I guess you wouldn't be reading this review if you weren't interested in, or at least curious about Kung Fu movies. If you have any interest at all in the style "Come Drink with Me" should be on your "must-see" list. When I first saw it, I didn't realize how old it was (1966), and as I watched it I assumed it was a later film because it is so sophisticated. The costumes, lighting, sets, story and in particular the cinematography are all top-notch. Yet it retains that blend of weirdness, cheesiness and badassery that makes me love this kind of movie, and which makes them so different from Hollywood movies.I don't have much of a technical understanding of cinematography and so I don't know the proper way to describe it, but I would just say that each shot is framed in an artistic way that makes it very pleasing to the eye. The whole movie just looks great. The story is more complex than most of the Kung Fu movies that I've seen (I've seen quite a few), and the characters and their development is more involved also. Cheng Pei-Pei is awesome in this role.One thing you should be aware of is that, probably because this is an older movie, the fight scenes are not as polished and choreographed as the ones that came along in the 70s and after. I'm not saying the fight scenes are bad by any means, in fact I suppose they are more realistic than most Kung Fu movies but they don't have the stylized "dance-like" fighting that most people come to love in these films. The movie also features more sword fighting and not so much hand-to-hand.The only kind of weird thing is that there is a scene toward the beginning where the main lady is supposed to be passing herself off as a man. I just can't believe that anyone would think she was a man in those scenes. I was confused when everyone kept "he" and "him" when talking about her, it took me a while to realize that she was supposed to be posing as a man. That's a minor quibble and it certainly doesn't detract from the movie at all; you have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit for these kind of movies, anyway!I know a lot of people that are really into movies but have never watched any Kung Fu films; when I recommend this genre to people this is always one of the movies I suggest. Highly recommended.

The Shaw Brothers studio was known for pumping out martial arts epic after martial arts epic during its heyday in the 1970s. These films were known for their sumptuous costumes and set design, their electrifying fight scenes packed with expert choreography and gallons of gore...I could go on. COME DRINK WITH ME is an early example of the genre, following on from TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS and sowing the seeds of what was to come.It's fair to say that COME DRINK WITH ME is a little dated compared to later Shaw vehicles, but it's still a worthwhile film. It's just that the fighting style is a little more simplistic than we're used to, the performances a little more mannered. Nonetheless, Cheng Pei-Pei still cuts the mustard as the skilled swordswoman, and the range of foes up against her remain entertaining to the end.The film has a few slow spots in the plotting and some extraneous moments, but it looks so good on a visual level, with excellent set design and costumes, that you just don't care. There are a wealth of strong performers in the supporting cast, including Yueh Hua's drunken sidekick, and fans of '80s-era Hong Kong cinema may spot the instantly recognisable Mars back when he was a child actor. Watch COME DRINK WITH ME to see where the martial arts and wuxia genres began.

Outstanding martial arts masterpiece, with Ms. Cheng (as Golden Swallow) doing some fancy footwork under the expert direction of King Hu (whose classic A TOUCH OF ZEN is another masterpiece). The incredibly fluid tracking shots of Cheng, as she nimbly battles her way spinning and lunging down stone temple steps and across courtyards, are must-see. There's also a rooftop chase that clearly inspired a similar scene in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (itself another masterpiece). The action in COME DRINK WITH ME is infinitely superior to the speeded-up camera-work, wirework and cgi all too common in today's martial arts movies (which should rightly be called "mechanical martial arts movies"). Even the magical elements (the use of chi) are handled in an interesting way. If you want to impress a non-fan, show them COME DRINK WITH ME: it'll make a believer out of them.

This is the movie that started it all, the watershed wu xia movie in Hong Kong to which pretty much all the kung fu and wire fu movies owe a debt. King Hu was the visionary director who introduced this new style of movie making to the world, and Come Drink With Me is the movie where he first did it.Such an important movie in HK history was clearly going to be one of the jewels in Celestial Pictures' remastered Shaw Brothers series, and indeed it was chosen as the flagship title - a restored print did a small tour of the world to build up interest in the catalog and secure distribution. The DVD was one of the first released, and is a very nice package with beautiful picture and sound quality, great subtitling and an interesting set of interviews. After so many years it's great to see the movie looking and sounding so good.Come Drink With Me begins with a group of bandits attacking a government party and capturing an official, who they hope to use as a hostage exchange for their leader, currently in prison. The government sends out an agent to negotiate the deal, the legendary swordsman Golden Swallow. Golden Swallow is played wonderfully by a young Cheng Pei Pei, in the "woman dressed as a man" character that would become a regular wuxia feature. They first meet in an inn that strongly resembles that from Dragon Inn (1992), where they engage in a battle of words and martial arts prowess that leaves the bandits in no doubt that Golden Swallow is not about to let them get away with their plans.Like seemingly all King Hu movies, the plot is layered and intricately woven, full of intrigue and politics and power plays. There's always more going on than meets the eye. It manages this without being at all difficult to follow though, unlike many of its imitators and successors.Come Drink With Me is full of colourful characters, such as the cheerful bandit Smiling Tiger or the singing drunken beggar played by Yueh Hua. Without a doubt the movie belongs to Cheng Pei Pei though, who is beautiful, graceful, fierce and proud, and a tremendous fighter. It's easy to see why audiences loved her, and her character left such a lasting influence on the wu xia movie. The production values in the movie are very high, with beautiful sets, locations and costumes and very nice cinematography. King Hu's skillful camera work is legendary, and the imagery is not as memorable as the imagery in Hu's later work such as A Touch Of Zen it is still of very high quality and way above its peers.The action scenes are probably the main legacy that Come Drink With Me left behind it though. As all the interviews on the disc agree, Hu's approach to choreographing and filming the sword fights raised the bar of Hong Kong martial arts movies to unparalleled levels, and really started the 'fight scene as art form' philosophy that would quickly come to be the defining characteristic of the colony's cinema. By todays standards there is no question that the fight scenes look slow and crude, and are a long way from the grace and beauty that the wu xia movie would eventually achieve under directors such as Tsui Hark and Ching Siu Tung (who has a small part in the movie as a child actor!). However, many of the cinematic styles and techniques were making their first appearance in this movie, so it is fascinating to see them and imagine how exciting they must have been to audiences at the time. The image of Cheng Pei Pei with her twin short swords is one that will linger in the memory for some time even now.Come Drink With Me had quite a reputation to live up to, and the difficulty a keen viewer had in seeing it until now doubtless enhanced that. Probably there will be many viewers that wonder what all the fuss was about, but I think few could dispute that it is a well crafted movie even without considering its historical importance. As is obligatory with any King Hu review though, I do have to point out that it is not as good as A Touch Of Zen