Wow. What an awesome movie. To start, I’ve now seen both 1 and 2 and my favorite of the two is the first one. I really enjoyed the swordplay. Gotta give Uma Thurman a lot of respect. She must have worked out and practiced for hundreds of hours to get those moves down.
I also really enjoyed the soundtrack. Both the movie and the soundtrack are highly recommended. The best song on the soundtrack is called Battle Without Honor or Humanity. It is originally from an album called Electric Samurai by Tomoyasu Hotei. You will recognize it as the only song on the whole album which is sort of electronic or techno. It is played in one excellent scene as Oren Ishii and her band of misfits walk quickly down a white hallway. Soooo cool.
Tarantino pulls no punches in this one. There are definitely some raw moments which will leave certain people fairly offended. But overall, its a masterpiece of cinematography and has a great story.