Twenty years ago, if you had asked me whether “Kill Bill: Volume 1” would become a go-to rewatch, I would have rolled my eyes violently enough to cause a headache. Nearly everything about it screamed macho indulgence of a stripe now codified as “Tarantinoesque,” beginning with a runtime that was, in its day, excessive at 111 minutes.
Much of that consisted of a parade of ‘70s and ‘80s midnight movie tributes and Hong Kong action flick legends including Sonny Chiba and Gordon Liu, interrupted by an anime flashback that never . . . seemed . . . to end. As a fan of all these genres, I should have immediately taken to the adventures of Beatrix Kiddo, initially only known as The Bride – a creation credited to Q & U, or Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman, its star.
