another katana, inscribed "To my brother Budd, the only man I ever loved, Bill" -- apparently Budd did not sell it after all. As they face off, Elle relishes the irony of killing the Bride with her own sword. However, at close range, the Bride plucks out Elle's remaining eye and steps on it. Rather than finish killing Elle, Beatrix leaves the trailer, the black mamba hissing behind her as Elle shrieks and curses and flails.

Last Chapter: Face to Face

In Mexico, the Bride visits the courtly retired pimp Esteban Vihaio (Michael Parks), Bill's old mentor, and asks him to tell her where Bill is. He finally agrees because he thinks Bill would surely like to see her.

She enters Bill's hacienda carefully, a gun in her hand, but is shocked to the point of tears when Bill and their small daughter B.B. (Perla Haney-Jardine), alive, both play-shoot at her with toy guns. She spends good time with her daughter, who falls asleep. The Bride goes to speak to Bill.

Bill's warning shot pins Beatrix down in her seat, then he shoots her with a truth-serum dart. She explains why she left him: because she wanted to keep their child safe, not wanting her to grow up to be assassins like them.

Flashback to a hotel room: the Bride, who's been sent on an assassination assignment to Japan, discovers that she is pregnant. Another assassin, Karen Kim (Helen Kim), shoots a hole in the door with a shotgun. The Bride, pointing her gun at Karen, convinces her that she is pregnant and persuades her to walk away, promising that she will do the same. As she leaves, Karen congratulates the Bride.

Back in the present, Bill is puzzled because he believes that Beatrix is a natural born killer and could not change. He asks if she enjoyed killing the other people on her revenge list, and the truth serum forces her to admit that she did. They agree to fight with swords on the beach -- then Bill suddenly attacks her as they sit on his patio. At the climax of a brief skirmish during which both remain seated, she strikes him with the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique. She tells Bill that she did not mention that Pai Mei taught her the technique because she is a bad person. Bill disputes that. They share an affectionate farewell before he takes five steps and falls down dead.

Beatrix takes her daughter away to start a new life: "The lioness has rejoined her cub, and all is right in the jungle."

[endtext]

The 5.6.7.8 s :: I'm Blue

Bang Bang :: Nancy Sinatra

[postlink]https://yoursoundtrackfilm.blogspot.com/2012/08/you-shot-me-down-nancy-sinatra.html[/postlink]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaVNfZWBVhQendofvid
[starttext]
Bang Bang 

Em Am Em Am B Em

Em
I was five and he was six 
We rode on horses made of sticks  
Am
He wore black and I wore white 
He would always win the fight 

     Em 
Bang bang, he shot me down 
Bang bang, I hit the ground 
     Am
Bang bang, that awful sound 
              B            Em
Bang bang, my baby shot me down 

Em Am Em Am B Em

Em 
Seasons came and changed the time 
When I grew up I called him mine 
Am
He would always laugh and say 
Remember when we used to play 

     Em 
Bang bang, I shot you down 
Bang bang, you hit the ground 
     Am
Bang bang, that awful sound 
             B                 Em
Bang bang, I used to shoot you down 

Em Am Em Am B Em

Am 
Music played and people sang 
Em
Just for me the church bells rang 

Em 
Now he's gone I don t know why 
Until this day, sometimes I cry 
Am
He didn't even say goodbye 
He didn't take the time to lie 

     Em 
Bang bang, he shot me down 
Bang bang, I hit the ground 

     Am
Bang bang, that awful sound 
              B            Em
Bang bang, my baby shot me down 

Em Am Em Am B Em

[endtext]

Bang Bang :: Nancy Sinatra

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood :: Santa Esmeralda

[postlink]https://yoursoundtrackfilm.blogspot.com/2012/08/dont-let-me-be-misunderstood-santa.html[/postlink]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMbk6apcO0Mendofvid
[starttext]

Kill Bill[Action - Crime - Thriller, 2003]
Before the credits we learn that the film is about the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which has five members. A quotation gives the flavour: "Revenge is a dish best served cold". In monochrome, a gasping, blood-covered bride (Uma Thurman) looks up from a chapel floor. A hand wipes her face using a handkerchief with the name Bill in the corner, while a male voice explains that what he is about to do is not a sadistic act, but a masochistic one. Just before he shoots her in the head, the Bride tells Bill (David Carradine) that the baby she carries is his. A gunshot is heard and the opening credits begin, backed by the song "Bang Bang".

Chapter 1: #2. Pasadena. 

A blonde woman, the Bride, draws up in a yellow and red pickup outside a suburban home and strolls to the front door. As she rings, a flashback shows the Bride crashing to the floor and looking up to see the face of one of her attackers, Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox). As soon as the door is open, the Bride's fist crashes into Vernita's face. A savage fight follows, first with fists, then with knives. The fight pauses when a school bus draws up outside and a little girl walks through the door. The antagonists hide their knives and pretend nothing is amiss despite the wreckage around them. They both reassure the child, Nikki (Ambrosia Kelley). The Bride mentions that she used to have a child who would be the same age as Nikki (four). Vernita sends the girl to her room. At this point Vernita is introduced as a member of the Deadly Vipers, codename Copperhead. The Bride is also a member, codename Black Mamba. The Bride makes clear that she is here for revenge but promises not to kill Vernita in front of her child. They plan a fight later, but while Vernita is preparing cereal for her child she fires a concealed gun at the Bride. She misses and the Bride kills her with a thrown knife. The child walks in, a witness to her mother's death. The Bride apologises but explains that her mother had it coming to her. She tells Nikki that if, when she grows up, she can't get past the killing, she should come find the Bride. "I'll be waiting," the Bride promises. She returns to the pickup, which is emblazoned with the words Pussy Wagon, crosses Vernita's name from a list headed "Death List Five," and drives away.

Chapter 2: 

The Blood Splattered Bride. Four years earlier in an El Paso wedding chapel, police are investigating a mass murder. The sheriff (Michael Parks) drives up and is told that there has been an execution-style massacre leaving nine bodies, including the bride, the groom, the preacher and his wife, the guests, and even the piano player. The sheriff strolls around commenting on the massacre, stops near the bride, and remarks on how good-looking she was. He immediately recognises the name she was using, Arlene Machiavelli, as an alias. As he kneels to look more closely at her, she suddenly (perhaps unintentionally) spits in his face. We see her rushed to a hospital, where she lies in a deep coma. A smartly dressed blonde woman walks through the hospital, whistling a tune. She finds a changing room and emerges dressed as a nurse with a red-cross patch over one eye and carrying a tray with a syringe. A title identifies her as Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) of the Deadly Vipers, codename California Mountain Snake. She stands over the comatose Bride and says that her gift is to allow her to die in her sleep. As she prepares to inject the contents of the syringe into the Bride's IV line, her mobile phone rings. It is Bill, who orders her to abort the mission in view of the Bride's survival of their previous efforts to assassinate her, and because it would lower them. Elle is furious, but does as ordered and leaves.

On four years again and the Bride is still lying in a coma. A mosquito bites her and she sits up with a shriek. In a flashback she sees a gun pointing at her and a bullet approaching in slow motion. She begins to feel her body, first noticing the metallic sound of her skull and then feeling the absence of the baby in her womb. She shrieks again and sobs pitifully. When she hears approaching footsteps, she lies back and pretends to be still in a coma. An orderly (Michael Bowen) enters, accompanied by a large trucker (Jonathan Loughran). The orderly explains that, for $75, this attractive woman is available for whatever the trucker wants. The man pays up and is told that he can do anything as long as he doesn't leave any marks. The orderly leaves and the man climbs on top of the Bride. As he starts to kiss her she bites down on his lower lip and severs it in a profusion of blood. He's left unconscious or dead.

The Bride tries to get out of bed but collapses as her legs will not support her. When she hears the orderly returning she picks up a knife and crawls behind the door. He enters and stands aghast at the carnage and the empty bed. She slashes his heel and he falls to the floor. Then, slamming the door into his head, she demands to know where Bill is. She reads the name Buck on the orderly's name tag, which triggers memories of his earlier assaults on her. She gives him a couple more violent blows with the door, perhaps killing him, then searches him for his car keys. The key fob says "Pussy Wagon" in distinctive pink script. Propelling herself to the basement car park in a wheelchair, the Bride is able to identify Buck's yellow pickup because it says "Pussy Wagon" on the back. She hauls herself in and starts the long process of getting her legs moving again.

A shot of the rest of the Deadly Vipers gang introduces O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), codename Cottonmouth, now head of the Tokyo yakuza.

Chapter 3: 

The Origins of O-Ren Ishii. In anime format, the film follows O-Ren's development from the age of nine, when she witnessed the murder of her parents. Her father, an American military officer, had tried to fight off several yakuza henchman, but was killed. The yakuza leader, a sleazy old man, Matsumoto, also brutally murders O-Ren's Japanese mother. O-Ren avenges the murders at 11 in blood-spouting style, taking advantage of Matsumoto's predilection for pedophilia. She then developed into a world-class assassin.

Meanwhile 13 hours have passed and the Bride has regained use of her legs, so she sets out on her revenge trail. We see her flying to Okinawa.

Chapter 4: 

The Man from Okinawa. The Bride enters a Japanese sushi bar and there is a longish scene with the jovial bar-keeper and some slapstick action with his assistant. Things get serious when she tells the bar-keeper that she is looking for him, Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba). She explains that she needs some "Japanese steel" to kill vermin. He shows her to his attic where he keeps an array of the katanas (swords) he has made. When she tries one out he says that they are not for sale and he has sworn not to make any more "instruments of death". She explains that her "vermin" is a former pupil of his and he correctly guesses that she means Bill. He agrees to make her a sword, which will take a month. He suggests the Bride spend that time training.

A month later we see Hattori examining the new sword, which he believes is his finest work. He hands it to her in a small and solemn ceremony where he admits he broke his personal pact not to make any more swords.

Chapter 5: 

Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves. The film returns to O-Ren and shows her as newly elected Head of the Council of all the yakuza bosses. When one objects to her election on the grounds of her mixed-race origin (she is Chinese/Japanese-American), she immediately beheads him and warns the others never to mention her heritage in a negative way. We are introduced to O-Ren's lieutenants: her French-Japanese lawyer Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus), another of Bill's protégées; her teenage bodyguard Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama), sporting a plaid-skirted school uniform; and Johnny Mo (Chia Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu), the head of her strongarm men, the Crazy 88.

The Bride flies into Tokyo and appears in yellow leathers and helmet riding a yellow motorbike while O-Ren and her motorcade are heading for a restaurant. The Bride spots Sofie in her car and there is a flashback to Sofie calmly taking a call on her mobile while the Bride and her party were being slaughtered. O-Ren and her immediate subordinates arrive at the restaurant and are ushered upstairs to a private dining room by the obsequious owners. At the bar, the Bride sits quietly and watches.

O-Ren and her party are enjoying themselves when O-Ren senses something threatening. She throws a small knife with a red tassel through the paper wall to lodge in a beam in the hallway outside, startling the Bride, who is lurking near the private room. O-Ren sends Gogo to look around, but the Bride has braced herself against the ceiling and Gogo doesn't see her. The Bride enters the toilet and while stripping off her leathers, hears the distinctive ring-tones of Sofie's mobile. With Sofie in tow, the Bride loudly announces her presence from the restaurant floor, which brings O-Ren and her party rushing out onto the balcony. While they watch she slashes off one of Sofie's arms and pandemonium ensues as the diners and staff flee. O-Ren sends her lieutenants down singly or in groups to kill the Bride, but all end up dead. The final defender is Gogo, who opposes the Bride's sword with a ball and chain in a vicious fight, ending when the Bride kills Gogo by embedding a broken, nail-studded table leg in her temple. Before O-Ren and the Bride can engage, the roar of motorbikes is heard and the Crazy 88 pour in. The ensuing battle of one against many is long, balletic and bloody but finally only one of the 88 remains -- the youngest -- and the Bride sends him off with a spanking. She announces to the defeated Crazy 88 that they may leave, but they must leave behind their severed limbs, which belong to her now. She also orders Sofie to stay.

Outside in the snow, the Bride and O-Ren fight it out in a long and evenly-matched sword-fight. At the start of the fight, O-Ren casts doubt on the provenance of the Bride's sword. The Bride wins by slicing off the top of O-Ren's head; before she dies, O-Ren apologizes for an earlier insult and remarks that the sword must really be a Hanzo. Later, the Bride crosses O-Ren's name from her list.

The Bride loads Sofie into a car and drives to a point where she can roll her down a snowy slope to a hospital. As the Bride draws up her "Death List Five," we see Sofie, in monochrome, talking to someone whose face is not seen but who is clearly Bill. She tells Bill that under threat of having more limbs cut off, she has told the Bride everything she knows. She explains that the Bride kept her alive just so she could tell Bill in person all that happened and warn him that soon all of them would be dead. Bill's final words are "Is she aware that her daughter is still alive?"

To be continued....

[endtext]

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood :: Santa Esmeralda

Summertime Killer :: Luis Bacalov

[postlink]https://yoursoundtrackfilm.blogspot.com/2012/08/summertime-killer-luis-bacalov.html[/postlink]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRFeJi4GWDEendofvid
[starttext]

Kill Bill[Action - Crime - Thriller, 2003]
Before the credits we learn that the film is about the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, which has five members. A quotation gives the flavour: "Revenge is a dish best served cold". In monochrome, a gasping, blood-covered bride (Uma Thurman) looks up from a chapel floor. A hand wipes her face using a handkerchief with the name Bill in the corner, while a male voice explains that what he is about to do is not a sadistic act, but a masochistic one. Just before he shoots her in the head, the Bride tells Bill (David Carradine) that the baby she carries is his. A gunshot is heard and the opening credits begin, backed by the song "Bang Bang".

Chapter 1: #2. Pasadena. 

A blonde woman, the Bride, draws up in a yellow and red pickup outside a suburban home and strolls to the front door. As she rings, a flashback shows the Bride crashing to the floor and looking up to see the face of one of her attackers, Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox). As soon as the door is open, the Bride's fist crashes into Vernita's face. A savage fight follows, first with fists, then with knives. The fight pauses when a school bus draws up outside and a little girl walks through the door. The antagonists hide their knives and pretend nothing is amiss despite the wreckage around them. They both reassure the child, Nikki (Ambrosia Kelley). The Bride mentions that she used to have a child who would be the same age as Nikki (four). Vernita sends the girl to her room. At this point Vernita is introduced as a member of the Deadly Vipers, codename Copperhead. The Bride is also a member, codename Black Mamba. The Bride makes clear that she is here for revenge but promises not to kill Vernita in front of her child. They plan a fight later, but while Vernita is preparing cereal for her child she fires a concealed gun at the Bride. She misses and the Bride kills her with a thrown knife. The child walks in, a witness to her mother's death. The Bride apologises but explains that her mother had it coming to her. She tells Nikki that if, when she grows up, she can't get past the killing, she should come find the Bride. "I'll be waiting," the Bride promises. She returns to the pickup, which is emblazoned with the words Pussy Wagon, crosses Vernita's name from a list headed "Death List Five," and drives away.

Chapter 2: 

The Blood Splattered Bride. Four years earlier in an El Paso wedding chapel, police are investigating a mass murder. The sheriff (Michael Parks) drives up and is told that there has been an execution-style massacre leaving nine bodies, including the bride, the groom, the preacher and his wife, the guests, and even the piano player. The sheriff strolls around commenting on the massacre, stops near the bride, and remarks on how good-looking she was. He immediately recognises the name she was using, Arlene Machiavelli, as an alias. As he kneels to look more closely at her, she suddenly (perhaps unintentionally) spits in his face. We see her rushed to a hospital, where she lies in a deep coma. A smartly dressed blonde woman walks through the hospital, whistling a tune. She finds a changing room and emerges dressed as a nurse with a red-cross patch over one eye and carrying a tray with a syringe. A title identifies her as Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) of the Deadly Vipers, codename California Mountain Snake. She stands over the comatose Bride and says that her gift is to allow her to die in her sleep. As she prepares to inject the contents of the syringe into the Bride's IV line, her mobile phone rings. It is Bill, who orders her to abort the mission in view of the Bride's survival of their previous efforts to assassinate her, and because it would lower them. Elle is furious, but does as ordered and leaves.

On four years again and the Bride is still lying in a coma. A mosquito bites her and she sits up with a shriek. In a flashback she sees a gun pointing at her and a bullet approaching in slow motion. She begins to feel her body, first noticing the metallic sound of her skull and then feeling the absence of the baby in her womb. She shrieks again and sobs pitifully. When she hears approaching footsteps, she lies back and pretends to be still in a coma. An orderly (Michael Bowen) enters, accompanied by a large trucker (Jonathan Loughran). The orderly explains that, for $75, this attractive woman is available for whatever the trucker wants. The man pays up and is told that he can do anything as long as he doesn't leave any marks. The orderly leaves and the man climbs on top of the Bride. As he starts to kiss her she bites down on his lower lip and severs it in a profusion of blood. He's left unconscious or dead.

The Bride tries to get out of bed but collapses as her legs will not support her. When she hears the orderly returning she picks up a knife and crawls behind the door. He enters and stands aghast at the carnage and the empty bed. She slashes his heel and he falls to the floor. Then, slamming the door into his head, she demands to know where Bill is. She reads the name Buck on the orderly's name tag, which triggers memories of his earlier assaults on her. She gives him a couple more violent blows with the door, perhaps killing him, then searches him for his car keys. The key fob says "Pussy Wagon" in distinctive pink script. Propelling herself to the basement car park in a wheelchair, the Bride is able to identify Buck's yellow pickup because it says "Pussy Wagon" on the back. She hauls herself in and starts the long process of getting her legs moving again.

A shot of the rest of the Deadly Vipers gang introduces O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), codename Cottonmouth, now head of the Tokyo yakuza.

Chapter 3: 

The Origins of O-Ren Ishii. In anime format, the film follows O-Ren's development from the age of nine, when she witnessed the murder of her parents. Her father, an American military officer, had tried to fight off several yakuza henchman, but was killed. The yakuza leader, a sleazy old man, Matsumoto, also brutally murders O-Ren's Japanese mother. O-Ren avenges the murders at 11 in blood-spouting style, taking advantage of Matsumoto's predilection for pedophilia. She then developed into a world-class assassin.

Meanwhile 13 hours have passed and the Bride has regained use of her legs, so she sets out on her revenge trail. We see her flying to Okinawa.

Chapter 4: 

The Man from Okinawa. The Bride enters a Japanese sushi bar and there is a longish scene with the jovial bar-keeper and some slapstick action with his assistant. Things get serious when she tells the bar-keeper that she is looking for him, Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba). She explains that she needs some "Japanese steel" to kill vermin. He shows her to his attic where he keeps an array of the katanas (swords) he has made. When she tries one out he says that they are not for sale and he has sworn not to make any more "instruments of death". She explains that her "vermin" is a former pupil of his and he correctly guesses that she means Bill. He agrees to make her a sword, which will take a month. He suggests the Bride spend that time training.

A month later we see Hattori examining the new sword, which he believes is his finest work. He hands it to her in a small and solemn ceremony where he admits he broke his personal pact not to make any more swords.

Chapter 5: 

Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves. The film returns to O-Ren and shows her as newly elected Head of the Council of all the yakuza bosses. When one objects to her election on the grounds of her mixed-race origin (she is Chinese/Japanese-American), she immediately beheads him and warns the others never to mention her heritage in a negative way. We are introduced to O-Ren's lieutenants: her French-Japanese lawyer Sofie Fatale (Julie Dreyfus), another of Bill's protégées; her teenage bodyguard Gogo Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama), sporting a plaid-skirted school uniform; and Johnny Mo (Chia Hui Liu, credited as Gordon Liu), the head of her strongarm men, the Crazy 88.

The Bride flies into Tokyo and appears in yellow leathers and helmet riding a yellow motorbike while O-Ren and her motorcade are heading for a restaurant. The Bride spots Sofie in her car and there is a flashback to Sofie calmly taking a call on her mobile while the Bride and her party were being slaughtered. O-Ren and her immediate subordinates arrive at the restaurant and are ushered upstairs to a private dining room by the obsequious owners. At the bar, the Bride sits quietly and watches.

O-Ren and her party are enjoying themselves when O-Ren senses something threatening. She throws a small knife with a red tassel through the paper wall to lodge in a beam in the hallway outside, startling the Bride, who is lurking near the private room. O-Ren sends Gogo to look around, but the Bride has braced herself against the ceiling and Gogo doesn't see her. The Bride enters the toilet and while stripping off her leathers, hears the distinctive ring-tones of Sofie's mobile. With Sofie in tow, the Bride loudly announces her presence from the restaurant floor, which brings O-Ren and her party rushing out onto the balcony. While they watch she slashes off one of Sofie's arms and pandemonium ensues as the diners and staff flee. O-Ren sends her lieutenants down singly or in groups to kill the Bride, but all end up dead. The final defender is Gogo, who opposes the Bride's sword with a ball and chain in a vicious fight, ending when the Bride kills Gogo by embedding a broken, nail-studded table leg in her temple. Before O-Ren and the Bride can engage, the roar of motorbikes is heard and the Crazy 88 pour in. The ensuing battle of one against many is long, balletic and bloody but finally only one of the 88 remains -- the youngest -- and the Bride sends him off with a spanking. She announces to the defeated Crazy 88 that they may leave, but they must leave behind their severed limbs, which belong to her now. She also orders Sofie to stay.

Outside in the snow, the Bride and O-Ren fight it out in a long and evenly-matched sword-fight. At the start of the fight, O-Ren casts doubt on the provenance of the Bride's sword. The Bride wins by slicing off the top of O-Ren's head; before she dies, O-Ren apologizes for an earlier insult and remarks that the sword must really be a Hanzo. Later, the Bride crosses O-Ren's name from her list.

The Bride loads Sofie into a car and drives to a point where she can roll her down a snowy slope to a hospital. As the Bride draws up her "Death List Five," we see Sofie, in monochrome, talking to someone whose face is not seen but who is clearly Bill. She tells Bill that under threat of having more limbs cut off, she has told the Bride everything she knows. She explains that the Bride kept her alive just so she could tell Bill in person all that happened and warn him that soon all of them would be dead. Bill's final words are "Is she aware that her daughter is still alive?"

To be continued....

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Summertime Killer :: Luis Bacalov