Quentin Tarantino packs all of his movies with tons of visual references, Easter eggs, and awesome film trivia.
“Kill Bill: Vol. 1” is no exception, from the Bride’s yellow outfit, which was inspired by the one worn by Bruce Lee in his final film (1978’s “Game of Death”) to the pistol that Vernita Green fires at The Bride, which was hidden in a box of “KaBoom” brand cereal.
But one of my personal favorite pieces of trivia from “Kill Bill” occurs during the fight scene between O-Ren Ishii, played by Lucy Liu, and The Bride, played by Uma Thurman.
O-Ren says to The Bride in Japanese, “I hope you saved your energy. If you haven’t, you may not last five minutes.” It is exactly four minutes and fifty-nine seconds from the time she steps forward and the music cues, to the fatal blow of the duel.
Check out the full fight scene below. For extra credit, read all about how QT uses his soundtracks to accentuate the action on screen. And for extra extra credit, check out the post about how QT adds nearly imperceptible sound effects to enliven the perception his fight sequences.
