Come Drink with Me (1966)

Come Drink with Me is a 1966 Hong Kong wuxia film produced by Shaw Brothers Studio and directed by King Hu. Set during the Ming Dynasty, it stars Cheng Pei-pei, Yueh Hua and Chan Hung-lit in the leading roles, and features action choreography by Han Ying-chieh. Considered one of the greatest wuxia films of all time, Come Drink with Me was both a critical and commercial success, and launched the career of Cheng Pei-pei as a star of the wuxia genre. It was selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 39th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

Plot:

Zheng Bi-qiu, a provincial magistrate and the son of the governor, is kidnapped by the bandit Jade-Faced Tiger. Tiger demands Zheng release his imprisoned master, but when the principled man refuses, he instead holds him for ransom: demanding to the Governor that the master be released in five days, or his son will be killed. The Governor’s other child, a young woman known as Golden Swallow, is sent to rescue her brother. Initially disguised as a man, Golden Swallow is herself an adept swordfighter and martial artist, demonstrating her skills against Tiger’s bandits when they confront her at a local inn.

A local beggar, known as Drunken Cat, acts as Golden Swallow’s guardian angel, covertly saving her from an ambush attempt later that night. When Golden Swallow goes to thank him the next day, he feigns ignorance, appearing only as a hedonistic drunkard collecting scraps with his army of children. However, he covertly communicates the bandits whereabouts via a coded message in a song, describing the traditional Chinese character meaning temple (廟).

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Jade-Faced Tiger’s gang have occupied a local monastery with the support of its corrupt abbot, Liao Kung. Golden Swallow penetrates the compound disguised as a parishioner, but is swiftly found out by Jade-Faced Tiger and forced into a confrontation. Despite her skills, she is woefully outnumbered, and narrowly escapes with her life. During the brawl, she is injured by one of Tiger’s poison-tipped darts. She is rescued in the woods by Drunken Cat, who nurses her back to health.

Production:

Come Drink With Me was shot on-location in Taiwan and at the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong. It was the breakthrough role for actress Cheng Pei-pei, who was only 19 years old at the time of filming. Cheng did not have a martial arts background, but was a trained ballet dancer and choreographer, which director King Hu found conducive to his style of action filmmaking. Hu told critic Tony Rayns (quoted in Bey Logan’s book) that he had deliberately chosen a ballet dancer for the lead female role, “… rather than fighting. I’m very interested in Peking opera and particularly its movement and action effects, although I think it’s difficult to express them adequately on stage, where the physical limitations are too great”.