Come Drink With Me (1966)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Dragon Dynasty / 2008
Directed by King Hu
Written by King Hu & Yang Erh
Cast: Pei-pei Cheng, Hua Yueh, Hung Lieh Chen & Yunzhong Li
Review by Brian Harris

A dastardly group of bandits overtake a caravan and take the governor’s son hostage in an effort to force the governor into a trade, the freedom of his son for that of their leader. Expecting to meet some resistance from the governor’s top agent, Golden Swallow, the gang decides to ambush him at the local tavern in order to get him out of the way but there’s more to Golden Swallow than meets the eye! Can Golden Swallow and local Kung Fu master Drunken Cat rescue the governor’s son before it’s too late or will they fall at the hands of an evil abbot?

Come Drink With Me is a masterpiece of Kung Fu cinema as well as a milestone for the modern day martial arts movie heroine. Without Hu’s creation we may never have seen films like My Young Auntie, Croughing Tiger, Hidden Dragon or even Kill Bill; to say it is an important entry would be an understatement. The amount of style and work put into this film still shows to this day and hold’s up just as well as anything sitting out on shelves.

The cinematography by Tadashi (Way of the Dragon) Nishimoto was quite good, choreography solid and the art design exquisite. All the elements present in this film worked together incredibly well but it was the captivating beauty and elegant grace of Cheng Pei-pei and the organic direction of director King Hu that have no doubt raised the film’s significance.

• Screen Format: 2.35:1 Widescreen / Color
• Audio: English, Mandarin / Dolby 2.0 Mono & Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Running time: 95 mins.

• Audio Commentary w/ Cheng Pei-pei & Bey Logan
• Featurette – “The King and I: Tsui Hark Remembers King Hu”
• Featurette – “Come Speak with Me: Exclusive Interview with Cheng Pei-pei”
• Featurette – “A Classic Remembered: A Retrospective with Bey Logan”
• Featurette – “The Drunken Master: Exclusive Interview with Man Yueh Hua”
• Trailers

Come Drink With Me is super cool, ultra stylish and quite slick; the characters are entertaining and the story is engaging. Pei-Pei is gorgeous as Golden Swallow and Hua Yueh turned in a truly amusing role as “drunken master,” Drunken Cat. If you’re a Kung Fu fan and you haven’t seen this film yet you’re really missing out on a landmark martial arts film, I can’t recommend it enough. Dragon Dynasty have really done this film a great service and shown it the respect is deserves.

“Ultra Cool & Original!”