With the release on Friday of Kill Bill Volume 2, 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.

With the dense network of references in "Kill Bill", 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.