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Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (Reconstruction)

TheMilkmanConspiracy

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OAtofN5.jpg


(coverart generously provided by Nick Kemp. Check out more of his work on Instagram @_nickkemp)

Yes, I know, yet another WBA edit, but hear me out...

My aim with this is simple: recreate Tarantino's single film cut of Kill Bill to the best of my ability using as much HD footage as possible, based on first-hand accounts of people who have attended screenings of Tarantino's own Whole Bloody Affair cut. No more, no less (well, okay, maybe a little more and a little less).

By all accounts, Tarantino's WBA is simply the Japanese uncut versions of volumes 1 and 2 stitched together with an intermission, except without the cliffhanger ending of the first volume or the recap at the beginning of the second. Pretty straightforward.

I know others have attempted something similar, but it seems like every edit I've encountered so far tinkers with the film in some way that turns it into a less-than-ideal viewing experience for me, such as leaving the volume one cliffhanger reveal in, or reinserting the deleted Michael Jai White scene (I'll never understand why so many insist on doing this).


"A little more, and a little less":

I'm not going to bother to attempt to include the intermission because I couldn't possibly recreate that in any faithful way. Besides, we have the luxury of creating our own intermissions any time we'd like with the help of the PAUSE button.

The only small creative liberty that I might like to take is to include both the Fukasaku dedication and the Klingon proverb at the beginning of the film.

On the one hand, the proverb is the only thing I miss from the theatrical cut, and while I think the dedication is great, I also think it's a shame to lose the proverb in the process, and I think a lot of people would be bummed to see it missing from the beginning of the film.

But on the other hand, that's not in the WBA cut that Tarantino himself assembled and screened at Cannes and elsewhere, which is ultimately what I'm going for, so I'm a little torn. I'm already unable to completely recreate it the way Tarantino screened it since I'm not able to include the intermission (and that's to say nothing of the credits), so would it be too blasphemous to include both the tribute and the proverb?

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this. To keep the proverb or not to keep? Please sound off in the comments with your thoughts on the matter.

EDIT: After a night of mulling it over, I've decided to lose the proverb. It's what Tarantino did, and that's what I'm aiming for with this edit. I can always create a version with the proverb separately if enough people want it.


SOURCES:

Japanese Uncut DVDs of volumes 1 and 2
US Blurays of volumes 1 and 2
taas007's HD re-inked House of Blue Leaves sequence

Regarding the re-inked HOBL sequence, per taas007:
The 1080p color output is created from a mix of the uncut Japanese DVD & the retail US Blu-Ray.

The high-definition B&W Blu-Ray footage is supplemented with luma information from the DVD to recover blown highlights. Then the color from the DVD is upscaled using SuperResolution, added and luma levels adjusted shot-by-shot as the retail Blu-Ray has considerable filtering ontop of the B&W pass.

In essence, it means the highlights are upscaled as they were completely blown in the retail Blu-Ray.

The shot at [1:26:41] has an eight frame color data gap as the DVD cuts to a wide shot (and thus does not provide any usable color data) where the retail Blu-Ray stays with the closeup. The first half of the shot has been slowed down to 93.7% and picks up at 100% from where the Blu-Ray continues. No visible difference.

The result is the US Blu-Ray version with the "House of the Blue Leaves fight" fully in color.


WHAT I DID:

Utilizing as much HD footage as possible, I've recreated the Japanese uncut versions of volumes 1 and 2 in 1080p, stitched them together, and removed the cliffhanger ending from volume 1, and the recap from the beginning of volume 2.

For the footage that was not available in HD on the BDs, I used the Japanese DVD footage, which is unfortunately the best quality available to us at the moment.

However, for the House of Blue Leaves color sequence, I mostly used taas007's re-inked video, except for the portions that are exclusive to the Japanese version, which are sourced from the Japanese DVD. I also used a couple shots from the credit sequence at the end of volume two.

In recreating the volume one uncut portion, TM2YC's list of changes found here proved to be an invaluable source of information, and I thank them greatly. (There wound up being some slight differences since they used the UK BD and mine was US, but they were insignificant, and the list was still a great help).


HOW DOES THIS VERSION DIFFER FROM OTHER WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR RECONSTRUCTIONS?
  • It matches the Japanese versions of volumes 1 and 2, and therefore Tarantino's own cut of TWBA, probably closer than any other edit out there.
  • House of Blue Leaves fight is mostly in HD with the help of taas007's footage (I've only seen one other WBA edit that incorporates this).
  • The reveal/cliffhanger ending of volume 1 has been removed. This is how Tarantino's cut is, and is probably the biggest change to the film's narrative structure. Some WBA edits choose to leave this in, and in doing so, cease to be Tarantino's version of The Whole Bloody Affair. It's fine to leave it in for your own personal edit of Kill Bill, but not when you're trying to recreate The Whole Bloody Affair.
  • This edit DOES NOT include the deleted scene featuring Michael Jai White as Da Moe. This was absent from Tarantino's cut that he screened, and I will never understand why so many editors choose to include it, especially if the goal is to recreate TWBA.
  • This version does not include any extended Pai-Mei flashbacks during the campfire scene. It's a neat idea, but again, not in Tarantino's version of the film.

This edit has been completed! Reach out to me if you'd like to see it.
 

ChainsawAsh

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Now this I am interested in! How did you handle the multicolored subtitles?
 

Trez75

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This catches my eye right away. I have the Vol 1 on JP Dvd and I can't find a decent HD update of the whole duology.
Regarding keeping the proverbs. Just go without, if you wanna keep Tarantino's vision. 

Did you check what Dr. Sapirstein did with his version? I never had the chance to check it but it might be a good idea for you to check for references.

Good luck.
 

TheMilkmanConspiracy

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ChainsawAsh said:
Now this I am interested in! How did you handle the multicolored subtitles?

Honestly I wasn't thinking at all about the colors and was just planning on including a standard SRT file, but since you've expressed interest, I suppose I could add a SubStation Alpha file that retains the color information. Could also recreate Tarantino-esque subs that way, so that could be cool.

 
Trez75 said:
This catches my eye right away. I have the Vol 1 on JP Dvd and I can't find a decent HD update of the whole duology.
Regarding keeping the proverbs. Just go without, if you wanna keep Tarantino's vision. 

Did you check what Dr. Sapirstein did with his version? I never had the chance to check it but it might be a good idea for you to check for references.

Good luck.

Glad you're interested! Agreed on the proverb. I've decided to just stick with the dedication.

And no, I haven't checked out Dr. Sapirstein's version because, based on their change-list and what others have written about it, it doesn't sound quite like what I'm going for, so I didn't want to go through the trouble of tracking it down. The only thing I might have been interested in seeing from their edit is the new opening credit sequence they created out of curiosity because I ultimately decided to just leave the credits alone, but alas, their edit's not easy to find, and I've done just fine on my own.
 

Trez75

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Yeah @"TheMilkmanConspiracy", suppose it is the best choice to create your own version and disregard what other Fan Editors did in the past. You know I am such a fan of Chapter 3: The Origin of O-Ren anime and I wish that it could be an OAV on its own. 

Let me know if you need any help on reviewing the final edit. Take care
 

TheMilkmanConspiracy

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ChainsawAsh said:
Now this I am interested in! How did you handle the multicolored subtitles?

In searching for the correct font to use for the subtitles, I actually happened upon a topic on originaltrilogy.com where you mentioned red subtitles on the Region 1 DVDs (which I do not own). However, I went through the US Blu-ray and only encountered yellow, green(ish), and white subtitles--no red. In what scene on the R1 DVDs were the subtitles red?
 

TheMilkmanConspiracy

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Speaking of subtitles, I've been trying to replicate this style from Inglourious Basterds, and most of the time they look fantastic, but sometimes they look like this and can be a little difficult to read on account of no font outline being used. Overall, I'm personally okay with it, but is this a deal-breaker for anyone? Is there a way to make that style easier to see in those instances without having to add an outline or something? Is that the portion that was in red on the R1 DVDs?
 

ChainsawAsh

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I think the red subtitles were in the Gogo bar flashback in volume 1, but it's been a long time since I've watched any version that preserves the original color changes in the subtitles and don't have an original R1 DVD anymore, either. So it's entirely possible there never were any red ones, but I could have sworn they were a thing originally in at least that one instance.

And the yellow subs look really good to me! I don't think you need an extra outline at all, that's pretty much exactly how I remember them.
 

VortexUnlimited

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You may be able to upscale the DVD scenes with Topaz Gigapixel AI for Video?
 

TheMilkmanConspiracy

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ChainsawAsh said:
I think the red subtitles were in the Gogo bar flashback in volume 1, but it's been a long time since I've watched any version that preserves the original color changes in the subtitles and don't have an original R1 DVD anymore, either. So it's entirely possible there never were any red ones, but I could have sworn they were a thing originally in at least that one instance.

And the yellow subs look really good to me! I don't think you need an extra outline at all, that's pretty much exactly how I remember them.

Awesome, thanks for getting back to me! I ended up matching the subtitle colors, timing, and placement exactly as they are on the R1 blu-ray, so no red subtitles, but I’m happy with them.
VortexUnlimited said:
You may be able to upscale the DVD scenes with Topaz Gigapixel AI for Video?

Nah, I’ve pretty much never seen a DVD upscale that’s convinced me that it’s worth going through all the extra trouble to do. It’s DVD footage, there’s no getting around it, but I tried to blend it in as much as possible. And anyway, I already finished and submitted this, so I guess it’s kind of a moot point.
 

jswert123456

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wow, already submitted, never any sample clips to show the progress or get advice.
 

TheMilkmanConspiracy

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Main post updated with coverart that was very generously provided to me by Nick Kemp. It's a recreation of the mock-up art for the canceled box set pictured below that was shown once at some convention:

ISDWJ97.jpg
 

jswert123456

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ChainsawAsh said:
Editors don't owe you sample clips.

i never said they did, I just simply said it would be nice to see, since there are so man KB edits out there already.
 

ChainsawAsh

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If that's how you meant it you probably shouldn't have phrased it in such an entitled/condescending way.
 

greenturnedblue

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Could someone please add an entry for this in the spreadsheet? I will gladly add myself to it
 

Moiisty

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is this the best way to watch kill bill as of 2020? I have only ever seen vol 1 of the jpn version and the us of vol 2
 

internisus

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Moiisty said:
is this the best way to watch kill bill as of 2020? I have only ever seen vol 1 of the jpn version and the us of vol 2


I've been searching for and comparing fan edits of "The Whole Bloody Affair" for years, and this is the first one that makes me happy with every single decision.  I do indeed think that this specific edit is the best way to watch Kill Bill.  Finally!
 

officialmaurice

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I've been searching for and comparing fan edits of "The Whole Bloody Affair" for years, and this is the first one that makes me happy with every single decision. I do indeed think that this specific edit is the best way to watch Kill Bill. Finally!
Awesome! I can’t wait to see this edit, then. I’ve never seen any other edit so this seems to be the cream of the crop. Can’t wait.
 
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