Tokyo · Beijing · Los Angeles · shot 2002
Almost none of this Tokyo is Tokyo. Pull a card and turn it over.
Kamishibai · seven picture cards
The Bride’s way to the House of Blue Leaves, told as kamishibai, the paper theatre of Japanese street storytellers: one painted card at a time, slid out of a small wooden frame. Each card is a piece of the film’s Tokyo. Turn it over and its back says where it was really made.
Seven cards in the theatre. Pull the first.
The skyline is a miniature Yokohama reused from Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001); the plane was filmed in a Japanese studio.
The order of the cards follows the film’s way to the House of Blue Leaves; the cards are this page’s own.
The backs of the cards land here.
Nothing pulled yet.
The arrival
When the Bride flies in over Tokyo under a red sky, the city below is a tabletop. The production reused a miniature Yokohama skyline built for Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, released in 2001, and filmed the plane in a Japanese studio.
The model is dark.
The Tokyo arrival used a repurposed miniature Yokohama skyline from the 2001 Godzilla film; the plane shot was filmed at a Japanese studio.
Kabukichō has a Godzilla of its own: a head on a hotel a block from Yasukuni-dori, where the Bride rides.
Kabukichō, Shinjuku
A 970-room hotel at 1-19-1 Kabukichō, a block from the stretch of Yasukuni-dori where the Bride rides. It has a lounge with a view of its Godzilla head, a Godzilla room and a Godzilla vs King Ghidorah room: a fitting bed, since the film’s Tokyo skyline is a miniature from a Godzilla film. Rooms are sold room-only.
See the hotelRound lanterns, timber galleries
1-13-11 Nishi-Azabu, Minato, Tokyo
Gonpachi inspired the House of Blue Leaves, but nothing was filmed here: the restaurant was rebuilt as a set on a soundstage in Beijing.
The owner is reported to have turned the shoot down.
The restaurant’s own page links it to Kill Bill, and to an “izakaya summit” between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
It seats 260 on two floors, serves soba from buckwheat ground in a stone mill each morning, grills skewers over binchotan charcoal and is non-smoking throughout.
Time Out says it dominates the Nishi-Azabu crossing like a feudal castle; a separate sushi restaurant on the third floor has an open-air terrace.
A working restaurant, open every day from 11:30 until 3:30 the next morning; lunch runs to 3pm, and after 5pm there is a minimum charge of ¥1,650 a head. About ten minutes on foot from Roppongi, Nogizaka or Hiroo station.
The 5.6.7.8’s, who play in the House of Blue Leaves, are a real Tokyo band, formed in 1986. Tarantino heard them in a Tokyo clothes shop a few hours before a flight home; the assistant would not sell him the CD, so the manager was called and he paid double.
In the film they play I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield, I’m Blue and Woo Hoo.
The 5.6.7.8’s: formed in Tokyo in 1986; Tarantino heard them in a Tokyo clothing store and paid double for the CD; the three songs they play in the film.
They appear as themselves, performing at the House of Blue Leaves.
Hattori Hanzō’s sushi bar in Okinawa, and the room where he keeps his swords, were sets built in Beijing.
Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo · From ¥1,650 a head after 5pm
The restaurant behind the House of Blue Leaves, open every day from 11:30 until 3:30 the next morning; lunch runs to 3pm. After 5pm there is a minimum charge of ¥1,650 a head. Book by phone or online on its own site.
Book a tableLos Angeles · Pasadena · Hi Vista
Four years asleep, the Bride wakes in a hospital and gets as far as a pickup in the car park. Then she has to will her legs back, one toe at a time. The Los Angeles part of the film comes back the same way.
Nothing yet. Try the big toe.
Awake · 2632 East Washington Boulevard, Pasadena
The Bride wakes up in hospital, four years later.
Closed and fenced since 2002. Look from East Washington Boulevard only.
The car park · 2404 Wilshire Boulevard, Westlake, Los Angeles
In the back of a pickup in the hospital car park, she tells herself to wiggle her big toe until her legs come back.
A loft building across from MacArthur Park; its garage is public parking. Westlake/MacArthur Park station is across the park.
Where it began · Avenue G, Hi Vista, Antelope Valley, California
The story begins at a wedding rehearsal in the Two Pines chapel.
Now the Sanctuary Adventist Church, about 21 miles east of Lancaster. Saturday services are open to visitors; ask before taking photographs, inside or out. You need a car.
Hollywood Boulevard and Beverly Boulevard
Eleven days before the film opened in America, its cast walked into Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. 2.9 kilometres south, Tarantino now runs a cinema of his own.
6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The film had its premiere here on 29 September 2003. Tarantino and Thurman arrived together; Lucy Liu, Sonny Chiba, Chiaki Kuriyama, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine and the 5.6.7.8’s came too.
A working cinema on Hollywood Boulevard; the forecourt is open to walk through.
7165 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles
Tarantino owns the New Beverly and is its head programmer; he wants it to be a bastion for 35mm film.
Sherman Torgan opened it as a repertory cinema in 1978.
In March 2011 its marquee announced the combined Kill Bill, both volumes as one film, for a week.
A working repertory cinema that shows film prints only. Check the month’s calendar before you go.
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for film-location tours of Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles. Check each itinerary for the Chinese Theatre and Bunker Hill.
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Compare toursThe people
Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed it. Around Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu are Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green, Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver, Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzō and Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari, O-Ren’s schoolgirl bodyguard. Yuen Woo-ping advised on the fights, RZA wrote the score, and Production I.G drew Chapter 3.
Cast, director, Yuen Woo-ping as martial arts adviser, RZA’s score, Production I.G’s anime chapter; 155 days for the combined production, eight weeks for the House of Blue Leaves, the US release on 10 October 2003 and $180.9 million worldwide.
11 places across four areas. The anime studio, the Beijing lot, the closed hospital and the desert chapel are seen from outside; the rest you can walk into or along.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working restaurant, open every day from 11:30 until 3:30 the next morning; lunch runs to 3pm, and after 5pm there is a minimum charge of ¥1,650 a head. About ten minutes on foot from Roppongi, Nogizaka or Hiroo station.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Walk it: the north and south promenades on the lower deck open 9am to 9pm in summer and 10am to 6pm in winter, last entry half an hour before closing. Yurikamome trains stop at Shibaura-futō and Odaiba-kaihinkōen at either end.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public avenue. The neon stretch runs east along Kabukichō from where the road passes under the railway by Shinjuku station.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working animation studio, not open to drop-in visitors: see the building from the street, three blocks north-east of Mitaka station.
1-13-11 Nishi-Azabu, Minato, Tokyo
Gonpachi inspired the House of Blue Leaves, but nothing was filmed here: the restaurant was rebuilt as a set on a soundstage in Beijing.
A working restaurant, open every day from 11:30 until 3:30 the next morning; lunch runs to 3pm, and after 5pm there is a minimum charge of ¥1,650 a head. About ten minutes on foot from Roppongi, Nogizaka or Hiroo station.
Between Shibaura and Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo
O-Ren’s convoy crosses the lit bridge on the way to the House of Blue Leaves, about 65 minutes in: Tokyo, for real, on screen.
Walk it: the north and south promenades on the lower deck open 9am to 9pm in summer and 10am to 6pm in winter, last entry half an hour before closing. Yurikamome trains stop at Shibaura-futō and Odaiba-kaihinkōen at either end.
Yasukuni-dori at Kabukichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo
The Bride rides her motorcycle along Yasukuni-dori past Shinjuku’s big signs, a minute after the bridge.
A public avenue. The neon stretch runs east along Kabukichō from where the road passes under the railway by Shinjuku station.
2-1-9 Nakachō, Musashino, Tokyo
Production I.G animated Chapter 3, The Origin of O-Ren, the film’s anime sequence, directed by Kazuto Nakazawa.
A working animation studio, not open to drop-in visitors: see the building from the street, three blocks north-east of Mitaka station.
Stay
A hotel in Kabukichō, a block from Yasukuni-dori.
Kabukichō, Shinjuku
A 970-room hotel at 1-19-1 Kabukichō, a block from the stretch of Yasukuni-dori where the Bride rides. It has a lounge with a view of its Godzilla head, a Godzilla room and a Godzilla vs King Ghidorah room: a fitting bed, since the film’s Tokyo skyline is a miniature from a Godzilla film. Rooms are sold room-only.
See the hotelGo there
A table at Gonpachi, Shinjuku at night, the bay and the Los Angeles locations.
Nishi-Azabu, Tokyo · From ¥1,650 a head after 5pm
The restaurant behind the House of Blue Leaves, open every day from 11:30 until 3:30 the next morning; lunch runs to 3pm. After 5pm there is a minimum charge of ¥1,650 a head. Book by phone or online on its own site.
Book a tableShinjuku, Tokyo
Live marketplace results for night walks in Shinjuku and Kabukichō. None is built round this film; Yasukuni-dori is the main road through the district.
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Compare toursTokyo Bay
Live marketplace results for Tokyo Bay cruises and Odaiba evenings. Check each one passes under or near the Rainbow Bridge.
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Live marketplace results for film-location tours of Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles. Check each itinerary for the Chinese Theatre and Bunker Hill.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
No Kill Bill screening is announced at the New Beverly to 1 November 2026.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
The 2003 soundtrack on vinyl, and Tarantino’s own book on the films he grew up with.
Various artists · 12-inch vinyl, Maverick, 2003
The 2003 soundtrack, released on 23 September 2003, with the 5.6.7.8’s, Meiko Kaji, Santa Esmeralda and RZA.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyQuentin Tarantino · Harper
Tarantino’s 2022 book on the films he grew up watching in Los Angeles.
Find the bookDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
11 of 11 places · 12 of 12 Moments
1-13-11 Nishi-Azabu, Minato, Tokyo
The House of Blue Leaves is modelled on Gonpachi.
Between Shibaura and Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo
O-Ren’s convoy crosses the Rainbow Bridge at night.
Yasukuni-dori at Kabukichō, Shinjuku, Tokyo
The Bride rides past the big signs of Shinjuku.
2-1-9 Nakachō, Musashino, Tokyo
O-Ren Ishii’s childhood is told as anime, in Chapter 3.
77 North Third Ring Road West, Haidian, Beijing
Hattori Hanzō’s sushi bar in Okinawa, and the room where he keeps his swords, were sets built in Beijing.
The House of Blue Leaves, the 5.6.7.8’s on its stage, filmed in Beijing over eight weeks.
Figueroa Street mouth, Bunker Hill, Los Angeles
At a red light, the Bride eyes the car ahead.
2404 Wilshire Boulevard, Westlake, Los Angeles
In the back of a pickup in the hospital car park, she tells herself to wiggle her big toe until her legs come back.
6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The cast arrive for the premiere on Hollywood Boulevard.
7165 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles
Both volumes run together as one film for a week.
2632 East Washington Boulevard, Pasadena
The Bride wakes up in hospital, four years later.
Avenue G, Hi Vista, Antelope Valley, California
The story begins at a wedding rehearsal in the Two Pines chapel.
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