Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a team of assassins (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) and their leader, Bill (David Carradine), after they try to kill her and her unborn child. Her journey takes her to Tokyo, where she battles the yakuza.

Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as an homage to grindhouse cinema, including martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation films, and spaghetti Westerns. It features a Japanese-style animation sequence by Production I.G. It is the first of two Kill Bill films made in a single production; the films were originally set for a single release, but the film, with a runtime of over four hours, was divided in two. Volume 1 became Tarantino's highest-grossing film up to that point, earning over $180 million at the box office. Kill Bill: Volume 2 was released the next year, on April 16, 2004.

Plot
A woman in a wedding dress, the Bride, lies wounded in a chapel in El Paso, Texas, having been attacked by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. She tells their leader, Bill, that she is pregnant with his baby before he shoots her in the head.

Four years later, having survived the attack, the Bride goes to the home of Vernita Green, planning to kill her. Both women were members of the assassination squad, which has since disbanded; Vernita now leads a normal suburban family life. They engage in a knife fight, but are interrupted by the arrival of Vernita's young daughter, Nikki. The Bride agrees to meet Vernita at night to settle the matter, but when Vernita tries to surprise the Bride with a pistol hidden in a box of cereal, the Bride dodges the shot and throws a knife into Vernita's chest, killing her.

Four years earlier, police investigate the massacre at the wedding chapel. The sheriff discovers that the Bride is alive but comatose. In the hospital, Deadly Viper Elle Driver prepares to assassinate the Bride via lethal injection, but Bill aborts the mission at the last moment, considering it dishonorable to kill the Bride when she cannot defend herself.

The Bride awakens from her four-year coma and is horrified to find that she is no longer pregnant. She kills a man who tries to rape her and a hospital worker who has been selling her body while she was comatose. She takes the hospital worker's truck and teaches herself to walk again.

Resolving to kill Bill and all four members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, the Bride picks her first target: O-Ren Ishii, now the leader of the Tokyo Yakuza. O-Ren's parents were murdered by the Yakuza when she was a child; she took vengeance on the Yakuza boss and replaced him after training as an elite assassin. The Bride travels to Okinawa, Japan, to obtain a sword from legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō, who has sworn never to forge a sword again. After learning that her target is Bill, his former student, he relents and crafts his finest sword for her.

At a Tokyo restaurant, the House of Blue Leaves, the Bride defeats O-Ren's elite squad of fighters, the Crazy 88, and her bodyguard, schoolgirl Gogo Yubari. She and O-Ren duel in the restaurant's Japanese garden; the Bride gains the upper hand and slices the top of her head off with a sword stroke. She tortures Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's assistant, for information about Bill, and leaves her alive as a threat. Bill asks Sofie if the Bride knows that her daughter is alive.

Cast

 * Uma Thurman as the Bride (code name Black Mamba), a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, described as "The Deadliest Woman in the World". She seeks revenge on the Deadly Vipers after they try to kill her and her unborn child in a wedding chapel. Her real name is not revealed until Kill Bill: Volume 2.
 * Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii (code name Cottonmouth), a former Deadly Viper who has become the leader of the Japanese Yakuza. She and the Bride once had a close friendship. She is the Bride's first target.
 * David Carradine as Bill (code name Snake Charmer), the former leader of the Deadly Vipers, the Bride's former lover, and the father of her daughter. He is the final target of the Bride's revenge. He is an unseen character until Volume 2.
 * Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green (code name Copperhead), a former Deadly Viper and now a mother and homemaker, living under the name Jeannie Bell. She is the Bride's second target.
 * Michael Madsen as Budd (code name Sidewinder), a former Deadly Viper, now working as a bouncer and living in a trailer. He is the Bride's third target.
 * Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver (code name California Mountain Snake), a former Deadly Viper and the Bride's fourth target.
 * Julie Dreyfus as Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's lawyer, confidant, and second lieutenant. She is also a former protégée of Bill's, and was present at the wedding chapel massacre.
 * Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzo, master swordsmith who, although long retired, agrees to craft a sword just for the Bride.
 * Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari, O-Ren's sadistic Japanese schoolgirl bodyguard.
 * Gordon Liu as Johnny Mo, head of O-Ren's personal army, the Crazy 88. Liu would appear in Volume 2 as Martial Arts Master Pai Mei.
 * Michael Parks as Earl McGraw, a Texas Ranger who investigates the wedding chapel massacre. Parks originated McGraw in the Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk till Dawn, in which Tarantino starred. He would go on to reprise the role in both segments of the Rodriguez/Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. Parks also appeared in Volume 2 as a separate character, Esteban Vihaio.
 * Michael Bowen as Buck, an orderly at the hospital who has been raping the Bride while she lay comatose.
 * Jun Kunimura as Boss Tanaka, a yakuza whom O-Ren executes after he ridicules her ethnicity and gender.
 * Kenji Ohba as Shiro, Hattori Hanzo's employee.
 * James Parks as Edgar McGraw, a Texas Ranger and son of Earl McGraw.
 * Jonathan Loughran as Buck's trucker client, killed by the Bride after he attempts to rape her.
 * Yuki Kazamatsuri as the Proprietress of the House of Blue Leaves.
 * Sakichi Sato as "Charlie Brown", a House of Blue Leaves employee who is mocked by the Crazy 88, as he wears a kimono similar to the shirt worn by the Peanuts character.
 * Ambrosia Kelley as Nikki Bell, Vernita's four-year-old daughter. She witnesses the Bride killing her mother, and the Bride suggests that she seek revenge when she gets older, if she still "feels raw about it".
 * The 5.6.7.8's (Sachiko Fuji, Yoshiko Yamaguchi and Ronnie Yoshiko Fujiyama) as themselves, performing at the House of Blue Leaves.