KMC Forums - Tarantino Interview from JapAttack

QUENTIN TARANTINO reveals almost everything that inspired KILL BILL in…The JAPATTACK Interview -01
By Tomohiro Machiyama

A MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGEMENT

This interview was conducted in Los Angeles on August 28, 2003 during a press junket for KILL BILL: VOLUME ONE held exclusively for the Japanese media. In this one-on-one chat, Quentin Tarantino goes deep into the many influences for KILL BILL; it's mythology, and even the future for his characters beyond the two-part film. Originally conducted by Tomo Machiyama for Japan's Eiga Hi-Ho (Movie Treasures) magazine, Japattack is proud to present this interview for the first time anywhere in English transcribed from the original recordings. The usual spoiler warnings apply.

PREVIEWS OF COMING ATTRACTIONS

Hi, I'm Tomohiro Machiyama. I usually write only for Japanese Magazines, but I would like you people who cannot read Japanese to read my interview because Mr. Tarantino told me a lot of information that American critics and viewers might never know. The night before this interview, I first spoke with Tarantino at a party after the screening of Kill Bill. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my tape recorder. We were both totally smashed, but I remember these things he told me.

The bloody killing spree at the climax of KILL BILL is a kind of re-enactment of Shogun Assassin (Kenji Misumi, 1972, Japan *Bigger image). And he also admitted to adding a dash of Ichi the Killer (Takashi Miike, 2001, Japan) in it as well. For the orange sunset sky behind the airplane, he wanted to evoke the look of the opening scenes from Goke, BodySnatcher from Hell (Hajime Sato, 1968, Japan). He ordered the staff to shoot a miniature set of Tokyo like a landscape from the giant monster movie War of the Gargantuas (Ishiro Honda, 1966, Japan). He even screened a video of Gargantuas to Daryl Hannah because in his mind, Kill Bill is a kind of War of the Blonde Gargantuas. So, I didn't ask about these things in the next day interview. Are you ready? Here we go.

AND NOW…
OUR FEATURE ATTRACTION

Tomohiro Machiyama: Can you give me some comments about some of the films referenced in Kill Bill?

Quentin Taranatino: Ok. Cool, cool.

TM: The scene where Go Go Yubari (Chiaki Kuriyama) stabs a guy who approaches her for sex…was this from Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000, Japan)?

QT: I went out to dinner with Kinji Fuaksaku and Kenta (Kinji's son) and I was going "man, I love this movie! It is just so fantastic!" And I said, "I love the scene where the girls are shooting are shooting each other." And then Kenta starts laughing. So I ask, "why are you laughing?" He goes, "the author of the original Battle Royale novel would be very happy to hear that you liked that scene." And I go "why?" And he says, "well, because it's from Reservoir Dogs!" Even when I was watching it I was thinking "God, these 14 year old girls are shooting each other just like in Reservoir Dogs!" And Kenta said, "he took that from Reservoir Dogs, so he'll be very proud that you like that!"

TM: I'm wondering why you changed the name of the girl force from Fox Force Five, in Pulp Fiction, to DiVAS in Kill Bill?

QT: Well, the thing is, as similar as they are to each other, they are different. Fox Force Five were crime fighters. They were secret agents. The Deadly Vipers are NOT secret agents! They are killers! But the idea is very, very similar. It's like the flipside.

TM: The DiVAS look like The Doll Squad (Ted V. Mikels, 1973, USA), right?

QT: Oh yeah, very similar. They definitely have that Doll Squad or Modesty Blaise look to them. Those girls just look cool in their turtle necks. Honey West was an American TV show, and that's in there as well.

TM: How about The Bride Wore Black (1968, Francois Truffaut, France)?

QT: Here's the thing. I've never actually seen The Bride Wore Black.

TM: Really?

QT: I know of it, but I've never seen it. Everyone is like, "oh, this is really similar to The Bride Wore Black." I've heard of the movie. Its based on a Cornell Woolrich novel too, but it's a movie I've never seen. The reason I've never seen it is because…I've just never been a huge Truffaut, fan. So that's why I never got around to see it. I'm not rejecting it, I just never saw it. I'm a Goddard fan, not a Truffaut fan. So I know of it, I know all that stuff, but it's a movie I've never seen.

TM: I thought of it because The Bride has that list of names she checks off.

QT: Oh, is that in there too?

TM: How about Hannie Caulder (Burt Kennedy, 1971, USA *Bigger image) ?

QT: Oh yeah. Hannie Caulder is definitely in there. That was definitely of the revenge movies I was thinking about. I had a whole list of revenge movies, especially female ones like Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita, 1973, Japan *Bigger image). But one of them definitely was Hannie Caulder. You know who I love in Hannie Caulder so much is Robert Culp. He is so magnificent in that movie and I actually kind of think there's a bit of similarity between Sonny Chiba and Uma and Raquel Welch and Robert Culp in Hannie.

TM: How about Dead and Buried (Gary Sherman, 1981, USA)?

QT: Ok, yeah. I've seen Dead and Buried. So what's the connection?

TM: Daryl Hannah disguises herself as a nurse and tries to kill the Bride in a coma with a syringe.

OT: Oh! Yes! Lisa Blount! The girl from An Officer and a Gentleman! Yeah, exactly. Actually, to tell you the truth, there's another movie that I kind of got that idea a little bit more from. And that's John Frankenheimer's Black Sunday (1977, US). There's a scene where Marthe Keller goes into the hospital and disguises herself as a nurse and she's going to kill Robert Shaw with a poisoned syringe.

TM: The character of Daryl Hannah is based on They Call Her One Eye (AKA Thriller, Bo Arne Vibenius, 1974,Sweden)?

QT: Oh, definitely! I love Christina Lindberg. And that's definitely who Daryl Hannah's character is based on. In the next movie, she's wearing mostly black. Just like They Call Her One Eye, she's got some color co-coordinated eye patches. And that is, of all the revenge movies I've ever seen, that is definitely the roughest. The roughest revenge movie ever made! There's never been anything as tough as that movie.

TM: It was supposed to be a porno.

QT: Well, it has those insert shots in there. I remember showing Uma the trailer to They Call Her One Eye, and she said, "Quentin, I love that trailer…but I don't know if I can watch that movie! I'm actually scared to watch it. It looks too tough." I showed Daryl the movie. I gave her the video tape. She watched it without subtitles, just in Swedish. And she said, "Quentin! You had me watch a porno!" I said, "yeah, but a good porno!" She'd never had a director give her a porno movie to watch as homework!

TM: How about Master Killer (AKA 36 Chambers of Shaolin, Chia-Liang Liu, 1978, Hong Kong)?

QT: I'm a huge fan of Master Killer and of Gordon Liu in particular. He's fantastic. He doesn't look any goddamn different today then he did back then. And it's just so cool to see both him and Sonny Chiba in the same film together. They are every bit the superstars. Living legends. As I am framing shots, I'm thinking "I can't believe Gordon Liu is in my movie! I can't believe it." And to have been so influenced by seventies kung fu films and to have, as far as I'm concerned, my three favorite stars of kung fu from three different countries .. Gordon Liu representing Hong Kong. Sonny Chiba representing Japan. And David Carradin representing America. That's a triple header. A triple crown. If Bruce Lee was still alive, he'd be in it. If Fu Sheng was still alive, he could be in it too.

TM: So will David Carradine play a flute in the sequel?

QT: Oh yeah! He does! You saw that in the trailer, right? And it's actually “The Silent Flute". It's a flute he made, he carved it out of bamboo. And that is the silent flute from the movie Silent Flute (AKA Circle of Iron, Richard Moore, 1979, US). You've got a great thing with David because Bill really is a mix of Asiatic influences and genuine American Western influences.

TM: Not only was he on Kung Fu, but he was also one of The Long Riders (Walter Hill, 1980, USA).

QT: Yeah, and who else are you going to get to do that?

TM: How did you get the rights to use the music cue from Master of the Flying Guillotine (Jimmy Wang Yu, 1975, Hong Kong)?

QT: We bought the rights to it. First, we had to find out what it was (Super 16 by German group Neu!). Once we tracked it down, we went to them and just commissioned it and they gave it to us. That little bit of music is even on the Kill Bill soundtrack album. (imitating music) "Doing! Doing! Doing!"