’Volume 1’ is an action film with very little dialogue in comparison to Tarantino’s earlier work. The plot is fairly simple: a wedding party is gunned down, but the Bride (Uma Thurman) survives, only to remain in a four-year coma. There’s an attempt to kill her again while she lies helpless in hospital, but the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad (DIVAS) decides to abort the mission. If she ever wakes up, however, they fully intend to finish the job they started.

Of course, she does wake up and goes on a bloody mission to find and kill every one of the DIVAS before going after their leader Bill, played by 70s ‘Kung Fu’ TV star David Carradine. But since this is ‘Volume 1,’ she only does about half the job. ‘Volume Two’ sees the plot’s resolution.

What complicates the story is Tarantino’s trademark non-chronological chaptering. In this case, however, the chapters take on the mark of particular cinematic genres. Vernita Green, played by Vivica A Fox, is first member of the assassination squad to be dispatched onscreen. This section plays a little like blaxploitation. But other genres thread through ‘Kill Bill’: spaghetti western, Yakuza dramas, Samurai films, Japanese anime, 70s Hong Kong martial arts, Italian slasher, and in a sequence where Daryl Hannah tries to kill the Bride in the hospital, a Brian de Palma-type thriller.

The soundtrack music plays up on this hotch-potch of styles, while the casting also reflects it: ‘Kung Fu’ star Carradine; Japanese martial arts icon Sonny Chiba, who plays the part of Hattori Hanzo, the maker of the Bride’s samurai sword; Lucy Liu, who previously starred in ‘Charlie’s Angels,’ originally another 70s series. The Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and the Angels bear some comparison: both are almost entirely made up of women but led by a faceless man. We never see Bill’s face in ‘Volume One.’

’Kill Bill’ is a film dominated by deadly women, whether it’s the Bride herself, Daryl Hannah’s Elle Driver, Liu’s O-Ren, or O-Ren’s 17- year old bodyguard Gogo Yubari. What’s disappointing is the racial aspect. Vernita, the only black member of the assassination squad, is killed about 13 minutes into the film. A great deal more time is devoted to Lucy Liu’s character O-Ren Ishii.

Nevertheless, the non-white members of the assassination squad are killed in Volume One. Not only this, but the blond, blue-eyed American Bride bests hoards of samurai-wielding Japanese, and O-Ren herself is an American who rises to the top of Tokyo’s Yakuza gangs. ‘Kill Bill’ fulfils the usual Hollywood fantasies of not only besting foreigners, but besting them at their own games.

Although Vernita is the first to die onscreen, the Bride has already dispatched Lucy Liu’s O-Ren. The Japanese section contains the film’s major set piece. Tarantino wisely leaves it to the second half. It does make dramatic sense to have Vernita killed quickly - the audience is pulled into the drama of the revenge plot sooner - and this scene is one of the more controversial. While geysers of blood spewing forth from the hacked-up members of O-Ren’s gang might be comic book violence, a child standing over her dead mother is altogether more realistic. But it serves to illustrate just how far the Bride will go. When Bill put a bullet through her head, she was pregnant. Her dead child motivates her revenge.

’Volume One’ mostly focuses on the Bride preparing to go up against O-Ren who is the first on her hit list. This means a very fast recovery of the use of her limbs after four years in bed. ‘Kill Bill’ is so over-the-top generally that the sight of the Bride on her feet 13 hours after first wiggling her toes is the least of the unlikely scenarios. In the middle of this scene, the film switches to Japanese anime, in order to fill in O-Ren Ishii’s background. O-Ren is the only member of the DIVAS we ever find out much about. The rest, including the Bride herself, are largely depicted without personal histories. There’s no question Lucy Liu is stunning as O-Ren. And Tarantino surrounds her with some wonderfully stylish gang members, many in leather face masks. The bloody showdown between the Bride and the Crazy 88 gang takes place in a club. Thurman has to hack her way through O-Ren’s gang. After this it’s the slightly insane teenager Gogo with a deadly ball and chain in a great action scene. But the most beautiful fight sequence is in the snow-covered moonlit garden outside, when she goes up against O-Ren herself.

The film’s action nature means less of the trademark Tarantino comic chat. There is some though. Confronted with the dead wedding party, a policeman comments: “Appears to me that somebody objected to this union and wasn’t able to hold their peace.”

Tarantino makes up for the lack of verbal humour somewhat in visual and sound jokes. When Sophie, O-Ren’s lawyer and a former protégé of Bill’s, walks unsuspecting into the Ladies toilets where the Bride is hiding, her mobile is playing “Should old acquaintance be forgot.” Daryl Hannah’s eye-patched character, Elle, has a red cross symbol on her patch as she walks menacingly through a hospital to commit murder. There’s also a small pool in O-Ren’s club that literally turns into a blood bath after the Bride’s triumph over the Crazy 88.

The soundtrack to ‘Kill Bill’ was produced by The RZA. It’s become a great cinematic and televisual cliché to have characters walk down corridors in slow motion to a cool bit of music. Unless done well, it’s best avoided. However, when O-Ren and the Crazy 88 walk along a corridor to a thumping soundtrack, it’s one of the film’s most iconic moments.

In the end, O-Ren and Elle (Daryl Hannah) are the two most interesting members of the DIVAS. But Oren is the character we find out most about. That’s probably true even by the end of ‘Volume 2.’ ‘Volume 1’ ends with a few teasers about what’s to follow, and a revelation that may ultimately bring about Bill and the Bride’s redemption. ‘Kill Bill: Volume 1’ is a revenge flick that’s been taken into the realms of the fantastic and the hip. Even geysers of blood tell their own jokes in this film. Visually, ‘Kill Bill’ is a cinematic treat. The question for those who haven’t seen it yet is whether they can stomach the violence.