Recent Screens: Kill Bill Part Deux

I saw Kill Bill Vol. 2 about one week ago, and I have yet to resolve the question: was there enough action for this movie to be understood as a kung fu flick? The concept of genre is divisive and fallible of course, but it is somewhat curious that one who enjoys the mechanisms of unabashed genre films as much Quentin Tarantino, making frequent use of them through reference and otherwise, didn't make another one. Oh yeah-the first Kill Bill was pretty much a kung fu movie, for those that haven't seen it. It's sequel seemed more a blended derivative of Westerns, film noir, and reportedly, "revenge movies", a genre I am probably too inexperienced to perceive. Before I become distracted with peripheral issues, I'll say that I was entertained by the hallmarks of Tarantino: dialogue rich with sub-reference, wit, and improbable attitude; creatively sequenced story; excellent music. Unfortunately, these elements weren't sufficiently captivating to compensate for the film's neglect for the central tenet of kung fu cinema: frequent, intense action scenes. Vol. 2 has been out for some time now, so I think it's fair to relate that both installments' respective "showdowns" are anti-climatic. However, in the case of Vol. 1, there was the famous orgy of violence before the seductively built but truncated "boss stage" with Lucy Liu's O-Ren Ishii, (to borrow from yet another genre: video game movies; I'll say no more on that), arguably the best character of the series. Much has been said about David Carradine as the ultimate nemesis, Bill, so I won't go there, but I consider the bait-and-switch finale of Vol. 2 the film's greatest flaw, and its clearest deviation from the standard Hong Kong plotline. Maybe they used up all the blood in round one. 3 stars, of a possible 5.