Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) - 34 questions

Question: In the scene where the bride first enters Hattori Hanzo's loft, directly following the scene in the sake bar, what is the name of the song that plays?

Answer: Gheorghe Zamfir - The Lonely Shepherd.

Question: What is the song being played in the anime scene when Oren-Ishii's parents are being killed?

Answer: "The Grand Duel - (Parte Prima)" by Luis Enrique Bacalov, it's track 3 on the CD soundtrack.

Question: What is the song that plays when the Bride is looking for the Pussy Wagon at the hospital?

Answer: It's the theme to the 1974 blaxploitation movie "Truck Turner" by Isaac Hayes.

Question: In the scene where The Bride smashes Buck's head in with the door, surely after 13 hours (the time it took for her to sit in the car and 'wiggle her big toe') someone would have noticed Buck was dead and the police would be involved. This would probably lead to them searching his car as well. I know it may be a deliberate mistake seeing as The Bride hasn't been chased for killing anyone else, but there were police in the beginning of the film so they do exist.

Answer: Not necessarily. She probably stashed his body in her room. Nurses would rarely come in as she was comatose, so its likely they only check her twice a day. Also, 12-14 hours is not an unusual shift at all for a nurse, so its entirely possible no one noticed him missing.

Question: What is the song playing right after O-Ren Ishii kicks off her shoes in the snow right before her and The Bride have their duel? I checked IMDB and the actual soundtrack but I can't find out which song it is.

Answer: If you're thinking about the song that starts with the clapping then it's called "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by Santa Esmeralda. On the soundtrack it's number 10.

Question: Has there ever been explained why the blood effects were done so weird?

Answer: Quentin Tarantino has stated that he deliberately went over the top with the blood effects, as a homage to a lot of old Oriental martial arts movies in which the spurting of blood was also (unintentionally) over-exaggerated.

Question: In the scenes that take place in Japan, they sometimes speak English and sometimes Japanese, sometimes even a line in English following a reply in Japanese or vice versa. It was made clear that The Bride can speak and understand Japanese, so why do they keep switching languages like that?

Answer: There is nothing to say exactly why its mixed up, but films using foreign languages can approach it in three different ways. Have it all in English and apply accents to the characters, which avoids subtitles. Make it more authentic by having it in the native language but subject people to subtitles (which is never a commerically popular decision) or mix the characters' speech with having the characters speak some English and some of the native language. This keeps some authenticity and avoids having the entire film in a foreign language. Films like The Godfather are examples of using both English and a foreign language.

Question: Why was the Bride never arrested or even charged with any crime after she left so many people dead in the restaurant and even more who were maimed? After her bloody revenge work was done, why is she able to just get on an airplane and leave the country with no repercussions whatsoever?

Answer: The answer falls under the common film cheat that we don't know what happened so one can only speculate as to what happened. When the police came and whether they knew it was her is up for debate. As for leaving the country, she was a professional killer who had killed all over the world so its not out of the scope of her abilities to get out of the country without being held by the police. Again it's speculation so she might have used fake passports or the police didn't have enough evidence to hold her.

Question: Does anyone know what happened at the Bell household, after the Bride disposed of Vernita? I'm also curious as to what happened to Sophie, after her rough night.

Answer: It's never been stated what happened to be Bell household. Re Sophie, towards the end of Vol. 1 we see Sophie talking with Bill and if you listen to what Bill is saying and how he is articulating his speech you could make the assumption that he is really angry at Sophie for giving the bride the information rather than dying. My assumtion would be that after Sophie told Bill everything about the Bride he would have killed her.

Question: What is the music playing when The Bride is surrounded by the Yakuza and she's rolling on the floor to cut their legs off?

Answer: The song is Nobody But Me by Human Beinz. This is the best song in the movie but ironically is not on the soundtrack.

Question: What is the title of the music played when Lucy Liu and co. are walking down the corridor in slow motion before the massacre begins?

Answer: It's a really great piece of music, and it is called "Battle without honor or humanity" and is made by Tomoyasu Hotei. Track no. 9 on the Kill Bill Vol. 1 Soundtrack.

Question: A piece of trivia says "Anybody else catch the "square" thing? Uma Thurman did the same thing in Pulp Fiction." - what's the "square" thing?

Answer: She makes a square shape with her fingers in the air when she is talking to Vernita Green ("That would make us about square"). she does the same motion to John Travolta right before they go into Jack Rabbit Slims in Pulp Fiction.

Question: Can anyone tell me where Gogo gets the ball and chain weapon from? She carries a short-bladed sword with her into the nightclub. There's no place on her skimpy schoolgirl outfit to conceal the bulky ball and chain. Is this a mistake?

Answer: No, no mistake. The House of Blue Leaves is obviously a hangout for O-ren and the Crazy 88, seeing how so many of them are there, and the familiarity they show with the place. It would only be natural for Gogo to have some backup weapons hidden away there, since she knows they come there often and stay for some time.

Question: In the scene where The Bride is trying to get Hattari Hanzo to make her a sword she mentions a "former" pupil and he changes his mind, writing on the window Bill. What did Bill do to upset Hattari Hanzo?

Answer: No one knows, you're not supposed to know, same as in Volume 2 with Budd and Bill, you don't know what happened the last time they spoke.

Question: During the anime scene, is the sword wielding killer that finally finishes off O-Ren's father supposed to be Bill? Could this be the connection between Bill and O-Ren?

Answer: This is been answered before. Bill was behind the killing of O-Ren's parents.

Question: I'm probably going to regret asking this but what is Buck supposed to have done with the tub of Vasalube to account for how it looks in the film?

Answer: It's been used by him and many a dirty perv during Buck's nasty little side business, not caring if it gets dirty or attracts stray hairs.

Question: Before the "Whoo Hoo" song in the House of Blue Leaves the group sang another song. It's not in the soundtrack. What's its title?

Answer: 'I'm Blue' or 'I walk like Jayne Mansfield'.

Question: Was there any specific reason or symbolism why Volume 1 and 2 contained so much of the colour yellow? The Game of Death suit, the subtitles, the Pussy Wagon, the desert, House of Blue Leaves, The Bride and Elle's hair. I'm counting blonde as yellow obviously.

Answer: In much of Asia, yellow has meanings associated with death. It can have to do with cowardice, such as how the Bride was killed. It can be a symbol against evil (obviously Bill). It is also a color of death, of which there is much of in the film.

Question: What is that song that plays whenever Uma Thurman sees someone from her old gang who tried to kill her?

Answer: It is called Ironside and is made by Quincy Jones. On the soundtrack, it is track no. 16.

Question: One of the trivia contributions says Quentin Tarantino cameos as one of the more "unfortunate" members of the Crazy 88. Exactly which one is he? Or, at what time does he appear on screen?

Answer: He's a dead body lying on the floor when The Bride walks away from the carnage... hardly recognizable because he's wearing one of their black masks.