A Must-have
Summary
Consistently engaging and sometimes shockingly bloody and violent, Come Drink With Me doesn’t feel like a film made in the ’60s, but feels as fresh and vibrant today as it must have when it came out.
Plot: A governor’s son is taken hostage by a group of violent bandits, and a mysterious swordswoman and a vagabond with an elaborate past team up to get him back.
Review: A group of cutthroat bandits attack a government convoy and kill everyone except the governor’s son. They demand a ransom: They want their own imprisoned leader to be released in exchange for the governor’s son, and in their hubris they think they are untouchable. While camping out in a small village, they are stunned when a mysterious emissary named Golden Swallow (played by Cheng Pei-pei) of the governor shows up and demands that they surrender and release their prisoner. Thinking this person – who they think is a man – will be a pushover, they are completely blindsided when she turns out to be an incredibly formidable fighter who uses daggers rather than swords. In a scuffle with their enforcer, they find out that she’s a woman rather than a man, and she is poisoned with a dart, which could very well be the end of her, but she’s rescued by a drunken vagabond named Fan Ta-p’i (played by Yueh Hua) that travels with a bunch of beggar children, and the vagabond turns out to be an extremely powerful student of a mystical martial art that he keeps a secret. When the bandits realize that the vagabond actually used to be partners with one of their leaders (who’s also a practitioner of the mystical arts), the heat gets turned up and they send their full forces out to kill him and retain a valuable weapon he carries: A bamboo staff. With Golden Swallow and the vagabond as a team, the bandits may have met their match.
Consistently engaging and sometimes shockingly bloody and violent, Come Drink With Me doesn’t feel like a film made in the ’60s, but feels as fresh and vibrant today as it must have when it came out. With really intense and vivacious fight scenes with a dynamic sense of direction by King Hu, the movie stands head and shoulders above so many others of its ilk. It’s also quite stylish and colorful, and there’s a very good reason why this film is considered by many to be a classic kung fu film from the Shaw Brothers. Highly recommended, Come Drink With Me belongs on the top echelon of the genre.
Arrow Video’s brand new Blu-ray release of Come Drink With Me looks sharp and crisp in high definition, and includes a new audio commentary by film historian Tony Raynes, plus multiple interviews, documentaries, new cover artwork, and more, as well as an insert booklet with a new essay.
