Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Volume 1
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Quentin Tarantino
Produced by	Lawrence Bender
Starring	Uma Thurman Lucy Liu Vivica A. Fox Michael Madsen Daryl Hannah David Carradine Sonny Chiba Julie Dreyfus Chiaki Kuriyama Gordon Liu Michael Parks
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Edited by	Sally Menke
Music by	RZA
Production company	A Band Apart[1]
Distributed by	Miramax Films[1]
Release date	October 10, 2003 (2003-10-10)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States[1]
Languages	English Chinese Japanese
Budget	$30 million[2]
Box office	$180.9 million[2]

Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Uma Thurman as the Bride, who swears revenge on a group of assassins (Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and Vivica A. Fox) and their leader, Bill (David Carradine), after they try to kill her and her unborn child. Her journey takes her to Tokyo, where she battles the yakuza.

Tarantino conceived Kill Bill as an homage to the 1973 film Lady Snowblood, grindhouse cinema, martial arts films, samurai cinema, blaxploitation and spaghetti Westerns. It features an anime sequence by Production I.G. Volume 1 is the first of two Kill Bill films made in a single production. They were originally set for a single release, but the film, with a runtime of over four hours, was divided in two. This meant Tarantino did not have to cut scenes. Volume 2 was released six months later.

Kill Bill was theatrically released in the United States on October 10, 2003. It received positive reviews and grossed over $180 million worldwide on a $30 million budget, achieving the highest-grossing opening weekend of a Tarantino film to that point.