As I return to the set today, I just want to let you folks know... I'm losing strength. Writing these all nighters, getting less than 6 hours a night, plus that damn sunburn from yesterday sapping the energy right out of my body... I'm beginning to wane a bit. No, my enthusiasm is still ramped up to 20,000%, but for some reason the energy I gathered from the fried pigeons and that abalone egg noodle dish with those alleged chicken feet I gnawed on last night... Why would I eat Chicken Feet... Well Hiromi (That Miramax lady) and Michael Jai White, told me that The Master, Yuen Woo-Ping, said that the Chicken Feet would give you strength. I found that eating Chicken Feet gives you only ONE thing. An Empty Stomach. And if there is something that I am most definitely a Master at a level at least a 1000 times above This Master on... it is how to fill my stomach with the foods that will make me a happy energetic camper. Chicken Feet do not make me a happy camper, though they were tasty... I just find the lack of any real substance to be discouraging.
Anyways, I find the crew picking up where they had left off yesterday… Now they are shooting Michael and David’s fight to the death in the TAI CHI MASTER alley way. This is just the bomb, the first exchange of sword attacks… Very cool. This shot was a series of three sword clashes and a missed death blow by Michael, looking to decapitate Bill. David Carradine has a ferocity in his face, that I don’t know if I’ve seen before. Very cool. Absolutely no nonsense.
As that shot ends, Quentin is shooting a trick sword removal by Carradine where he throws the blade up out of the sheath into the air and then landing in his hand in a high position for a downward slice. Very cool move. I really can’t believe how cool that looks. It is funny when it goes to far out, but David always seems to catch it and bring it back into frame, though the time it hit the table with all the peppers caused David to crack up pretty hard.
Before we continue with the day, let me correct a couple of things from the first column. First off, KILL BILL will not be shooting in El Paso, though part of the film is set there, instead Barstow will be subbing for far West Texas. Next the make-up work that I was seeing that day was due to the angelic Heba Thoristottir from Iceland. All the KNB guys were apparently in Tokyo at the time readying things to shoot there very soon… In talking to Heba today, she told me about how Gordon Liu told her that given all the times he’s played Pai Mei in film before, he never expected that he would look best in the role for an American production. Now Pai is primarily the construct I hear of Heba and Manny. Now Manny is a coiffeur extraordinaire. He did Cameron Diaz’s amazing hair in BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, and yes I was quite good and didn’t ask about the magical swirling ass. He’s also done quite a bit of work with Angelina Jolie. On this film, I’ve mainly been seeing him work on David Carradine’s AMAZING hair in the film… Really cool look.
Then there were a couple of things that Quentin wanted to have clarified. First that the steadicam shot isn’t a full fledged kung fu thing, but more of her character entrance going into the fight. Soon I’ll be going to the HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES set and getting the walk through, I’ll let you hear all about that. Apparently the geography about what happened will become far more clear with that shot when I’m on set.
Next… Quentin did bring the sad news that he had indeed cut YUKI’S REVENGE out of the film. Now I had asked three separate folks about the YUKI’S REVENGE chapter… All three told me that not only was it in, but they shot it. Apparently, these folks thought I was talking about Yuki as a character. I believed I was quite clear in stating the chapter, I even asked who would be playing Bonnie… But apparently… I must’ve been less than clear.
When I asked why that had to go, Quentin said that he had been watching the APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX and he realized that he would shoot YUKI’S REVENGE, he’d kill himself shooting it. That it would be a bitch to shoot and in the end, when he’d be sitting in that editing room trying to make this movie fit a hair or two beneath two and a half hours… That YUKI’S REVENGE would go.
I expressed the utter heartbreak of fans round the world now reading his stolen screenplay, that there would be mass suicides and whinings throughout the end of time. That’s when Quentin told me that he’s added another chapter though that is more directly related to the story at hand. I believe the chapter was called MASSACRE AT TWO PINES – and this chapter is the full fledged church scene… Everything that went down. How the attack played out, how she was caught unawares, did she put up a fight, what happened?
At this point I whined and asked him to give me the new script, and Quentin got this coy look on his face… "Oh no no no no noooo, you don’t read it, you’ll see it like the rest of the world, or maybe at Cannes with the rest of the world press!"
It was at that moment that I swore a blood oath to Odin, I, Harry Knowles, will read this new draft of KILL BILL. I will read it and I’ll let Quentin know I read it, just so there will be no doubting the will of Knowles. I’m not just some New York Times sit across with folded legs and ask polite questions reporter, I’m no idle mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper or magazine… I’M AINT IT COOL NEWS AND MY X-RAYS ARE ON MAX!!!! Hehehehe… somehow I think Quentin is gonna beat me on this, but ya know… I wouldn’t be Harry Knowles if I didn’t try.
Right now, David is shooting a close up of his side of the attack of Michael Jai White. The putting away of his blade, followed by a viscous physical hand attack at Michael’s face. Behind the camera is The Master – Yuen Woo Ping… He tends to pace around, but here he was rapt attention on what Carradine was doing, and after the thrust, he begin excitedly nodding, pivoting and smiling. He very much approved of what he saw. Very cool.
Today, Quentin is wearing his black pants with the white racing stripe down the side. He’s got a plaid sort of lumberjack shirt and a quilted skull cap. Later I find out this is his New York outfit, not really the L.A. scene, but here everyone tells him… "Very Nice!!" Once again Tarantino is right there, maybe 3 feet from the front of Carradine… giving encouragement, being there with instant reactions right off the cut. His excitement when he gets exactly what he wants is communicable. He will suddenly jump back with a ‘yeeeeeaaaaaah, check it print it and let’s move on!" Very cool.
The second that Quentin, closes up a shot the Chinese crew leaps into action… Pointing at everyone on the reverse side of the camera and shouting out… "In da movie.. in da movie!" and pointing at everything. Suddenly it is all moved. And I mean WAY FAST. 5 minute turn around max. I mean this track is laid out, cleaned, and smoothed out quicker than a runny nose in January.
Robert Richardson is up in the on high seat on the dolly, does the push on the Michael Jai White Chinese Stand in. Then without notice Quentin is back, replacing Robert in the seat, watching the push from the place, and then he’s ready to go. Now, there could’ve been all sorts of notice, but all I know is everything that gets screamed on this set is either a war cry or some Chinese phrase that probably means, "Quiet On Set!" "Turn Off Your Cel Phones and Radios!" "Cut" "Rolling" or the typical phrases of film production. Although there is a lot of screaming of "STEEEELLLLLLLLLLAAAAAA!!!!" on set too, but I think this refers to someone named Stella that handles costumes for the principles… or something. All I know is at least twice a day the crew gets a big kick out of yelling her name in all their anguished glory.
Now, about 5 feet in front of me, off camera… way off camera… is David Carradine literally going through the off camera motions every single take for Michael to reference. What a giving performer. He doesn’t have to do this, but he’s there… every take being the reference his fellow actor needs. After a bit he retires to a seat next to me and we begin talking at length as Michael is jamming his sword hilt into and through a table it looks like. There’s a lot of technical stuff to this shot, getting the sword to land in the exact right spot off of a grand sweeping motion all without looking at the spot.
David comes over and really was overly kind about the stories that have appeared on the page thus far. I am of course humble acting, but inside I know it is all true… ahem… riiiiiight. I just have great material to reflect upon this trip. If I was on the set of CHARLIE’S ANGELS 2 right now, well my neck would be tired of my head following the swirling motion and I’m sure I would constantly just be drooling.
However, giving that I was having hardly any drool issues today, though Michael Jai White’s implants (well, that’s what he calls em) well… Ok, I won’t go there. Anyways, I had a long Conversation with David Carradine about THE LONG RIDERS – One of my all time fave westerns… For me, it is my all time favorite Walter Hill movie, and frankly I’ve always been curious how the project came together. Turns out that it was James Keach and Bob Carradine’s brain child / pipe dream. They came to David to try to get him to do it, and after they’d told him what they were thinking, David just hemmed and hawed and let them know that he felt it would never happen. That it was a pipedream of youth. At the time James Keach and Bob Carradine were just a pair of saplings… Young kids that hadn’t really done much of anything at that point, but James said that Stacy Keach had signed on. David told him that if Stacy was aboard, he’d do it, but that it would never happen. Immediately after David committed, James and Bob went to ask Stacy if he’d come aboard. They decided to bring in the Quaids and the Bridges brothers. Walter Hill came on, and then it was trying to get United Artists aboard. Well, United Artists was intrigued, but felt that they’d never get all the brothers and family all together at any given time to pull the project off. They said to name a date, and when they did, they through a big ol party… all the brothers showed up, got drunk, sung and did their bit to convince UA that they were serious. After that it all moved forward. On the set it was great fun. Keith Carradine had recently had a personal relationship fall apart and was pretty down, and David was kind of wondering why he was on this film, because his part was just so small. Since he had so much idle time, he figured that he’d occupy himself with making Keith laugh. Walter would overhear him saying something smartassy to Keith, then tell David to use that in the movie. From there, the character was expanded. And when Pamela Reed came aboard – He knew the film was working. Because they just had such a great connection on the set. He feels that even though she’s barely in the film, though she was literally coming from out of nowhere, she nearly steals the whole film. Speaking of Belle Starr, on the set there was a ton of moonshine, singing, firing guns, riding horses and…. Atlanta whores. At the time David had his wife on set. However, anyone that was lonely wasn’t lonely for long. He also felt that those women were some of the nicest, most friendly, good spirited women he’d met. We then talked about the brilliance of the action, but right when we were about to get to the nitty gritty…
On set, there was a sudden transition to the reverse of the initial fight with David Carradine and Michael Jai White…. That first volley of attacks… Watching from the opposite side this time, being able to see Michael’s expression during the shoot is very intense… he had a "don’t fuck with me feeble white man" look. Very cool.
Now as they continue to shoot, Quentin starts off one particular take with, "Can we pick up the speed a bit here, I’m going for Lightning Swords of Death style action here."
After nailing that take with a bit of Ogami Itto action going on, they again decide to focus on more of Michael’s shots. So again, David comes and takes a seat next to me. Having this sort of talk time with David is quite cool, specially for someone that grew up on DEATHRACE 2000 – which I still haven’t brought up! CIRCLE OF IRON, LONG RIDERS, LONE WOLF McQUADE, Q and of course KUNG FU. For a child of the seventies and eighties… David Carradine means quite a friggin lot, and having him just plop down to shoot the shit is great. There is zero pretension, and he’s got a wicked sense of humor. When he takes a seat, he begins telling me about the Campfire Story sequence in KILL BILL!
Campfire Story? What fucking Campfire story? Well…
According to David, the Campfire Story is essentially The Story of Pai Mei – in the script it takes place in the jeep as Bill takes the oh so youthful one day BRIDE to the sadistic hands of Pai Mei. Now, instead of a conversation in that dusty jeep, it takes place at night on the Chinese Countryside, the night before he arrives at Pai Mei’s… Originally Quentin wanted them roasting marshmallows as he told the story, but the monologue didn’t flow quite right with a steaming hot molten marshmallow in David’s mouth, so Quentin asked David to try it with the Flute.
What FLUTE? Well it turns out that David brought along the CIRCLE OF IRON Silent Flute… That’s right, Bill will have the Silent Flute in the film. And he uses his flute to help tell the story… "Peter and the Wolf" fashion. How cool is that? Now, as the story goes, back before CIRCLE OF IRON started filming, David planted the bamboo plants, let them grow, harvested the bamboo, dried it out, treated it and turned them into the silent flutes. There were three Silent Flutes, and they all got banged up to hell, given the amount of head banging and ass bruising they caused, and on most days they will rarely give out a note, but on the night of the Campfire… The flute treated David and the crew to a rare sonata of a performance. The scene starts off with David improving out some flute work, then going into the story of… well.. you know, it goes:
BILL (V.O.)
Once upon a time in China, some
believe around the year, one-double
knot-three