Kill Bill is the fourth film by writer-irector Quentin Tarantino. Originally conceived as one film, it was released in two separate volumes (in Autumn 2003 and Spring 2004) due to its running time of approximately four hours. The movie is an epic-length revenge drama, with homages to earlier film genres, such as Hong Kong martial arts movies, Japanese samurai movies and Italian spaghetti westerns; an extensive use of popular music and pop culture references; and deliberate over-the-top violence.