3500_MeL_“The Journey starting with the Names – movie analysis of Virgin Suicides and Kill Bill 1”

For the final essay, I have compare and contrast the movie Virgin Suicides and Kill Bill 1. The following is my essay, I know I do not have to upload my essay to blog but I would like to share and exchange my ideas with all of you. Thx.



“The Journey starting with the Names – movie analysis of Virgin Suicides and Kill Bill 1”

Virgin Suicides is a novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides, and it is then filmed by Director Sofia Coppola in 1999. It is a romance film. The movie Virgin Suicide is Coppola’s first directed movie but overall, it have a well critic and reputation from both the Hollywood and the public. Virgin Suicides takes place in an affluent neighbourhood in the 1970s. It is about how a group of grown up neighbourhood boys explores the past and try find out the reason for the suicides of five Lisbon sisters. In another words, the movie is centre with these five Lisbon sisters – 13 years old Cecilia, 14 years old Lux, 15 years old Bonnie, 16 years old Mary, and 17 years old Therese.

On the other hand, the movie Kill Bill is written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and it is an action, violence film. Kill Bill is like a comic book as it is divided into two volumes with five chapters each and released separately in year 2003 and 2004. Kill Bill has a well critic and reputation from both the Hollywood and the public as well just like Virgin Suicides does, because Tarantino have actually introduced a new, untraditional, unique and special, his own “Tarantino” style of film into the market which surprised many people. The story of Kill Bill is about the main character, named “The Bridge”, who used to be one of the assassin of “Deadly Viper Assassination Squad”, which lead by her lover, Bill. However, one day, after she realizes she is pregnant with Bill’s child, she decided to escape and wanted a “normal” life. She then met a young man and on the day of their wedding, Bill came, destroyed the Bride’s “new life” by gunning down everyone, including the Bride. Four years later, the Bride finally awaken from her coma, she then began her revenge journey!

Even thus, both movies have different genres, different themes and plots, directed by different directors, applied different techniques; however, there are still similarities can be found among both movies.

One of the most remarkable and major similarities when comparing and contrasting the movies, Virgin Suicides and Kill Bill, is that both directors, Coppola and Tarantino have play around with the characters’ name, beside to make the film looks more interesting and attractive, but it is also used as a clue to the audience of what the movie is about. In another words, it also means that the characters’ “journey” and “future” is actually destined with their names at the very beginning.

In Virgin Suicides, the name of the youngest sister, Cecilia, it is a Latin name and its original meaning is “the way for the blind” - If Cecilia is “blind”, then it is reasonable for the audience to expect Cecilia to lose her “direction” both physically and mentally. And in fact, she was actually the first among all to lost hope, lost the motivation to be survive, lost her direction and ended her “journey” by committed suicide. As such, this metaphor echoes to the theme and plot of the movie. Moreover, the 14 years old sister, Lux, her name is also a Latin word and its original meaning is “light”. However, ironically, she is “dark” – she lost her freedom, identity and the hope to be alive. On the other hand, the main character of Kill Bill, the Bride who cast by Uma Thurman, has an extremely ironic codename “Black mamba”, as a member of the assassins group “Deadly Viper Assassination Squad”. It is ironic as “Bride”, the word and its symbol colour, white, both symbolise purity and virginity; while “Black mamba”, it is known as one of the world's deadliest snakes and one of the most feared snakes in Africa due to its potent venom, large size, and the ferocity of its attacks. One white and one black; the huge contract between names claims that the bride is “reborn” and have a new “identity” after she awakens from her coma - she is different and she has new “goals” to achieve and complete.

After looking at the similarities, when contrasting Virgin Suicides and Kill Bill, there are also heaps of differences which make both movies have its own identifiable characteristic and style. The differences included the narrative structure – how the story is told; mise- en- scene – everything and every details that an audience could see from the screen; as well as the editing and special effect used, which used to enhance the atmosphere of the film in order to deliver out the theme and purpose.

In Virgin Suicides, the story is told in second person (2nd person), from the perspective of an anonymous boy from the neighbourhood boys group. This is used not only to make the movie sound more interesting and look more “reality”, but also to help the audiences to get involved in the movie and participate like one of the neighbourhood boys, rather than just an “outsider” of it. In another words, the audience are going on a journey just like the characters does and might gain a new insight after the journey. On the other hand, Kill Bill, the story is told in first person (1st person), from the perspective of the main character, The Bride. As it is told in first person, it seems like the character is telling a story, and the audience act like a friend of the character or just an “outsider” of the character’s world, who observe the character’s life and journey quietly rather than participating and going through everything with the character. This make the movie less “reality” and the audience are unlikely to gain insight afterwards.

The narrative structure used is echoed and strongly related with the movies’ editing and special effects. In Virgin Suicides, as mention, Coppola used second person narrative structure to make the movie seems more realistic to audience, as such, Coppola did not use much special effects in order to help achieve the desired purpose. On the other hand, Tarantino have separated each volume into five chapters and added comic like scene to make the movie look more a “story”, proving to the audience that this is not a realistic based story.

Mise- en- scene, Virgin Suicides and Kill Bill have different timeframe, timeline, customs, language and even involved different cultures elements. For Virgin Suicides, its setting is based on the 1970s, located at western community; its story is presented in linear timeline; only English and other western cultures implied throughout the movie. While for Kill Bill, its setting is based in modern days; its story is presented in a non linear timeline; language such as Japanese, Chinese, as well as the eastern culture elements are strongly and widely used by Tarantino. For example, The Bride’s black and yellow custom worn during the “Bride fights the crazy88” scene, its black and yellow custom is not only a well known symbol of martial arts, but also represented the famous and legend Asian actor/martial artist - Bruce Lee, and one of his performance in the movie called “The Game of Death” released in year 1978. All these differences not only created two different characteristics for the movies, but also help the audience to notice “who directed the film” according to its style. However, an interesting point arisen as Coppola have also used eastern culture elements in her future film such as the “Lost in Translation”, it seems like Coppola and Tarantino, both have strong interest in the Asian cultures.

Colour is also another interesting techniques efficiently used by both directors. In Virgin Suicides, Coppola used wash out colours to reinforce the timeframe of the movie – 1970s, and also used to echoes the ending of the film – sad, depress and death. While for Kill Bill, Tarantino used bright colours to state out the timeframe of the movie – the modern days, as well as used to excite audience emotions and catches their attention among with all the action and violence scene. As such, colour is an efficient and powerful technique that able to alter audiences’ emotion and the atmosphere of a movie.

As a conclusion, Coppola and Tarantino both used similar – simile and metaphor of names, and different – editing and special effects; narrative structure; mise- en- scene and colours, techniques in order to achieve the theme of the movie and the message they wanted to deliver to the audience. Both directors are talented and their movies have well critic and reputation from both the industry and the public.
Reference:

IMDb.com, 2010, Awards for the Virgin Suicides, [online], available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159097/awards, [04.05.10]

IMDb.com, 2010, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, [online], available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266697/, [04.05.10]

Wikipedia, 2010, The Virgin Suicides, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virgin_Suicides_(film)#References, [04.05.10]

Wikipedia, 2010, The Virgin Suicides, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virgin_Suicides, [04.05.10]

Wikipedia, 2010, Sofia Coppola, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Coppola, [12.04.10]

Wikipedia, 2010, Kill Bill, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Bill, [04.05.10]

Wikipedia, 2010, Beatrix Kidd, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Kiddo, [04.05.10]

Wikipedia, 2010, Black Mambo, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mamba, [04.05.10]

Wikipedia, 2010, Bruce Lee, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Lee, [04.05.10]