[quote]
Here’s hoping that due to the stateside exposure of Chiyaki Kuriyama (GoGo) that there will finally be a demand for a Region 1 release of Battle Royale. I know that you can get a copy of the film with a Region-free player, but fans in North America shouldn’t be kept away from this classic.
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you know there are versions which work on all regions right? you don’t need a special player.
Another KILL BILL film reference nobody’s mentioned is… believe it or not … "2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY"
During the Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves, towards the end of the fight with the Crazy 88, when the lady turns the lights out — just before she does, we see a closeup of Uma’s eyes. First in black and white, then she blinks, then they’re in color.
Same trick was pulled towards the end of 2001, in the bathroom, after the psychedelic journey. The astronaut’s eye blinks several times, finally in normal color.
This was kinda already brought up but :
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0182601/
“Hattori Hanzô: Kage no Gundan” (1980)
[TV-Series]
starring sonny chiba probaly also influenced something 
Imdb dosen’t provide that much info tho 
[quote]
REFERENCES LISTED ON IMDB THAT I CAN’T FIGURE OUT
SAMURAI FICTION
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it’s something that to that effect admin. I think alot was a cut from 1 lone wolf in particular. The region 0 dvd doesn’t need a special player. Plus you help a limey ;D.
From ain’t it cool news:
If the House of the Blue Leaves chapter of Kill Bill left you with a taste for the brutal surge of samurai action, the place to look is Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima’s Lone Wolf and Cub. From the ball and chain duel with Go Go Yubari to the whirl wind battle with the Crazy 88 gang, you can find antecedent reflections in Lone Wolf and Cub.
Lone Wolf and Cub is a samurai revenge epic of monumental breath. Ogami Itto was a renowned swordsman with the prestigious post of the shogun’s executioner. After being framed for a capital crime by the head of a rival clan Yagyu Retsudo, Itto rejects his death sentence and takes his infant son Daigoro on the path of Meifumado, the road to hell. As the Lone Wolf assassin he will accept 500 gold ryo, and an explanation of true motivation to take any contract killing: criminals, lords, Buddhist saints (there is a reflection of Sonny Chiba’s Hattori Hanzo’s thoughts on meets God or Buddha in this particular contract), Some times the deserving meet their end, sometimes it is the sympathetic one who find themselves on the end of Itto’s sword.
Lone Wolf and Cub starts as an anthology of Itto’s exploits as an assassin. They are short, complete stories with elements of continuity as Itto walks into the lives of others, often as an instruments of their revenge. It is an exploration of code that he lives by, which is radically different than the one of the former life as the series progress, it alters its status quo. His vengance leads more into direct conflict, and ultimately open war with the with the Yagyu clan samurai, their offshoots, and the Kurokuwa ninja as Itto’s plot is slowly revealed. The path winds with plenty of twists as players fall by the way side and are introduced, compounded by the repercussions of actions made during both of his lives.
Many of the duels are short and brutal chess where the opening gambit decides who lives and who dies in an inky black arterial spray . Beyond Retsudo there are few recurring adversaries. Duels with Ogami Itto are fast, and fatal. Typically it is the build to the confrontation that provides the meat of Ogami’s battles. The daring nature of his ploys, and disregard for the safety of himself and his child are stunning. However, confrontations that have the flash intricacy seen in Kill Bill are standard fare. The manga continues to outdo itself with exotic weapons and attacks: life and death against weighted chains, a former sword act performer who has own path of vengeance has lead to tattooed her body with distracting images, warriors who specialize in blinding sands, a trio of brother who use a sword, claw and club, or at the its strangest and most impressive a squad of fire watchers who battle with the age of ladders. Beyond exotic weapons are the many against one team attacks, including some macabre teamwork strategies seen in Kill Bill, such as using one’s own body to lock a weapon. Then again big lead in’s promoting an opponent’s skills and weapons may still result in a fast confrontation.
Dark Horse released the series in 28 300 page 4"x6"volumes for $10 each. Until the later volumes, strict order isn’t essential. If you enjoyed Kill Bill, you owe it to yourself to try at least a volume or two of Lone Wolf and Cub.
Speaking of the Yagyu clan,check this out.
Not only does the series star Sonny Chiba, the entire “Hanzo Doctrine” was lifted out of the show! I believe the theme song from the show even plays when the Bride gives her “second reason” speech to Sofie at the very end of Volume 1.
[quote] Nobody has mentioned the influence  of “Lone Wolf and Cub 2 : Babycart at the river Styx” so far. In The Time video-interview Quentin says that it blew him away as a kid and a lot of Babycart is in Kill Bill. [/quote]
Styx is the goriest of the series that I’ve seen yet. Plenty of hands and feet (As well as ears,fingers,and heads) get looped off. And of course, there’s several geysers of blood that pour out of the various ninja and “Gods of Death” who attack Ogami Itto (Lone Wolf). One of the attackers even gets to spit out a memorable quote while a fountain of blood shoots out the side of his neck.
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isnt Shogun Assassin edited together out of Lone wolf and cub stuff[/quote]
Shogun Assassin is mostly the 2nd film, Styx with 2 or 3 scenes from the 1st movie, Sword of Vengeance, serving as “flashbacks”. Another tidbit that I noticed from Styx…Remember when there was a close-up of The Bride clicking her sword’s grip after slicing the first batch of Crazy 88? Ogami Itto does the same thing after he saves Diagoro (Cub) from the Yagyu. No close-up of the grip though.
There is this anime thing he did i thought of
When Johnny Mo ( i think that is how it is spelled) gets killed you see his same reaction 3 times…not unlike how action is done in anime.
The slow motion when Buck discovers the truckers dead body reminded me of the end of the earlier Friday The 13th movies when theyd do the slo mo.
Fistful of Dollars: The DiVAS gang beating The Bride. (Vol 2)
I may be off my chops, but I was thinking when I was watching again tonight, when O-ren and co are slow motion walking into House of Blue Leaves with the theme song playing, it reminded me of Resoviour dogs…at the beginning with the slow mo to the cars…
[quote]I may be off my chops, but I was thinking when I was watching again tonight, when O-ren and co are slow motion walking into House of Blue Leaves with the theme song playing, it reminded me of Resoviour dogs…at the beginning with the slow mo to the cars…[/quote]
I thought the same thing. One of the Crazy 88s even had that little head sway that QT did in the opening of Dogs. haha. I love that sequence of them walking into the HOBL. It gives me goosebumps with the music blasting.
I agree. Up untill VOLUME I arrived in theaters, the only thing that I could associate “Battle/Humanity” with was the teaser trailer. But boy, that sure aint the case now!
As soon as the drums kick in, the only image that comes to mind now is that slo-mo walk towards the camera. You see, this is the shot that Michael Bay DREAMS of capturing but never accomplishes. 
maybe this is just me but after I watched Kill Bill for the second time I noticed that one of the scenes seemed very familiar to me. And finally it clicked. While growing up my parents and I have always been big fans of an early 80’s cult classic ( I think it had a decent budgett for the time but I’m not sure either way it is a B movie no matter what budgett it had) called Streets of Fire. It stars Micheal Pare, a very young Diane Lane, Willam Dafoe, Rick Moranis, Bill Paxton, and Robert Townsend. Anyway, for those of you who haven’t seen it I suggest it, it starts out with the title “In another Place, In another Time”, has styles from almost every decade of the previous 40 years all mixed up in it, along with many of the archetypes and storylines of genre movies (which actually kindof makes me want to relate it to many of QTs movies).
I Streets of fire a famous rock singer(lane) gets kidnapped from here home town during her concert by a group of bikers(led by Dafoe), soon after her badass ex(pare) is called into town by his sister a led to rescue her with many strange characters along for the ride.
Anyway,back to the point, when they rescue Diane Lane they have to go into an almost seperate city where the bikers hang out, it’s completely lawless, There is a scen in a biker bar where Pare and gang are walking around trying to find Diane Lane, and during this whole period the camera keeps going back to this really sweaty guy sing old fifties type rock n’ roll (if this makes any sense, when rock n’ roll was dirty and taboo), and this short haired girl in a leather G string is pole dancing on stage.
There is definitaly (for me anyway) something about the early HOuse of Blue leaves scenes extremely close in feel and content to the Streets of Fire scene.
The Band playing early rock n’ roll, the anticipation of it all, the main character(s) kind of floating around like a ghost, a bar(or restaurant) filled with lawless thugs.
And to boot the movie was directed by Walter Hill, the man who directed both 48 hrs, cult classic the Warriors, and Last Man standing(based on both QT fav. Fistful of dollars by Leone, and Samurai classic Yohimbo by Kurosawa)
^^ sounds cool. I may have to rent it sometime, if its available. Also highly possible that’s where QT got the idea from.
This is my own thing here, but when Sofie Fatale rolls down that small hill, it reminds me of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, where Tuco rolls down a liquor bottle down a hill and it lands and hits Clint Eastwood’s face. ;D
when uma says to one of the last ones, of the crazy 88 :“this, is, what, you, get, for fucking around with the yakuzas”!
that, i know it sounds fucked up, but it reminded me of “con air”, when nicolas cage beats danny trejo (johnny 23, i think) in rythm to what he said (i am not sure what he said).
well QT may never saw this movie…it just reminded me of it.
Who remembers the 1985 film “Pray For Death” starring Sho Kosugi?
Whether intentional or not, there are several similarities between that movie and “Kill Bill”.
I haven’t seen it for years so I can only recount now the obvious ones, such as : -
*It’s a revenge film
*A one man army (actually a ninja) armed with Samurai sword wipes out the Italian Mafia in an American city
*The ninja’s wife is raped and murdered in hospital, in her hospital bed
*There is a sequence where he forges his own lethal Samurai sword with musical accompaniment (albeit bad 80’s stuff) and prepares for his final showdown
This will be regarded as pretty dumb but doesn’t that “That would be about square” comment by BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP during the Copperhead slashing count as a “Pulp Fiction” reference? :-/
I kindof thought the whole Oren anime part kindof related to Don Carleones character going back to sicily and killing the mob boss that murdered his father. I know that’s a very common storyline, but it really reminded me of the Godfather.
Haku I was thinking the same thing but there are minor differences that makes this one better. Of course in Pulp they did the dotted line square. It didn’t hit me until i saw the comercial a few times before it came out that she says “just about square” and only does 3 sides of the square. I got a kick out of that.