Come Drink with Me (1966)

[Drunk Monk]

See this is why I need the forum. It's my external hard drive. I knew I reviewed this, but it was actually on the KFM forum back in 2008 (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?51089-Come-Drink-with-Me&p=864274#post864274">http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/sho ... post864274</a><!-- m -->)

Dragon Dynasty is the new leader in Kung Fu DVDs, with all the hot new titles and remastered versions of the classics. And they're doing great work. The archive films are being treated with respect, nicely restored with B&W outlined subtitles, and a well chosen library of classics. And Come Drink with Me is a classic for sure. It's remains a gorgeous film, great to see on a widescreen HDTV as opposed to the late night sketchy broadcast I probably first saw it on, a true masterpiece of King Hu and the Shaw Brothers. It's slow by today's standards - such is the pitfall of the YouTube attention span - but the sets and scenery and the costuming are magnificent. You have to remember, this was the very first film of its kind. Jackie is supposed to have a bit role (in the odd musical interlude no less) as a child actor, but I couldn't really spot him. Ching Siu Ting (a leading choreographer who just did Statham's In the Name of the King) has a child role too - he's much easier to see because he gets rather brutalized. CDwM is cut from the same celluloid cloth of Zatoichi, a brooding lone hero, impossible feats of martial arts, absurd rogue's galleries of villains, hyper-technicolor schemes, blood-soaked choreography. Cheng Pei Pei, with her commanding paranoid eyes and impossibly erect posture, is still captivating on screen. A ballet dancer by trade, she pulls off some fine fight sequences that involve cutting down a few dozen opponents in a single continuous shot, which she handles with the graceful flair of kung fu's most seminal movie heroine. Kill Bill, CTHD, Mulan and most recently, Forbidden Kingdom, they all bow down to the original Golden Swallow. There's a rumor that Tarantino is planning to remake CDwM. I think he already did with KB.

Since then, Weinstein Co announced they were going to do a remake with John Fusco screenwriting, but that was before netflix's Marco Polo.

Anyway, I caught this again on EL REY last night. I was astounded how fresh it looked, and how much I forgot form seeing this just 6 years ago. Cheng Pei Pei is still captivating in the role of Golden Swallow. She has such poise and precision, and delivers some long, complicated fight scenes throughout the film. The finale fight between the monk and Drunken Cat falls flat because it doesn't have Golden Swallow. It's all about her.

The traditional opera music really works well in this film although Drunken Cat's series of songs (with Jackie Chan as a child back-up singer) gets a little long and undecipherable because some clues are dropped but the songs were never translated. Still can't find Jackie. I know what scenes he's in (there is only one group of kids) but he's really hard to spot.

[Drunk Monk]

This is what I like about El Rey. The Flying Five Finger One Armed Eight Pole Shaolin Exploding Death Touch Thursdays are well paired. Golden Swallow is the sequel to Come Drink With Me, with Cheng Pei Pei again taking the titular role in a love triangle with Jimmy Wang Yu and Lo Lieh. What a choice. I've never cared for Wang Yu - he was a swimmer, not a martial artist, and his choreography always felt stiff like his acting. Lo Lieh is usually cast as the villain, a role that he would excel at later. According to El Rey, this was his first film. It's also not directed by King Hu. It's the other master of the wuxia genre, Chang Cheh. And it's pretty mediocre.

One thing I really liked about CDwM is that Golden Swallow is an independent heroine. She doesn't need a man. In fact, in both films, for some baffling reason, whenever Golden Swallow puts on men's clothes, she is taken to be a man, even those she's smokin hot, and doesn't change her hair or voice at all. Eh, all Asians look alike (and no, PPFY, this in no way justifies any of the Castle Highland 'oops-I-thought-you-were-Deb incidents. Not even). To have her subject to these two men who are going to duel over her reduces the character in so many ways. And it's more about Wang Yu, so the choreography is middling at best. The scenery is amazing - quite spectacular outdoor settings in contrast to CDwM which is almost all indoor sets. But that's the only notable improvement. GS was a very disappointing sequel.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Jade Fox lookin' good. CDwM was a fun movie. All hail El Rey!