Kill Bill VOL. 2

After rewatching Kill Bill VOL. 1 the other day, I watched Kill Bill VOL. 2 last night.

I actually hadn't yet seen VOL. 2 before last night (I've been waiting for the friends with whom to watch it, or some such excuse).

I'm surprised at how different I feel VOL. 2 is from VOL. 1. They're both amazing, diverse pieces of film work, but VOL. 2 to me felt more deliberate and poetic.

I really enjoyed "Chapter Seven: The lonely grave of Paula Schultz", and was pleasantly surprised by Michael Madsen's ("Budd") performance. There was something just beautiful and poignant about Budd's life, and Tarantino plays it in an amazingly intimate way.

And going back to my recent fixation with set dressings I mentioned in my summary of Kill Bill VOL. 1, the grave behind and to the right of Paula Schultz's tombstone, is wrapped with a series of galvanized metal gates. This was just unaccountably strking to me. There's just something sad and important and reverent about it that spun a whole backstory in my head. Dunno ...

I'm mixed on which volume I like "better" -- there's phenomenal stuff in both.

** Possible Spoilers **

I'm a bit conflicted as to the familial "resolution", and I felt like the climax was teased at the beginning of the 2nd film, so I knew what was coming from after the opening scenes. I think if it had been teased in VOL. 1, it would have been a better, "Awe, crap, that's right!" kind of moment -- and would have fit better with the whole "This is one movie" shtik.