Hey Folks, Harry here! Over at TIME-ASIA they've just run a rather nice article with a bunch of killer photos from the set of KILL BILL! Since I've been starving to show you photos, I'm showing them here with my commentary about what you're looking at.
The above glorious shot by Andrew Cooper (The Best Set Photographer in the Business) is obviously of Uma Thurman as THE BRIDE in the House of the Blue Leaves Sequence from KILL BILL. Specifically this is in-between waves of killers. She's gone through the existing first wave of Crazy 88's, but before she charges up to kill the principle personal body guards of O-RenIshii (Lucy Liu) a wave of reenforcements come in to completely surround her. This is a tight shot before she begins cleaving through the would be Kato bastards!
Here you get one ounce of the beauty of Yohei Taneda's (the Japanese Production Designer for KILL BILL) beautiful work in creating THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES. This is one Hallway in this establishment. Behind Lucy Liu's white kimono wearing O-Ren Ishii (btw she also has a Black Kimono for an earlier flashback sequence) is Go Go Yubari played by the adorable Chiaki Kuriyama from BATTLE ROYALE. She stands about 2 heads shorter than Uma Thurman in their battle later on. Isn't she just adorably innocent in her couldn't harm a fly school girl attire? On the otherside of O-Ren Ishii is Sofie Fatale, Ishii's French Lawyer, played by the stunning Julie Dreyfus. This scene takes place as they are entering and heading to a dining quarters in The House of Blue Leaves!
That's Quentin Tarantino closest to us, then you have Lawrence Bender (producer) and First Assistant Director Bill Clark... On KILL BILL in China you had two 1st ADs, I'll show you the other one in just a minute! Bill is a painfully nice guy, I say this because he handed me a glass of Tequila as I left the set on my last day and set my seat in place so I could be bathed in Michael Jai White's Blood! It was very cool! That looks like part of The House of Blue Leaves set behind them.
Ok, the above shot is Quentin and Yuen Wo Ping demonstrating camera placement and stance for Uma's Bride character. Wo Ping always looked like this on set. That same baseball cap, and if you look at his shorts... you'll notice the big bump on his left leg... Remember how I told you he always kept two water bottles in his shorts... That's what that bump is. Ok, now the guy in the white pants and black top with his back to us on the stairs, that is Dee Dee one of the cool fight team guys for The Master's fight team. Ok, the guy in the white long sleeve shirt with the white hair... That is Robert Richardson the famed DP and renowned Jokester. If Robert is reading this Daniel Pearl says "Hi!" Meanwhile standing to right of Robert in the Green Striped shirt is former Austinite and Mexican Food Craver David O'Dell the 2nd 2nd AD that first greeted me when I arrived on set and wants all of you to send Mexican food to him if you know him! He's still in Beijing! The Chinese man with both his arms crossed looking like a Human John Deere Bobcat... that's Zhang Jin Zhan - the most badass no shit taking 1st AD I've ever seen. He commanded 30,000 extras on HERO and on this would personally ass whip anyone whose cel phone went off. He looked at me and smiled alot. The Japanese guy in the black and white zebra shirt with the red jacket that is holding his chin next to Zhang... That's the Japanese Art Director (I think) Hidefumi Hanatani. OH... and that's Lawrence Bender in the tan shirt with the Blue Jacket. The two folks on either side of him I don't recognize. Sorry. I'm doing my best. NOW -- Quentin and Yuen would be going back and forth using sign language and occassionally a translator, but almost all with sign language and physicality. BTW behind Bender is the Bar... That's where I was sitting when I watched The Bride backflip onto the upstairs balcony railing.
In this Final shot from TIME ASIA - you'll notice that The Bride looks like she's up shit-creek without a roll of toilet paper. Maybe a couple squares of that Grade School wipe and tear shit, but it looks bad. Well there's an overhead shot of this same scene that shows you how bad it really is... The Crazy 88's have her completely surrounded in the center of the club/restaurant. On the balcony over-looking all this is O-Ren Ishii, Go Go Yubari and a couple of others. As you can see there is not much blood on the ground at this point... that changes... alot.
Ok... now the Above shot wasn't released by Miramax and is not taken by Andrew Cooper (The Best Still Photographer working in Film). Nope this one was taken by a spy of mine on set. NOT ME, I was searched each and everyday, so I had to bribe folks with Levis to take photos for me... The above shot has the Japanese Art Director Hidefumi Hanatani on his beloved WORKSHOP Set which it was decided NOT TO USE in KILL BILL. So folks... Until the "FORGOTTEN ART OF KILL BILL" Book hits, this is the set that you'll never see. I believe it is Hattori Hanzo's WorkShop, but I could be wrong.
