Edition: U.S. / Global

FILM; Charting the Tarantino Universe

Published: April 11, 2004

EVER since ''Kill Bill Vol. 1'' was released last October, Internet movie message boards have been buzzing about the numerous references that Quentin Tarantino's action revenge film makes to the rich tradition of Asian genre filmmaking -- both Hong Kong kung fu movies and the Japanese swordfight flicks. With the release on Friday of ''Kill Bill Vol. 2,'' Mr. Tarantino's grand design becomes clear: where the first part of his epic took place under the sign of the East, the second is largely devoted to the West -- that is, the American and European traditions of revenge movies, particularly the American western.

With the dense network of references in ''Kill Bill,'' Mr. Tarantino is at once playing a game and making a point, demonstrating how Eastern and Western popular culture have so strongly influenced each other over the years that the new style in action filmmaking is an inseparable blend of the two. Just as the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa acknowledged borrowing from John Ford's American westerns for his 1954 epic ''The Seven Samurai,'' so did the Italian director Sergio Leone borrow from Kurosawa's 1961 swordplay film ''Yojimbo'' for ''A Fistful of Dollars,'' the film that gave rise to the spaghetti western. ''Kill Bill'' closes the circle, bringing Asian, European and American influences together into a glorious, crazy, rousing and finally quite poignant meta-movie.

It isn't necessary to get all of Mr. Tarantino's references -- many quite esoteric -- to enjoy ''Kill Bill,'' but a little background information does enhance the experience. The notes below are meant to suggest a few points of entry into Mr. Tarantino's sprawling work. They are by no means exhaustive.

THE EAST (''Vol. 1'')

SONNY CHIBA -- In Mr. Tarantino's screenplay for ''True Romance,'' Christian Slater's character sneaks off to a double feature of Sonny Chiba films -- ''The Streetfighter'' and ''The Return of the Streetfighter,'' two of the most violent gangster movies ever to come out of Japan. Mr. Tarantino has matured since then, and Mr. Chiba's glowering presence in ''Kill Bill'' -- played brilliantly for comedy as well as menace -- now seems more of a reference to Mr. Chiba's long association with the Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku, who discovered him and with whom he made several dozen samurai dramas (a snatch of music from one of the best, ''The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy,'' can be heard in ''Kill Bill''). Mr. Chiba's character in ''Kill Bill,'' the master swordmaker Hattori Hanzo, who provides the Bride (Uma Thurman) with her weapon of vengeance, is named after a real-life samurai of the Tokugawa shogunate, first played by Mr. Chiba in a 1970's series for Japanese television.

GORDON LIU -- A gifted and popular star of the Shaw Brothers' kung fu films, Mr. Liu rose to fame under the direction of his brother, Liu Chia Liang, in favorites like ''The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.'' ''Kill Bill'' references ''36th Chamber'' by casting Mr. Liu, not as the pupil he played in that film, but as the fighting master -- Pai Mei, who teaches the Bride the ''five point exploding heart technique.'' With his outrageously long white facial hair that is as firmly associated with fighting masters in kung fu films as black mustaches are with the villains in American cowboy movies, Mr. Liu is barely recognizable in ''Vol. 2'' -- though he also appears in Vol. 1 with his familiar shaved head as the leader of Lucy Liu's Yakuza army, the Crazy 88.

LUCY LIU -- As O-ren Ishii, former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad and current ruler of the Tokyo underworld, Lucy Liu plays a character of mixed Japanese, Chinese and American ancestry -- which is, of course, the genealogy of ''Kill Bill'' itself. The look of her character seems based on ''Lady Snowblood,'' a stylish Japanese swordplay film of 1973 directed by Toshiya Fujita, whose heroine is a young woman born in prison and sworn to avenge the death of her family at the hands of a group of swindlers. The haunting imagery that concludes ''Vol. 1'' -- blood spilled in softly falling snow -- comes directly from Mr. Fujita's film, as does the use of chapter titles and a cartoon sequence (Mr. Tarantino's is animated; Mr. Fujita uses the still frames of a Japanese manga comic book).

KINJI FUKASAKU -- The Japanese prints of ''Kill Bill Vol. 1'' carried a dedication to Mr. Fukasaku, a major figure in Japanese genre filmmaking who died in January 2003 after directing some 60 features. Mr. Fukasaku's work ranged from courtly period dramas (like ''The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy'') to outrageously violent and anarchic gangster films, like his masterpiece ''Battles Without Honor and Humanity.'' The pounding theme music from ''Battles'' introduces the Crazy 88 in ''Vol. 1,'' and feeds into the spectacular massacre that is ''Vol. 1's'' finale. Chiaki Kuriyama, who played a murderous Japanese schoolgirl in Mr. Fukasaku's last completed film, ''Battle Royale,'' appears in ''Kill Bill'' in virtually the same role, the teenage killer, Go Go Yubari.