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Uma Thurman stars as The Bride in Quentin Tarantino’s highly anticipated “Kill Bill V

While many critics bemoaned Miramax’s decision to release “Kill Bill” in two installments as a ploy to force moviegoers to pay twice for the same film, it turns out that “Kill Bill Vol. 2” actually does have a tone and style that are distinctly different from those of the first film, even though the story it continues is the same.

For one thing, while Quentin Tarantino has certainly included plenty of thrilling action and fight scenes, there is a marked lack of the same kind of multiple-victim blood baths that characterized “Vol. 1.” The Bride leaves a little less carnage in her wake this time around, having only three targets left on her hit list: the title character (a brilliantly cast David Carradine), his brother Budd (Michael Madsen) and the maniacal Elle Driver (an unnaturally full-lipped Daryl Hannah).

On an emotional level, “Vol. 2” also distinguishes itself from its predecessor by actually, well, having one. Where “Vol. 1” gave us a cold-blooded killer on a linear path of revenge, “Vol. 2” lets us into the inner world of Uma Thurman’s assassin, finally revealing not only the character’s name but also her real relationships to her victims and how those ties create certain weaknesses with which she clearly struggles. If The Bride felt like a little less than an actual person in the first part, she certainly makes up for it in this one.

All this is not to suggest that Tarantino has completely abandoned his trademark banter or let go of the passion for paying homage to his film influences that permeated the first release.

One lengthy but brilliant sequence takes The Bride back to the misty mountains of rural China where she was under the tutelage of martial arts master Pei Mai. Not only has Tarantino cast kung fu legend Gordon Liu in the part, but the entire episode, from the beat-heavy 1970s music to the tandem, silhouetted workout scenes, displays the director’s reverence for classic Shaolin films such as “Fists and Guts” or “The Master Killer.”

But Tarantino’s genius has always shown in his ability to see the inherent humor within the genres he admires, and fortunately, the chapter titled “The Cruel Tutelage of Pei Mai” is no exception. Pei Mai himself is constantly flipping his long, slender white beard through his fingers for emphasis and saying things (in Cantonese of course, with subtitles) to Thurman’s character like “Your anger amuses me.” It’s classic kung fu, but it’s classic Tarantino at the same time.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this deeply satisfying and highly entertaining conclusion to the “Kill Bill” saga is how openly sentimental it feels. The Bride’s real motives, once they are finally revealed, seem awfully suburban for a Tarantino film, let alone one that spends so much time dealing with topics such as death and revenge in such an unblinking manner. And where she ends up by the movie’s finish feels so normal as to force one to wonder whether the overpowering bloodshed that has occurred could be associated with the same woman we see now.

In fact, this seems to be Tarantino’s message precisely: even trained killers have souls and they want the same thing we all want. Isn’t that sweet.

-Sommer Mathis