MTV

Subsequently, MTV delved heavily into black musical acts, developing several hip-hop music-themed programs such as Yo! MTV Raps, and got rid of MTV X to make room for MTV Jams. In the United States Kill Bill: Volume 1 was released as a DVD on April 13, 2004 while Volume 2 was released August 10, 2004. Shortly thereafter, the network began heavily featuring videos from Michael Jackson's album Thriller, in particular "Billie Jean" and "Thriller", and Prince's album 1999, in particular the videos for the title track and "Little Red Corvette".
. MTV executives countered by claiming that there were few—if any—promotional videos available from black and other minority acts, although artists such as Diana Ross and The Jacksons had been making music videos before MTV existed. Beatrix stands a while, wiping the odd tear from her cheek, and returns to the house to collect her daughter and start their new life. In its early years, MTV was criticized as racist, since the acts it featured were nearly exclusively white. Bill walks unsteadily away, collapses, and dies in silence.

MTV Networks and Viacom have launched numerous native-language MTV-branded music channels to countries worldwide. Bill accepts his fate, knowing he has lost. MTV recently broadcast a new Indian Pop Culture channel called MTV Desi and University-oriented channel mtvU. As the victim walks away, he lasts only until his fifth step, whereupon his heart explodes inside his chest. Viacom, parent company of the MTV Networks, is also behind VH1, which is aimed at celebrity and popular culture programming; and CMT, which targets the country music market. The technique can be described as five blows to pressure points on the body, most notably the chest. The advent of digital satellite and cable has also brought greater diversity including channels such as MTV2, which features the slogan "Where The Music's At." In the U.S., MTV2 initially focused on playing music videos and other music-related programming exclusively; in Europe, MTV2 plays specific genres of music (mainly alternative and rock). Following a brief undeclared scuffle with swords, Beatrix disables Bill using the fatal "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique", taught to her without Bill's knowledge by Pai Mei.

In November 2004, MTV announced it would begin airing in February 2005 MTV Base in Africa, [2] thereby reaching the world's last major populated area previously not served by MTV. The poignant but established tension between their mutual intent to kill each other, and the tenderness and remains of their old romance, sets the emotional stage for the final scene, in which they talk, and realise that they are going to fight until one dies. In 2004, MTV's parent company Viacom bought Germany's largest provider for music television Viva Media AG, thereby creating the largest company for music on the European mainland. He comments in explanation for his actions, "When I told you the story of when I thought you were dead, didn't you get how badly I felt?… There are consequences to breaking the heart of a murdering bastard… You experienced some of them…" (A killer herself, Beatrix probably understood this logic inside all along, and does not contest the answer). In the fall of 2004, Ozzy Osbourne's reality show Battle for Ozzfest aired. Bill deprecates her attempts to find a 'normal' life, and compares Beatrix with Clark Kent (Superman), saying that she was trying to hide her true, destined identity. The success of Newlyweds was followed in June 2004 by The Ashlee Simpson Show, which documented the beginnings of the music career of Ashlee Simpson, Jessica Simpson's younger sister. She tells him why she tried to retire: how she realized upon becoming pregnant that she must put her daughter's future above Bill, and leave behind the assassin's life.

It has run for three seasons. Bill, acting the gentleman-killer, says he still has questions but doubts she can be honest about the answers, and therefore abruptly shoots her with a dart containing truth serum. In 2003, Newlyweds, another popular reality TV show that follows the lives of Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, a music celebrity couple, began. The child fallen asleep, Beatrix returns to the living room and has a strange conversation with Bill, during which they agree they have "unfinished business". television. falls asleep. The show went on to become one of the network's biggest ever success stories and kick-started a musical career for Kelly Osbourne, while Sharon Osbourne went on to host a talk show on U.S. Met with a family scene rather than aggression, Beatrix is overcome with emotion upon finding her daughter and her mission is temporarily put on hold while her attention shifts entirely to B.B., spending hours alone with her and watching a movie with her until B.B.

In 2002, MTV aired the first episode of another reality show, The Osbournes, based on the everyday life of former, Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, his wife Sharon, and two of their children, Jack and Kelly. However, she finds that Bill is expecting her, with a surprise: B.B., their four-year-old daughter, whom Beatrix had thought was murdered during the wedding chapel attack, is alive and well, apparently delivered while Beatrix was comatose (the audience had been left with this revelation during Bill's conversation with Sofie Fatale at the very end of Volume 1). The show ran for three seasons and spawned numerous imitations, including the currently running Fear Factor on NBC. Beatrix drives to Bill's home, prepared to kill him. In 2000, MTV's Fear became the first 'scary' reality show where contestants filmed themselves. He tells her without hesitation, saying that he does this because Bill would want him to. By the second half of the 1990s, MTV programming consisted primarily of non-music programming. Beatrix visits, introduces herself, and asks him in a very respectful manner, where Bill is.

MTV started off showing music videos nearly full-time, but as time passed they introduced a variety of other shows, including animated cartoons such as Beavis and Butt-head and Daria; "reality" shows such as The Real World and Road Rules; prank/comedic shows such as The Tom Green Show, Jackass, and Punk'd; and soap operas such as Undressed. The story shifts to Mexico and to Esteban, a pimp who raised Bill and was a friend of his mother. Today, MTV Networks also owns Nickelodeon, a cable channel airing children's and family programming. Therefore, it appears as if Tarantino is applying irony to the deaths of numbers three and four of Beatrix's death list.). VH1 featured more popular music than MTV. Likewise, narrative logic might suggest that Elle fell to the same black mamba that killed Budd. After MTV's programming shifted towards heavy metal and rap music, MTV Networks launched a second network, Video Hits 1 (VH-1), in 1985. However, considering Beatrix's codename is "Black Mamba," it could be said that she killed him after a fashion, and if she had not come after him in the first place, he would still be alive.

In 1992, the network would add a movie award show with similar success. (At first, it may seem disappointing that Budd was not directly killed by Beatrix. Seen as a fit of self-indulgence by a fledgling network at the time, the "VMAs" developed into a music-industry showcase marketed as a hip antidote to the Grammy awards. Her pending death is implied but not stated. In 1984 the network produced its first MTV Video Music Awards show. Elle is left blinded and ranting, shut in Budd's isolated desert trailer with the black mamba. Madonna rose to fame on MTV in the 1980s, and to this day continues to use the network to promote her music. Walking past the black mamba on the floor, Beatrix takes her own sword and abandons the trailer and Elle, who is smashing things and screaming, unable to locate her enemy.

Michael Jackson launched the second wave of his career as an MTV staple. Swords locked, Beatrix's hand suddenly darts out and snatches out Elle's remaining eye, blinding her. 1980s bands immediately identifiable with MTV include Eurythmics, RATT, Culture Club, Def Leppard, Duran Duran and Bon Jovi. Elle and Beatrix clash briefly but furiously with the legendary Hanzō swords. A large number of rock stars of the 1980s and 1990s were made into household names by MTV. Elle maliciously tells Beatrix that she got her revenge when she poisoned Pai Mei's food, killing him (Pai Mei and possibly Bill were Beatrix's masters in the martial arts). Several noted film directors got their start creating music videos, including Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and David Fincher. We learn that years before, Pai Mei had snatched out Elle's eye for insulting him.

The early music videos that made up the bulk of the network's programming in the '80s were often crude promotional or concert clips from whatever sources could be found; as the popularity of the network rose, and record companies recognized the potential of the medium as a tool to gain recognition and publicity, they began to create increasingly elaborate clips specifically for the network. Elle and Beatrix have a brief conversation while standing apart. The term VJ (video jockey) was coined, a play on the term DJ (disc jockey.) Many VJs eventually became celebrities in their own right. The fight is made fairer when Beatrix finds Budd's own Hanzō sword in amongst the junk, inscribed "To my brother Budd, the only man I have ever loved - Bill", which he had claimed to Bill he had pawned some years ago. Fresh-faced young men and women were hired to host the show's programming, and to introduce videos that were being played. In the ensuing fight between the two women, Elle has Beatrix's sword. The early format of the network was modeled after Top 40 radio. As she opens the door, Beatrix attacks her, kicking her back inside.

(With similar tongue-in-cheek humor, the first video shown on MTV Europe was "Money for Nothing," by Dire Straits, which starts and finishes with repetition of the line "I want my MTV," voiced by Sting; on MTV Latino, the first video shown was "We Are Southamerican Rockers" by the Chilean band Los Prisioneros.). The phone call is over, and Elle picks up the Hanzō sword and money to leave the trailer. It went to air with the words, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!" Appropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles (often wrongly attributed to one of their contemporaries with a similar name, The Bangles). She also says that if Bill goes to a certain cemetery, he will be standing at "the final resting place of Beatrix Kiddo." This is the first time in the series that Beatrix's name is spoken without the audio being bleeped. MTV started in New York City but was available in most of the United States by the mid-1980s with the nationwide expansion of cable. Bill calls her cell phone, and she feigns sympathy and tells him that his brother Budd was killed by a black mamba left in his camper by Beatrix, but that Beatrix herself is now dead and buried too. [1]. Elle lectures Budd as he dies, telling him her main regret is that "maybe the greatest warrior I have ever met, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin', scrub, alcky [alcoholic] piece of shit like you", then bends to collect the money prior to leaving.

The programming was created by the visionary music producer, Bob Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer, of MTV Networks. However, she double crosses him, planting a lethal black mamba in the suitcase with the money, and when he begins to check the payment, the angered snake strikes him three times. At midnight on August 1, 1981, the format was changed to music video (using a concept originally devised and sold to Warner Amex by Michael Nesmith, previously a member of the hit pop band The Monkees), and the name was changed to "MTV—Music Television". Elle, along with Budd, believes her to be dead, and is meeting Budd to buy Beatrix's Hanzō sword. The popularity of the channel prompted Warner Amex to market the channel nationally to other cable services. She hikes back to Budd's isolated desert trailer in time to see Elle pulling up in her Trans Am and Budd standing in the doorway. One of these specialized channels was Sight On Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music oriented TV programs; with the interactive Qube service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs and artists. Back in the coffin, Beatrix uses one of his lessons, breaking a thick wooden board at short range, to eventually overcome her panic and drive a fist through the coffin lid before clawing her way to the surface.

The Qube system offered many specialized channels, including a children's channel called Pinwheel which would later become Nickelodeon. The training is extremely rigorous, with many hardships. MTV's roots can be traced back to 1977, when Warner-Amex Cable (a joint venture between Warner Communications and American Express) launched the first two-way interactive cable TV system, Qube, in Columbus, Ohio. Bill convinces him to accept Beatrix for training, though it appears he fought his former master as part of the "discussion." At first scathing about her flaws, he comes to respect her and teaches her apparently all he knows. . Pai Mei was revered as one of the greatest martial arts instructors (a classic example of the Elderly Martial Arts Master stock character). In the 90's, MTV was often considered to be the driving force in American pop culture, but this influence has dramatically declined. Flashback to many years before, Bill is taking Beatrix to Pai Mei's temple.

MTV's combination of music videos, youthful video jockeys, irreverent commentary, promotion of special rock concerts, and news and documentaries about bands and performers established the network's popularity with youthful viewers, and it became a leading promoter of new rock music and rock musicians. Budd puts Beatrix in a wooden coffin and buries her alive, after subduing her by threatening to burn her eyes with mace if she does not acquiesce, but offering to bury her with a flashlight if she does. In 1985, it was acquired by Viacom Inc., and was folded into MTV Networks, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. She agrees, with one condition: Beatrix "must suffer to her last breath.". The network was founded on August 1, 1981 as an operation of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, a joint venture of Warner Communications and American Express. Subduing her with an injection, he phones Elle Driver, commenting that having captured Beatrix, he has the "greatest sword ever made" and will sell it to her for one million dollars. Originally devoted to music videos, especially popular rock music, MTV later became an outlet for a variety of different material aimed at adolescents and young adults. But when she sneaks up to kill Budd after work at his isolated trailer, he is in fact ready and ambushes her with a shotgun, firing non-lethal rock salt into her chest immediately after the door is opened.

MTV: Music Television is a young adult cable television network headquartered in New York City. He philosophically comments she knows where he is, saying "That woman deserves her revenge…and we deserve to die.". The opening track on Pantera's "The Great Southern Trendkill" song with the same name include the lyrics, "Buy it at a store, From MTV to on the floor, You look just like a star, It's proof you dont know who you are.". Budd, now retired from assassination and a small town nightclub bouncer (and a drinker according to Elle), seems unconcerned. XLR was directed by Chris Prynoski, a former MTV animator whose own show (Downtown) had been cancelled by MTV years ago. He visits Budd (aka "Sidewinder", played by Michael Madsen), later revealed to be his brother -- they have not spoken for a long time and last time was on bad terms -- and warns him, telling him to be careful: she is coming. Cartoon series Megas XLR frequently features the destruction of billboards and other paraphernilia for a group called "PoP TV", whose symbol is clearly based on the MTV Logo. Moving to the present, Bill hears of O-Ren Ishii's and Vernita Green's deaths, he knows Beatrix is going down the list.

Lyrics to Beck's "MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack" include "MTV makes me wanna burn flesh!/Having an orgy down in the satellite dish!". Reassured, with irony in the soundtrack and slight tears of happiness in her eyes, Beatrix dons her veil and is lost to us, as the camera tracks back and we see the remainder of her former assassin colleagues at Bill's command approaching the small Texas chapel and begin to fire…. Lyrics to Reel Big Fish's "Don't Start A Band" include "And even if you make itall the way to MTV/I don't think you could take it all the bullshit and the greed.". They talk as past lovers, Bill assures her he will "try to be nice", and even offers to attend the wedding, letting Beatrix introduce him to the bridegroom as her "father". Lyrics to Manowar's "Blow Your Speakers" include "Wrote a letter to the MTV/What’s goin’ on now/Don’t ya care about me.". He has tracked her down despite her attempt to leave him and her life as an assassin behind. Bowling for Soup's "1985," contains the line, "Bring back Springsteen, Madonna, way before Nirvana there was U2 and Blondie, and music still on MTV.". Taking a break from her wedding rehearsal, Beatrix is surprised to see Bill, her former boss and lover, on the front porch of the chapel, playing his flute.

The song "MTV − Get off the Air" by the Dead Kennedys was a protest against the content and style of music that dominated MTV during the '80s. The segment is shot in black-and-white, with a relaxed pace. The declining popularity of MTV was noted as Bart scrawled "I no longer want my MTV" in a Simpsons' season 9 chalkboard gag; a parody of Dire Straits' 1985 song "Money for Nothing.". We return to the wedding chapel, and see for the first time what happened there before the attack. George Michael's "Freedom '90" makes reference to the pressures the network placed on visual image: "I went back home, got a brand new face / For the boys at MTV". After the same brief introduction sequence that started Vol.1, the flashback to the shooting at the wedding chapel, she begins the film by speaking directly to the camera as she is driving, reviewing the events of Kill Bill: Volume 1 and stating that she has one more death on her list, and is on her way; when she gets there she will "Kill Bill.". "Habla Tu MTV". Kill Bill: Volume 2 continues the story of Beatrix (The Bride) and her quest for vengeance.

"Just See MTV". O-Ren dies, her last words being, "That really was a Hattori Hanzō sword..." The Bride then tortures the half-Japanese, half-French Sofie Fatale (played by Julie Dreyfus), one of Bill's lovers and O-Ren's lawyer, second lieutenant, and best friend, leaving her mutilated but alive, to tell Bill that she is coming for him. "Best Watch Your MTVs". Although injured in the exchange, The Bride finally ends the duel with a swing that slices off the top of O-Ren's head, exposing her brain (later censored in some versions). "Not on TV, on M-TV". She then pursues O-Ren outside to a snow-covered zen garden. "Think". In a nightclub named the "House of Blue Leaves," The Bride kills or maims all but one of O-Ren's bodyguards, known as the Crazy 88.

Best watch your MTV's". Flying from Okinawa directly to Tokyo, Japan, The Bride locates O-Ren Ishii (aka "Cottonmouth", played by Lucy Liu), a half-Chinese-American, half-Japanese woman raised on an American military base, orphaned by the yakuza, and now "the boss of all bosses," ruler of the Tokyo underworld. "Don't let Jerry Win. He says, ritually presenting it to her, "If, on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut.". "I Like..." (MTV Asia). Hattori Hanzō was Bill's teacher, and despite having sworn an oath many years before, to never create "something that kills people" again, he feels an obligation to help her for having trained him and agrees to make one final weapon for her, the best sword he ever made. The fact that since then MTV has played very little music may also add to why this slogan was dropped.). Once she regains her full strength, she travels to Okinawa, Japan where she asks master swordsmith Hattori Hanzō (played by Sonny Chiba) to come out of retirement to make one final katana (samurai sword) with which to accomplish her revenge.

"The Number One Music Channel" (slogan used for MTV UK from 2000 to 2002 as the channel broadcasts on digital cable and digital satellite, the slogan was axed in 2003. This is far from easy - her legs are extremely weak and will barely move, much less support her body. "I love my MTV". She overcomes her physical weakness to kill her would-be rapist, then Buck, and finally takes the keys to Buck's "Pussy Wagon" (the car mentioned previously) and escapes, launching her quest to eliminate her former associates. "MT-blah: Blah-blah Tele-blah". It transpires that Buck, the hospital orderly, has been selling her body for sex while she was in a coma. "MTV News: You Hear it First". She hears footsteps approaching so she pretends to be unconscious.

"M-m-m-m T-t-t-t V-v-v-v". She awakens suddenly and almost immediately realises she has lost her baby. "Watch and Learn". The Bride is still in a coma after four years. "Some People Just Don't Get It". We flash back 6 months. "MTV Lives In Your Music". When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting.".

Proud as a Moon Man" ("Weird Al" Yankovic's spoof of NBC's 1979-1981 slogan Proud as a Peacock). But you can take my word for it, your mother had it coming. "MTV.. For that I'm sorry. "I want my MTV". The child, who has come in at the noise and witnessed the killing, is told by The Bride "It was not my intention to do this in front of you. 3 South. Suddenly Vernita fires a concealed gun at The Bride, but misses, and The Bride responds by throwing a knife which kills her.

Liquid Television. The child is sent to her room as both adults pretend nothing is going on, then over coffee discuss that the past betrayal of The Bride by Vernita cannot be undone, and they agree to meet up for a fight to the death. Spy Groove. Vernita, a retired member of the same assassination squad now apparently turned mother and housewife, is shocked but rapidly recovers, their vicious fight to the death interrupted by her young child Nikki returning from elementary school. The Maxx. Fox) who answers. Æon Flux. She rings on a door in a suburban street, and attacks the woman (Vernita Green, aka "Copperhead", played by Vivica A.

Cartoon Sushi. In the opening of the film, The Bride is driving a car identified by its body-work as the "Pussy Wagon". Undergrads. Elle is furious at the change, as she clearly hates Beatrix, but acquiesces. Quads!. He adds that if she wakes up, then they will kill her all over again. Downtown. Bill later sends Elle Driver (aka "California Mountain Snake", played by Daryl Hannah) to finish off the comatose Bride in the hospital, but recalls her as she is about to administer poison, deciding at the last second that killing her while she lies helpless would be dishonorable.

Daria. The groom and the rest of the wedding party are murdered while she herself is shot in the head by Bill, and left for dead. Clone High. Bill, her former boss and lover, tracks her down and finds her about to marry, and arranges for the Vipers to gate-crash the chapel and slay those within. Celebrity Deathmatch. Beatrix Kiddo, also known as The Bride, codename "Black Mamba" is a former member of "The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad." (It is not clear if the Squad are disbanded or still active: with one in a coma, another working as a low-income bouncer, another apparently a housewife and mother, and another running her own yakuza operation, it is possible that the group had disbanded at some time after the Massacre at Two Pines). Beavis and Butt-head.
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As is common in Tarantino films, they are not arranged in chronological order. Kill Bill is divided into ten chapters, five chapters per volume. The film was shot over the course of eight months, with scenes filmed on location in North America, Japan, and China. Waking from a coma four years later, The Bride is determined to kill all those involved, including Bill, her former mentor, boss and lover, but does not realize her daughter is still alive and in his care.

With the rest of the wedding party slain, Bill administers the coup de grâce, a bullet in the head, cutting off her attempts to tell him she is pregnant with his baby. Uma Thurman plays Beatrix Kiddo, "The Bride", seeking bloody revenge against Bill (played by David Carradine) and her former associates the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad for their ruthless slaying of the wedding party after they gate-crashed her wedding rehearsal. . Meanwhile, some conservative critics decried its extremely graphic and exaggerated depictions of violence.

In particular, the film's unusual and pop culture-heavy dialogue was subject to heavy criticism. Others, however, felt that Tarantino's homage to Asian cinema was overly indulgent, or that it was a new low in cinematic morality. Reviews were mostly positive, with some reviewers regarding it as a cinematic masterpiece. Volume 1 grossed $70 million in its American release while Volume 2 grossed $66 million.

Volume 1 was released on October 10, 2003 and Volume 2 was released on April 16, 2004. It was written and filmed as a single movie, but was edited and released as two films, due in part to the very long running time of the original single-film version. Kill Bill is the fourth film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and stars Uma Thurman. ^  1 ContactMusic.com "Tarantino Brings Kill Bills Together".

Blonde, who used an identical razor to cut off a police officer's ear. When Beatrix is buried alive in "Chapter Seven: The lonely grave of Paula Schultz", the razor she pulls from her boot to escape is a reference to Michael Madsen's character in "Reservoir Dogs", Mr. When facing the shotgun-wielding assassin Karen, Beatrix calls herself "the deadliest woman in the world." In Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace describes her character in the failed television pilot "Fox Force Five" as "the deadliest woman in the world with a knife.". The flute which Bill is seen playing both outside the chapel and prior to Beatrix's training is the same flute carried by another of David Carradine's characters, Caine, of Kung Fu fame.

During Bill's interrogation of Beatrix, he says that she is a "natural born killer," a reference to the movie Natural Born Killers, for which Tarantino wrote the initial screenplay. The prop used as Beatrix's Hattori Hanzō sword in Kill Bill was later reused as Miho's nameless sword in the screen adaptation of Sin City. In Pulp Fiction, Butch Coolidge finds a samurai sword in a Los Angeles pawn shop. Budd falsely claims to have pawned his Hattori Hanzō sword in El Paso, Texas.

Jackson's character was also rumored to be Jules from Pulp Fiction, because of that character's desire to "walk the earth.". Jackson has a cameo appearance in the movie as Rufus, an organist in the El Paso Chapel. Samuel L. When the Bride appears with Budd's sword in the fight with Elle Driver, another Ennio Morricone track is heard, one that is featured in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Music from Ennio Morricone's score for A Fistful of Dollars plays in a scene in Volume 2 in which Budd shoots the Bride with rock salt. Tarintino, an obvious Bruce Lee fan paying homage to the success of asian cinema with Kill Bill, has the vindicated "Game of Death" incarnation of Lee, deafeating the discriminated "Black Mask" version of Lee. This was due to the anti-Asian Hollywood at the time as Kato usually had to wear his black mask and did not get many lines or close ups with his mask off. Bruce Lee's was not succesful in the US, he was snubbed for the lead role in the Kung Fu TV series for David Carradine (Bill).

These two homages to Bruce Lee's work combine in the Crazy 88 fight to pit Bruce Lee's first screen incarnation (Kato) against his last (Game of Death). The accompanying music during the en-masse swordfight is also a nod to the series, which used Al Hirt's jazzy trumpet rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" as its theme. The masks worn by the members of the Crazy 88 are the same style that Bruce Lee's character Kato wore in the TV series The Green Hornet. The Bride's yellow tracksuit is from Bruce Lee's Game of Death.

The scene of The Bride standing in the middle of fifty-plus people and still winning the fight is similar to the chambara scenes of countless old Japanese samurai movies. When any battle turns deadly his hands turn red and the siren-like music is played. Through sheer will and intense training the hero retrains himself and his hands as lethal weapons. The siren-like music is actually an homage to "The Five Fingers of Death," one of the first Kung Fu movies released in the United States (1973) The hero is attacked and left crippled, his hands smashed.

The "Ironside" theme music was written by Quincy Jones. The siren-like musical sequence denoting The Bride's encounters with her nemesis is from the theme of police drama Ironside (TV series), starring Raymond Burr as a detective who is confined to a wheelchair after a sniper attack. Near the end of the opening credits, a silhouette evokes Citizen Kane. It is written as "La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froid".

The earliest known use of the proverb in print is from the novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1782) by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Hot as you are, you're liable to end up with indigestion." However the origin of the proverb is difficult to determine, possibly Sicilian, Spanish or Pashtun. Lee Van Cleef's character paraphrases the quote saying, "Somebody once wrote that revenge is a dish that has to be eaten cold. It is also used in the Spaghetti Western Death Rides a Horse (1968) (Kill Bill used music from Death Rides a Horse).

"Revenge is a dish best served cold.- Old Klingon Proverb" – This proverb as it is referenced is from Star Trek VI, as well as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Halicki. During the scene where the sheriff is driving to the chapel, the view from the car with the pilot glasses on the dashboard is taken from the 1974 film Gone in 60 Seconds by H.B. This decision was made at a late stage and as a result, the scene had to be reanimated.

David Carradine has confirmed at several conventions and special screenings that the killer of O-Ren's father in the anime sequence is Bill. In Volume Two Bill muses that the Crazy 88 simply "thought it [the name] sounded cool.". However, 44 and 44 make 88, a lucky number. So there's 44 Chinese people and 44 Japanese people! But that's part of the mythology I would only go into if I wrote a book." This is significant in that 4 in Japanese (shi) is a homophone for death, and is considered a very unlucky number.

In Japan, it is most often associated with the 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage; While some critics have tried to argue that there are not actually eighty-eight members of the group, this has been contradicted by an interview given by Quentin Tarantino to Eiga HIHO magazine, "because O-Ren is half-Chinese and half-Japanese, so is her army. The Crazy 88: in China the number "88" is an auspicious number, much like 7 in the west. The "Color Cut" of this film segment is highly sought after by fanatical US Kill Bill fans, but is still currently unavailable outside Japan (other than through legally-questionable internet sharing). While the American cut of the movie shows the violent battle at the House of Blue Leaves in black and white, the Japanese cut shows it in color.

Her name is also mentioned by Bill before he shoots her in the head, and "Kiddo" turns out to be her actual last name rather than a simple mark of affection to a former lover and partner. However, The Bride's real name is present on her boarding pass for her flights to Okinawa and Tokyo. The Bride's boarding pass (click for a larger view). During this first half of Kill Bill, The Bride's real name is bleeped out when characters say it. It is directed by Kazuto Nakazawa, who also directed the Linkin Park video for "Breaking The Habit", with the animation studio Production I.G, producers of Ghost in the Shell among other works.

The film also features an anime sequence explaining O-Ren's tragic backstory. The Japanese release of Volume 1 begins with a dedication to Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku.