Come Drink with Me

Dir: King Hu
Scrs: King Hu, Er Yang (aka Ting Shan-hsi)
Prod Co: Shaw Brothers
Co-starring: Elliot Yueh Hua, Golden Chen Hung-lieh, Li Yunzhong, Yang Zhiqing
1966 | Colour | DCP | Mandarin | Chi & Eng Subtitles | 90min

King Hu reinvented the wuxia genre, blending martial arts with the choreography of Chinese opera, the philosophical spirit of traditional Chinese thought, and the visual elegance of classical Chinese painting. Shaw Brothers Studio’s Come Drink with Me not only established the distinctive style that would define Hu’s later masterpieces, but also launched Cheng Pei-pei’s career as a female wuxia star. In her very first wuxia film, she displayed the poise and nobility of a swordswoman, proving herself a natural for the genre.

In Come Drink with Me, she stars as Golden Swallow, who sets out to rescue her kidnapped brother from a gang of bandits. She meets the mysterious Drunken Cat (Elliot Yueh Hua), a highly skilled swordsman disguised as a beggar, who repeatedly comes to her aid. Together, they face the bandits in a thrilling final confrontation, fighting off waves of attackers in a monastery. Through meticulously choreographed mise-en-scène and dynamic editing, King Hu created an entirely new visual language for wuxia cinema. His revolutionary style would go on to influence later wuxia films, from Tsui Hark’s Dragon Inn (1992) to Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Meanwhile, Cheng Pei-pei rose to fame overnight as Golden Swallow, a character so popular that she inspired numerous spin-offs centred on the legendary heroine in the 1970s.

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