COME DRINK WITH ME (DA ZUI XIA)

1966/Director: King Hu/ Writers: King Hu, Yang Erh

Cast: Pei-pei Cheng, Hua Yueh

Cheng Pei Pei was a formal dancer who Shaw Brother’s actor, set designer and eventually director King Hu cast as the master sword fighter Golden Swallow in the groundbreaking film Come Drink With Me. She was most recently known as Chow Yun Fat’s antagonist Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Cheng Pei Pei could easily be said to be the first of the sword fighting women and 1966’s Come Drink With Me was her grand entry into the world of Kung Fu cinema. The film followed the tradition of Wuxia (wu=kung fu, martial arts, xia=hero, chivalry) literature and films (wu xia pian, pian being a term for movies) in China. The hero in the tradition is similar to the hero in Japanese Samurai films or the gunfighter in American Westerns. Usually a lone traveler with a code, or on a quest of some nature, confronts a ruthless opponent or gang. There is usually the matter of justice being served or an old score being righted and honor upheld. The film is actually part of a larger tradition of such films from China (Hong Kong) and was not the first one that spawned the genre as is sometimes claimed. The film is memorable for the way the fight scenes are filmed, the way it used music, Hu King’s marvelous sets and of course the lithe and elegant moves of Cheng Pei Pei ( this is the Hong Kong spell/Hollywood spelling of her Chinese name, while the Mandarin pinyin spelling is Zheng Pei Pei,  and is the name she is known by to most Chinese).

This film follows the wuxian tradition and many martial arts that followed do seem  influenced by this early classic of the genre. It is not a comedy and the fight scenes are not flashy or hyper by today’s standards but they are finely choreographed. The general storyline tells of the hero Golden Swallow on a quest to free her brother from the hands of a ruthless gang. There is the first confrontation with the gang in a tavern where everyone thinks she is a young man. This is my only complaint about the film and a similarity here exists with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Cheng Pei Pei not for one instant resembles a young man or boy, anymore than Zhang Ziyi does in the nearly mirror scene in the Ang Lee (Li Ang)  film. There seems to be no reason for them thinking she is and it does not add to the story at all, and when they discover she is not a boy later in the film they show no surprise at all. It is never explained why she was supposed to be a boy and it is really rather funny and confounding to watch the scenes where this beautiful woman is confused for a guy.
She meets up with the alcoholic beggar (but also skilled  Kung Fu master) Drunken Cat played by another early star of Kung Fu cinema Yang Erh  and soon they are both on the same mission but for different reasons. In the tradition of many Wu Xia Pan films Drunken Cat is on a personal quest to avenge the death of his teacher by another Kung Fu students, whose Kung Fu skills surpasses he own, but Drunken Cat is motivated by a just cause.

As in cowboy westerns whose heros rely on their fast and accurate gunplay, the life of the Wuxia  hero hinges on his Kung Fu and sword skills as he or she travels the land righting wrongs and confronting those who have submitted to the dark temptations of their Kung Fu mastery. One thing I noticed, and liked, about this film was an absence of a music score during the fight scenes as well as the absence of the swooshing sounds the fighter’s feet and hands would later make. It added to the realism. And while there are some super Kung Fu moments like gliding through the air or running up walls it is not as over done as in later movies. This film along with Dragon Gate Inn and A Touch of Zen are considered King Hu’s best works and reviews of those two films are in the works here and will be posted soon.

THE FIGHT SCENE IN THE TEMPLE FROM COME DRINK WITH ME