Quentin Tarantino: Definitive Guide To Homages, Influences And References

Kill Bill Vol 1

6. Lady Snowblood

The shot of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad starring down at the camera as if looking at the Bride's beaten body perfectly mirrors a shot from Japanese samurai revenge flick Lady Snowblood (1977).

5. Death Rides A Horse

The flashing red screen with superimposed flashback footage that appears whenever the Bride encounters a character on her Kill List is a direct homage to the 1965 spaghetti western Death Rides A Horse, which starred Lee Van Cleef and John Phillip Law. Van Cleef's character in the movie witnesses the massacre of his family at the hands of a ruthless gang as a young boy. Whenever he encounters a member of said gang, the screen would flash red and superimpose flashback footage. The theme song from Death Rides A Horse, written and composed by Ennio Morricone, also plays when The Bride confronts O-Ren Ishii for the first time.

4. The Animated Air Travel Map

Tarantino once again uses an animated flight map to chart The Bride's trip from Los Angeles to Okinawa, Japan. He used a similar technique to chart Pam Grier's flight from Mexico to L.A. in Jackie Brown. This is likely a reference to Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which Indiana Jones' journeys are mapped this way (which in itself is a reference to countless b-movies from the 40s and 50s which employed this technique to show its characters jetting off around the world).