Quentin Tarantino delayed the start of the production because Uma Thurman was pregnant.
Warren Beatty was originally offered the role of Bill. After turning it down, he suggested to Quentin Tarantino that he use David Carradine.
Uma Thurman was offered the script to Kill Bill, and her role as "The Bride", as a 30th Birthday present from Quentin Tarantino.
Uma Thurman's yellow track-suit is a direct homage to the one worn by Bruce Lee in Game of Death (1978).
In order to achieve the specific look of Chinese "wuxia" (martial arts) film of the 1970s, Quentin Tarantino gave director of photography, Robert Richardson, an extensive list of genre films as a crash-course in the visual style they used. The list included films by genre-pioneers Cheh Chang and the Shaw Brothers. Tarantino also forbade the use of digital effects and "professional" gags and squibs. As such, he insisted that bloody spurts be done in the fashion made popular by Chang Cheh: Chinese condoms full of fake blood that would splatter on impact.
Part of the movie was shot at the legendary Shaw Bros. studio in Hong Kong. Quentin Tarantino has seen so many movies made at the studio that he felt it was important for him to work there.
During production, Quentin Tarantino wrote new scenes as he shot thus compiling massive amounts of footage.
The Tokyo miniature sets were leftovers from the then most recent Godzilla film (Gojira, Mosura, Kingu Gidorâ: Daikaijû sôkôgeki (2001)).
Quentin Tarantino revealed in an interview that the music used in Kill Bill was all from other films; he used music from his soundtrack collection.
Quentin Tarantino has confirmed in interviews that the "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DiVAS)" was inspired by "Fox Force Five," the fictional television show that Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) filmed in Pulp Fiction (1994).
Christopher Allen Nelson, who worked on the special effects, revealed in interview that over 450 gallons of fake blood were used on the two Kill Bill movies.
Kevin Costner was also considered for the title role of "Bill", but he turned it down to do Open Range (2003) instead.
Director Trademark: [Quentin Tarantino] [Trunk Shot] While The Bride is interrogating Sofie Fatale, we see from Sofie's point of view inside the trunk of her own car looking up at the masked Bride.
Director Trademark: [Quentin Tarantino] [bare feet] Lucy Liu is barefoot as she runs to kill Boss Tanaka. The band at the House of Blue Leaves is barefoot. The Bride is barefoot as she escapes from the hospital and tries to regain control of her legs.
According to Quentin Tarantino, Sonny Chiba's character, Hattori Hanzo, is meant to be the most recent descendant of his character(s) from "Hattori Hanzô: Kage no Gundan" (1980). The series was done in multiple various installments, in which Chiba would play Hanzo a generation removed from the previous installment.
Vernita Green's (Vivica A. Fox) original codename was 'Cobra' before it was changed to 'Copperhead'.
The closing title card, "Based on the character of 'The Bride' created by Q and U", refers to the first initials of Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman.
The members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad are all named for snakes: Sidewinder, Black Mamba, Cottonmouth, Copperhead, and California Mountain (King) snake. They are also the names of enemies of Captain America.
The tune whistled by Daryl Hannah's character in the hospital hallway is the same as that whistled by the strange young man in Twisted Nerve (1968). During his 1996 film festival in Austin, Texas, Quentin Tarantino screened Twisted Nerve.
Quentin Tarantino and Miramax bought the rights to the theme song from Du bi quan wang da po xue di zi (1975), which is featured in Kill Bill. Entitled "Super 16", it was performed by Neu!
The masks worn by the Crazy 88 gang are homage to Kato's (Bruce Lee) mask in "The Green Hornet" (1966)
The black and white photography is ultimately an homage to '70s and '80s US television airings of kung fu movies. Black and white (as well as black and red), were used to conceal the shedding of blood from television censors. Originally, no black and white photographic effects were going to be used (and in the Japanese version none are), but the MPAA demanded measures be taken to tone the scene down. Tarantino merely used the old trick for its intended purpose, rather than merely as an homage.
When the Bride says the word "square" to Copperhead, she draws three sides of a square in the air with her finger. Uma Thurman's character in Pulp Fiction (1994) did nearly the same thing, except drew all 4 sides of the square.
Michael Parks plays Sheriff Earl McGraw, the same character that the Gecko brothers killed at the beginning of the Quentin Tarantino-written From Dusk Till Dawn (1996). Also, Parks' real son, 'James Parks', reprises his own role of Deputy McGraw ("Son #1") from From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) (V). Both also appear in Tarantino's Death Proof (2007).
Buck, the male nurse who lets his friend in to rape The Bride says "Are we absolutely clear on Rule #1?" This same line was used by George Clooney in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996).
As the detectives walk into the destroyed wedding chapel with bodies on the floor, the radio starts. Before it gets to the right song, someone can be heard singing "¿Dónde Està?". In the Reservoir Dogs (1992) torture scene, the same sound bite is heard before Mr. Blonde changes the station to K-BILLY.
The original script featured the Bill character to be a master chemist. The liquid in the syringe was pointed out to be a concoction created by Bill entitled "Goodbye Forever". These potions/elixirs were to be detailed by on-screen subtitles. The Bride would also use a mix called "The Undisputed Truth" to get information from Sofie Fatale. In Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Bill would use "The Undisputed Truth" on the Bride.
In the original script, Johnny Mo was called Mr. Barrel. He had a Kato mask on a stick, like someone from a 17th Century costume ball. Mr. Barrel didn't like the rubber bands on the typical Kato masks because they 'fucked up his hair'. The Bride convinces him not to fight her, and he walks away, leaving O-Ren with no bodyguards.
The entrance to the traffic tunnel in Tokyo is in fact the entrance to the second street tunnel in Los Angeles (Blade Runner) with Japanese traffic signs added.
"The Bells" sign seen on the letterbox at the beginning of Chapter One was given to Uma Thurman's stunt double Zoe Bell by Quentin Tarantino. Bell presented it to her parents, The Bells.
Earl McGraw (Michael Parks) calling his son "son number one" is a reference to the Charlie Chan movies.
Buck (the nurse played by Michael Bowen) has the same "Elvis" sunglasses as Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) in True Romance (1993).
The "Old Klingon Proverb": "Revenge is a dish best served cold" is from a joke in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982). (The quote is actually from the book "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1782) by Choderlos de Laclos).
The sequences where an extreme close-up of the Bride's eyes is shown, juxtaposed with footage of the betrayal, whenever she sees a target of her revenge is taken verbatim from Da uomo a uomo (1967).
The music played when The Bride arrives in Tokyo is the theme from "The Green Hornet" (1966), a TV series referenced earlier in the film.
The theme from "The Green Hornet" (1966) series played during the Bride's motorcycle ride through Tokyo is actually a re-arrangement of the classical piece "Flight of the Bumblebee" from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "The Tale of Tsar Sultan" (1899). Interestingly, The Bride is dressed in yellow with black stripes for this scene, which of course are the colors of the bumble bee.
Buck's line, "My name is Buck, and I came here to fuck" was originally said by Robert Englund in Eaten Alive (1977)
The row-of-sunglasses-on-the-Sheriff's-dashboard gag is a direct lift from the opening scene of the original Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)
The Japanese symbols on the background of the poster spell "kirubiru" which is the Japanese spelling for "Kill Bill".
When The Bride stands over the remains of the Crazy 88s, a masked Quentin Tarantino is among them.
The many-on-one fight at the House of Blue Leaves references the Bruce Lee film Jing wu men (1972) (aka Fist of Fury, aka The Chinese Connection) at several parts, including the surrounding mob's fear when the main character strikes a fighting stance. Also, in each fight the hero eventually dives to the floor and attacks their opponents' legs.
Director Trademark: [Quentin Tarantino] [long take] After the Bride leaves O-Ren's door at the House of Blue Leaves (when Go-Go returns inside) we follow her down the stairs through the bar, past the kitchen, into the ladies room; we then go out of the ladies' room, back to the stairs and follow Sofie Fatale along the exact same path to the ladies' room, ending with the ring of her cellphone. All in a single take.
Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) complains about being given a codename she doesn't like. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) had a similar argument in Reservoir Dogs (1992).
The license plate for Buck's truck is a Texas plate that reads PSY WGN. When the movie is shown on network television, and the name of the truck is edited to "Party Wagon", the license plate remains the same.
Quentin Tarantino had intended for three actors of different nationalities to represent their respective countries. Chia Hui Liu represents China, Sonny Chiba represents Japan, and David Carradine represents the United States. Tarantino said that had Bruce Lee still been alive he'd have been asked to appear in Kill Bill as well.
The church scene was shot in the Mojave Desert outside of Lancaster, CA. Keep an eye out during this scene for a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as the dead organ player and Bo Svenson as the preacher.
During filming, actors often provided a "Hello, Sally!" take. This involves the actor finishing his or her take, turning to face the camera, and yelling "Hello, Sally!". Whether editor Sally Menke appreciates this is yet to be reported.
Chapter 2 is entitled "The Blood Splattered Bride," a reference to the movie La novia ensangrentada (1972) (released in the US as The Blood Spattered Bride).
Okinawa is widely regarded as one of the worst possible places to get good sushi. In other words, a sushi joint in Okinawa would make a fine hiding place.
During the sword ceremony scene when Sonny Chiba's character Hattori Hanzo gives Uma Thurman his recently forged sword he tells her "If, on your journey, you should encounter god, god will be cut" which is a phrase taken from the Kinji Fukasaku film Makai tenshô (1981) (aka Samurai Reincarnation) when the sword maker gives Sonny Chiba's character Jubei a sword that he has forged in order to destroy his undead enemies.
Approximatly US$60,000 of the movie's budget was used for producing swords and sword accessories.
The production spent $65,000 on swords.
The original trailer for this film, although featuring no actual bloodshed, raised the ire of the MPAA with the sight of The Bride's blood-stained clothes. As such it became the first to be subjected to the MPAA's new "no blood" policy for trailers, in which all sight of the bodily fluid must be alternately colored or removed entirely. This is why the trailers for this film (and similarly for every film released in the US thereafter) feature The Bride's clothes covered in blackish-brown stains where the blood would be.
When Chiaki Kuriyama (Gogo) was shooting the scene where she flings her ball and chain out, she accidentally hit Quentin Tarantino on the head while he stood by the camera.
Sonny Chiba makes katanas in real life. In the movie, his character Hattori Hanzo is a renowned katana maker who has taken a blood oath to never create an instrument of death again.
To entice cinematographer Robert Richardson to work on the project, Quentin Tarantino had the script sent to his house on Valentine's Day 2002... along with a bouquet of roses.
Director Quentin Tarantino was a big fan or the Japanese movie Batoru rowaiaru (2000) so he cast Chiaki Kuriyama (who played Takako Chigusa in Batoru rowaiaru (2000)) as Gogo Yubari.
The eerie background music playing after The Bride attacks the rapist is from the Lucio Fulci film Sette note in nero (1977).
The music sampled for "Ode to O-Ren Ishii" is the title track from the film Sette note in nero (1977). Since an instrumental version is not included on the soundtrack, it has become an increasingly popular download.
Quentin Tarantino chose Jun Kunimura to be Boss Tanaka after seeing him scream in Koroshiya 1 (2001).
Quentin Tarantino owns the "Pussy Wagon" and drove as his everyday vehicle to promote the release of Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004). He licensed use of it for the Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott music video, "I'm Really Hot".
Despite being bleeped out in the film, the name of The Bride is revealed on her plane tickets to Okinawa and Tokyo.
The Japanese song that plays after the sword fight between The Bride and O-Ren is the theme song from Shurayukihime (1973) (Lady Snowblood). The song is entitled "Shura no hana" ("Flower of Carnage"), and the vocals are by that film's star, Meiko Kaji.
The Japanese song that plays over the closing credits of both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 is the theme song from the Joshuu Sasori (Female Convict Scorpion) series of films. The song is entitled "Urami Bushi" ("Grudge Song"), and it is performed by the star of the first four Scorpion films, Meiko Kaji.
Quentin Tarantino originally intended to cast a Japanese actress to play O-Ren Ishii, but before casting began he saw Lucy Liu's work in Shanghai Noon (2000) and immediately changed O-Ren into a Chinese-Japanese American so that Liu could play the part.
The characters streaming down the left side of the screen in the opening scenes are Japanese kanji and hiragana, and they read "Hana yome ga kuru, hana yome ga kuru." Or: "The Bride is coming, the Bride is coming," over and over again.
In Hattori Hanzo's sushi restaurant, there is a 4-character Chinese saying hanging above the bar. It says "zui sheng meng si," literally "drunk birth, dream death." A rough meaningful translation is "To lead an unimportant and often dissipated life."
Daryl Hannah's character is called "Elle Driver." The production team for the documentary Full Tilt Boogie (1997), a documentary about the production of From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) (which starred Quentin Tarantino), is also called " L. Driver Productions".
There is an homage to Citizen Kane (1941) in the early moments of the film. As Black Mamba lies in a coma, she is silhouetted against a background of the window of her hospital room. Suddenly, soft lights turn on through the window which mimics Charles Foster Kane at the moment he dies.
The box that Vernita Green has the gun in is "KaBoom!" cereal.
The cartoon map graphics, showing the Bride's plane traveling across the world, are also used in Jackie Brown (1997).
Parts of the music in the anime sequence come from the Sweetwater theme in C'era una volta il West (1968).
The owner of The House of the Blue Leaves is called Charlie Brown (by O-Ren crew and in the closing credits). He is wearing a orange/yellow jacket with a zigzag black stripe just like Charlie Brown from the Peanuts.
WILHELM SCREAM: used twice during the battle at the House of Blue Leaves.
Body Count: 95.
According to Quentin and Uma in the DVD documentary the idea for doing "Kill Bill" began during the filming of Pulp Fiction (1994). The two began talking about the kinds of movies that they would like to do and Quentin said he would like to do a 70's style kung-fu flick. Uma came up with the film's opening shot of her beaten up and wearing a wedding gown.
According to Uma Thurman, Quentin had her watch three movies in preparation for this film: John Woo's Dip huet seung hung (1989), Coffy (1973) (Starring Jackie Brown (1997) star Pam Grier), and Sergio Leone's Per un pugno di dollari (1964).
The character Gogo was originally written as two characters: the twin Yubari sisters, Gogo and Yuki. Gogo had almost no lines and after her death at the hands of The Bride, Yuki would seek her out, only to be killed as well, in the "lost" chapter "Yuki's Revenge". All of Gogo's dialogue in the final film would have been spoken by Yuki.
The sequence where the Bride fights behind the blue-screen and we can see her silhouette, is a reference to SF: Episode One (1998).
The shot where the Bride splits a baseball in two with a samurai sword was done for real on the set. It was done by Zoe Bell, Uma Thurman's stunt double.
On the The Making of 'Kill Bill' (2003) (TV) Tarantino noted that the split screen scene where Elle is about to enter the bride's room and kill her was an homage to Brian De Palma.
The opening shot is a reference to a similar scene in _Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)_ in which Eli Wallach points a gun at Clint Eastwood, who is near-death from dehydration and being out in the sun for hours and hours.
Sofie Fatale's cell phone ring is "Auld Lang Syne", specifically the tune for the line, "Should old acquaintance be forgot". However, the tune is also a popular tradition in Japan where it is known as "Hotaru no Hikari". This version contains totally different lyrics and is commonly associated with graduation ceremonies.
Julie Dreyfus, speaks three different languages in the movie. She speaks fluent Japanese until the end where she speaks in her native French to insult the Bride (Uma Thurman) and then in clear English when she talks to Bill. In real life, Julie Dreyfus is trilingual.
The view of the trees through the windows of the Bride's hospital room just before Elle, dressed as a nurse, enters is taken from Mandalay Pictures' ID.
According to Shingon belief in Japan, the number 88 represents all the evil in the world. You can do a tour of 88 Buddhist temples to free yourself from all these evils. The tour of these temples is the subject of another Chiaki Kuriyama film, Shikoku (1999).
It took six years to write the entire script before being split into two parts. The original draft was about 220 pages long.
When the Bride arrives at the Tokyo airport, she walks in front of a Red Apple Cigarettes advertisement. Red Apple is a "Tarantino brand." An example of another usage of Red Apple cigarettes comes from Pulp Fiction (1994), in which Bruce Willis's Butch smoked them.
This became the first feature-length film directed by Quentin Tarantino to feature fewer than 100 uses of the word "fuck." It is used 17 times.
In the animated sequence, when O-Ren is getting her revenge, the line "Look at me closely. Do I look like someone you may have killed?" is taken directly from Shurayukihime (1973), except Snowblood says "raped" instead of "killed."
Gogo Yubari is not a real Japanese name. "Gogo" derives from Mach GoGoGo (aka Speed Racer), a Japanese anime that Quentin Tarantino liked when he was young. Yubari is the name of a small town in Hokkaido, northern Japan, that is famous for melons and film. Tarantino's first visit to Japan was to showcase Reservoir Dogs (1992) at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival.
Julie Dreyfus, who plays Sofie Fatale in the movie, is seen on the Tokyo billboards advertising Red Apple Cigarettes. Red Apple is a fictional brand that appears in every Tarantino movie.
When 'The Bride' is walking towards the stairs in the House of Blue Leaves to fight the first round of bodyguards you see a shot taken from underneath through the glass floor. The bottom of her shoes reads "Fuck U".
Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) was actually whistling "Twisted Nerve" whilst entering the hospital for the scene. It sounded quite professional, but it was masked over; the instrumental was taken off, and the sole whistling from Herrman's song was what we hear until she enters a changing ward.
When Tarantino planned to cast Gogo and Yuki Yubari, his first choices were Chiaki Kuriyama and Kou Shibasaki. Both had roles in the 2000 hit, _Batoru Rowaiaru (2000)_.
The music played when The Bride gets ready to fight Copperhead and Cottonmouth is the theme from "Ironside" (1967). In its first episode, the main character was shot and left for dead, then found his legs didn't work, and set out to find those who did it. This music was also used in a similar manner in the 1973 Kung Fu classic _Tian xia di yi quan (1973)_ (The Five Fingers of Death).
The infamous long take scene took 6 hours to rehearse and was shot in 17 takes. After that, Steadicam operator Larry McConkey was rumored to have passed out in exhaustion.
Quentin Tarantino has said in interviews that, had Warren Beatty taken the part of Bill, the character would have been more of a suave, James Bond-type.
The House of Blue Leaves battle is an homage to the similarly chaotic China Palace Shootout in Michael Cimino's Year of the Dragon (1985).
As Quentin Tarantino was leaving Japan after initial location scouting and securing the studios, he heard the all girl band "The 5,6,7,8's" playing over the store's speakers. He was so intrigued by the music that he asked a clerk who the band was. When he was told, Tarantino, who didn't have enough time to go to a music shop to get their CD, begged the clerk to sell him their copy. Quentin took the disc home, listened to it, and immediately signed the band to play during th "Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves" segment. All of the band's songs, including the stand-out "Woo Hoo" are covers of early 60's surfer songs.
When Uma Thurman is approaching 'The Bells' house, "Music Box Dancer" is playing in the background. Frank Mills composed this song after several years of performing in a band called, 'The Bells'.
When The Bride is standing outside Vernita Green's house, an ice cream truck jingle is played. It's "Music Box Dancer" by the Canadian pianist Frank Mills, a 1978 hit single. In the original script, Yuki Yubari (attempting to avenge the death of her sister, Gogo) stalked The Bride in an ice cream truck.
The fight between the bride and Gogo is a reference to Musashi, by Eiji Yoshikawa, a novel about one on Japan's most famous samurai. Musashi, the hero, fights the villain Baiken, who uses a sickle, chain, and ball. It has since become a common scene in samurai movies; the hero uses a sword and the villain uses a ball and chain weapon, most notably in Zoku Miyamoto Musashi: Ichijôji no kettô (1955), the film adaptation of the novel. Furthermore, it is common in these scenes for the villain to be more skilled than they initially let on, causing the hero to struggle or improvise.
At the beginning of the fight scene between O-Ren and The Bride, after O-Ren says, in Japanese, "I hope you saved your energy. If you haven't you may not last 5 minutes", it is exactly 4 minutes and 59 seconds from the time she steps forward and the music cues, until the fatal blow The Bride delivers which slices off O-Ren's scalp.
While O-Ren Ishii's age is never mentioned, we can gather that she is either 29 or 30, since The Bride states that she was 25 when she took her part in trying to kill her, and it is four years later.
During the scene when O-Ren Ishii celebrates her ascension to the head of the Tokyo Yakuza, she is wearing a black kimono. It is a kurotomesode with long sleeves (dangling near the floor). The kurotomesode is the most formal kimono, is for married women only, and would only be made with short sleeves.
Code names for the "Deadly Viper Assassination Squad": Black Mamba (Uma's character name) is the only snake that is not indigenous to North America compared to the Sidewinder, Cottonmouth, Copperhead, and California Mountain King Snake. Also the California Mountain King Snake is the only one out of the code names that is non poisonous as there are only four snakes in North America that are poisonous: These species are Rattlesnake [10 subspecies including the Sidewinder], Cottonmouth Moccasin, Copperhead and Coral Snake.
