Quentin Tarantino’s Homework: Uma Thurman Had to Watch These 3 Movies to Prepare for “Kill Bill.”

Watching movies for homework? For actors, this is part of everyday working life. Because it is not unusual for directors to be inspired by other films for a new work. This can affect the style, but also certain characters that serve as models for a new film character. This is exactly the time when stars are often asked to watch certain films in preparation – especially if they’re working with a cinema nerd like Quentin Tarantino.

So Uma Thurman had to sit in front of the television before she was hired for her role in the two “Kill Bill“movies were allowed to pick up the samurai sword. “Great artists steal, they don’t pay tribute,” Tarantino once said – and so in “Kill Bill” there are countless set pieces from film history, from the bride’s yellow jumpsuit (which Bruce Lee previously wore in his last film “ Game Of Death”) to the soundtrack, which recycles Ennio Morricone pieces from Western classics such as “Two Glorious Scoundrels”. But at Uma Thurman Tarantino limited himself to three films – we’ll tell you which ones they are and where you can see them.

1. “Coffy – The Big Cat” (1973)

It’s no secret that Tarantino appreciates the blaxploitation genre – the genre of low-budget action films made by African Americans to counterbalance the often stereotypical portrayal of black people in American genre cinema. This was most evident in “Jackie Brown” (1997), which Tarantino made with blaxploitation icon Pam Grier in the lead role.

Uma Thurman should watch one of her ‘Kill Bill’ movies: “Coffy – The big cat“ tells about the nurse Coffy (Grier), whose 11-year-old sister ends up in the drug swamp. To get revenge and save other girls from the clutches of the local drug mafia, Coffy goes on the hunt for those responsible – and discovers that high-ranking politicians are in cahoots with the gangsters. The determination with which Coffy continues her campaign of revenge certainly has parallels with Thurman’s “Bride.”

2. “Lady Snowblood” (1973)

Another revenge epic: O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), one of the Bride’s main antagonists, Tarantino based it on the “Lady Snowblood“modelled. Because Yuki (Meiko Kaji, who also played the lead role in the ‘Sasori’ series, which was the main source of ‘Kill Bill’), is, just like O-Ren, an ice-cold professional killer who knows no mercy. But she also has a traumatic past that sheds light on how she became who she is.

Yuki is born in a women’s prison; her mother – who was raped by several guards, including Yuki’s father – dies during childbirth. Before her death, she decides that her daughter must take revenge on the men who killed her husband and abused her. And so, from the beginning, Yuki’s life is marked by death and retribution.

The ‘Kill Bill’ anime series, which follows O-Ren’s journey from helpless girl to head of a killing squad, is almost a short version of ‘Lady Snowblood’. The final fight in the snow is also taken from the Japanese action film.

3. “The Killer” (1989)

When you say action, you must do it John Woo participation. And ‘The Killer’ (1989) is the one film you should definitely see if you want to get an impression of the furious action cinema from Hong Kong, which not only inspired Tarantino (even ‘The Matrix’ would have been without John Woo) . , Tsui). Hark and Co. would have been unthinkable). After 25 years on the index, the film will be available for purchase on Blu-ray in Germany for the first time from December 8. Here* you can order it in advance.

John Woo is currently filming a remake of his classic, and it remains to be seen whether the ‘Face/Off’ director will be able to build on his own exploits, between slow-motion fluttering pigeons and spectacular shootouts, which include a church with the the ground is leveled. on the ground, even finds time for a love story. For ‘Kill Bill’, both Woo’s stylized action scenes and the characterization of the killer, who maintains a moral compass despite all the bloodshed, were groundbreaking.