Blood Work

High above the soupy smog of Beijing, on the eastern side of Miaofeng mountain, lie the bones of Yihuan. The seventh son of Emperor Daoguang and the father of Emperor Guangxu, he was an exalted man and rests in an exalted grave. Walk up 100 cracked stone stairs, past a massive turtle-shaped incense burner, green scalloped roofs, and ancient huts, and you'll reach his tomb -- a deep, circular structure swaddled in bamboo and stooped trees. Lipstick red dragonflies zing through the air. Cicadas the size of baby fists hum hypnotically. And today, in sticky late August, not 20 feet from where Yihuan has made his home for more than a century, a dirt-caked Uma Thurman narrows her eyes, lets out a nasty grunt, and kicks kung-fu-movie legend Gordon Liu squarely in the balls.

From behind a camera Quentin Tarantino grins and gasps, ''This is the movie of my movie-geek dreams!''

''Hey, look, I know. I get it. I talked to him about it. I said to Quentin, 'Listen, speaking as a fan and as your partner, when are you going to make your next f---ing movie?''' --Lawrence Bender, producer of every film Quentin Tarantino has directed

Well, that's the question, isn't it? What the hell happened to Quentin Tarantino? Until he popped up from the Hollywood Hills cradling a script called ''Kill Bill'' last year, the director -- arguably the most imitated filmmaker of the last two decades -- had been pretty much AWOL from movies for almost five years. Rumors were swirling: He had a horrific case of writer's block; he was busy doctoring scripts; the man was still stinging from the middling response to 1997's underrated ''Jackie Brown'' (which grossed $40 million versus $108 million for 1994's ''Pulp Fiction''). But the simple reality was that Tarantino was always working, always dabbling in one project or another. And like most epic diversions, the outlandish action flick he's currently shooting began life in the back room of a bar.

''Uma and I came up with the idea playing [miniature] shuffleboard,'' Tarantino says, grinning. ''It was while we were shooting 'Pulp Fiction.' And we were goofing and drinking and we just started dreaming it up, okay? This character called'' -- he pauses for effect -- ''The Bride.''

''You know when you spin a story with friends?'' asks Thurman, pulling on a Marlboro Light between kicks to Gordon Liu's groin. ''We were talking about revenge dramas and I said, 'I could play a character like, uh, this! And she's an assassin!' We came up with a rough idea, just going back and forth like you might one hundred times a day. And then he went and actually wrote nine pages. He was talking big talk about how it was going to be his next movie.''

Well, it wasn't, obviously. Tarantino swears that the 1995 comedy anthology ''Four Rooms'' -- for which he wrote and directed a segment -- was what pulled him away from his Uma Thurman thriller. But to meet the director is to understand how easily his focus wanders to any of his myriad passions. (Pity the poor ''Kill Bill'' first assistant director, whose job seems to consist largely of shooting nasty looks at journalists and yanking Tarantino out of long pop discursions with the words ''Uh, QT? The movie?'') And after the teeth-rattling impact of ''Pulp Fiction'' -- the awards, the Travolta comeback, the tabloid coverage, hell, the gimp -- it seems more than likely that the man just got distracted. Sure, the nine handwritten pages of ''Kill Bill'' had become 30 by late 1994. And, yeah, he was excited enough about them to rouse Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein at 2 o'clock one morning. ''Harvey went, 'Who the hell is this!' And I said, 'It's Quentin! I just wrote 30 pages of my new script! Wanna hear it?' And there was this long pause and then 'Uh...yeah!''' But the Elmore Leonard novel ''Rum Punch'' taxied onto the runway instead, took off as the blaxploitation homage ''Jackie Brown,'' and everyone forgot the trashy little movie that Tarantino had put in his desk drawer.

You Might Also Like

• DVD Review Kill Bill -- Vol. 1 (Apr 13, 2004) | Chris Willman
• Movie Review Kill Bill -- Vol. 1 (Oct 10, 2003) | Owen Gleiberman
• Photo Gallery 25 best action movies since '83 (1988) | Marc Bernardin
• All About Kill Bill -- Vol. 1
• Movie Commentary Uma Thurman kicks butt in the ''Kill Bill'' movies (Oct 10, 2003)
• DVD Commentary Uma Thurman made our list of favorite movie hitmen (Apr 13, 2004)