Review Detail

I enjoyed this part more than the first, but the way this 2-part edit was conceived, this half was always going to be the more dynamic of the two, since all of the setup was taken care of in the first part. But also, it flows better, It has a better scene-to-scene rhythm. It's not exactly a 3-act structure since the Japan sequence takes up 50% of the runtime right in the middle, with the Elle/Bud sequence begun in Part 1 resolved beforehand and the Bill sequence taking up the last quarter. But since the Japan sequence itself comprises both the Crazy 88 fight and the whole O-Ren garden confrontation, the film feels nicely balanced. It's a shame that it came, somewhat, at the expense of part 1, because the setup for O-Ren would make a lot more sense IMO in this part. I can't help but wonder what a two part Kill Bill edit with the same split point would look like were some things moved around to make each part stand on their own the way the original films do.
There are some music replacements here, and they are consistently surprising and occasionally big swings. I'm a fan of big swings, so kudos, but I do think they are ultimately a mixed bag. I was really pleased with what was done at the House of Blue Leaves all the way through, but there were some very un-Tarantino choices in the rest of the film that detracted from the overall feel for me. I adore Sonic Youth, but I don't feel like they belong here. Music complaints aside, the actual editing of the sound was done very well.
As far as visual editing, I had a couple of issues. At about 13 minutes, there are a few dropped frames and a purple bar that sticks around for a couple of seconds. Probably an issue with the rendering. Also, whatever was done with the Japanese subtitles completely removed them for me. They simply were not present, and there were no subtitles to select. Also, while I can appreciate the decision to keep the color sequence for the Crazy 88 fight, there's a shot at 30:21 where one of them sprays blood that had no color at all, just water. Considering there were some really excellent trims to this scene and those immediately surrounding it, that shot probably should have been one of them as it stuck out like a sore thumb in that sea of red. Other than those issues, the edit flowed well and looked great.

If you enjoyed part 1, I'm sure you will enjoy this part. And if you were iffy on part 1, I would say this one is still worth checking out. I have my issues, but this is still some solid work.