L'hirondelle d'or

Shaw Brothers. Shaw Brothers. Shaw Brothers. We meet again.

Okay, so one day I was sitting around browsing the internet, and I thought to myself, "Hmm, why don't I download a bunch of Asian films to watch later?" Just in case you haven't already guessed, this was one of them. After watching several of the others, I finally decided to sit down to this one. The reason this one caught my eye is because it starred the lovely Pei-pei Cheng, who you may know from "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", where she played the not-so-lovely Jade Fox. Those of you who know me know I love watching women kick some ass in movies, and this was a Shaw Brothers film on top of that, so I just HAD to get up in that.

Yeah, it was pretty damn cool. Those of you who have to have some sort of deep plot and spellbinding visuals in every film you watch probably wouldn't get a whole lot out of this, but I have an open mind and this is my kind of film, so I instantly took a liking to it. Pei-pei Cheng was fascinating to watch and undeniably beautiful. She just has that sort of presence that draws you to her. Whenever she wasn't on screen, the movie definitely felt lacking in my eyes, but thankfully, she's on screen pretty darn often considering she's the main character. The fight choreography was obviously impressive, and there were some brutal scenes that will likely stay with me for a while, such as when a young apprentice is cruelly murdered in cold blood. For being as old as it is, this is also a very fast-paced film. Sure, there are some slow spots - not that they bothered me - but it's constantly moving forward, which made it all the more engaging. The story itself is solid for this type of film, but nothing too surprising. The print I saw had very good visual and audio quality, which was nice. Great, now I'm just stalling to make the review longer.

Well, it's simply a good film. I wasn't blown away, but I enjoyed it about as much as I'm capable of enjoying a martial arts film from the 60's these days. The fights alone are worth the price of admission, so if you haven't already seen this, what the hell have you been watching lately?

Beautifully shot early Kung Fu movie.

The fight choreography is primitive and lacks the excitement and creativity of later martial arts movies, but overall the movie delivers.

Has all the classic characters. Drunken hobo, wandering bounty hunter, evil Abbot, and ghostfaced villain.

Worth watching.

Being the second film I've seen from King Hu (the first being A Touch of Zen), there were definitely some clear differences with the ways both films handled the characters. The initial portrayal of Golden Swallow as formidable in combat and Fan as harmless, yet noble recalled the characters in A Touch of Zen, but as the film went on, the clearer it became that Fan had a lot to hide, both in regards to his superior fighting skills and his history with the bandit's leader. While Golden Swallow can fight well in combat by herself and kill a few bandits here and there (albeit taking some scratches in the process), Fan is shown to understand the craft far better than her and can kill his opponents much quicker. How surprising it will be when, given the strong emphasis on Golden Swallow's rivalry with Jade Faced Tiger, she gets overshadowed and pushed aside during the final fight by Fan's rivalry with Liao (a dynamic which was given comparably less screen time in the film). It's an unexpected change of focus and, while such an idea would normally be a flaw, it's a more than fitting narrative choice for this film, given how well Fan was developed throughout the film (if I could change one aspect though, I'd give Liao some more prominence since he lacked the memorable development which Fan had). Not sure I like this film more than A Touch of Zen, but the former film has sat better with me upon reflection. The idea of slowly revealing the true colors of a formidable fighter who eventually rips through the fabric of the narrative has resonated with me quite well.

If you want to see the inspiration for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon this is it. I saw this after being opened up to wuxia (Chinese sword fight pics) by CTHD. Ang Lee was obviously inspired by Come Drink With Me. Remember the rooftop scene in CTHD?, the big bar brawl?, catching those little darts?, and the actress who played the Jade Fox (Cheng Pei Pei)? All are in Come Drink With Me. The story behind the movie is that Run Run Shaw of the legendary Shaw Brothers Studio wanted to make a Chinese version of a Japanese Samurai (Chanbara) movies. He hired a young, inexperienced, director now known to us as King Hu. The result was a movie that, for its time, was groundbreaking and it is still a lot of fun to watch today. Somebody PLEASE release a high quality DVD version though, because the only one I have found is AWFUL!

Come Drink With Me is touted as arguably the greatest martial arts film, ever. In its day, this is the movie that broke a lot of grounds, thanks to meticulous direction and vision of King Hu.

The story is simple though, telling of Golden Swallow's (Cheng Pei Pei) quest to rescue her brother, a government official, in a ransom case with a bunch of bandits. While her prowess is formidable, a little help is always appreciated when up against the masses, and little does she know that a beggar of sorts, called the Drunken Cat (Yueh Hua), turns out to be her guardian angel. While the Chinese title is obviously a reference to Yueh Hua's character, this movie is clearly Cheng Pei Pei's breakthrough in the martial arts genre.

The martial arts here is distinctively different. For its time, it was a breakthrough, with its moving cameras, violence, splattering of blood, as well as fights done with adequate pauses and breaks, like a Western stand off at times, before lunging at each other. The movement, while fluid, is slow compared to these days, then again, having action done too fast would mean either stunt people taking over, or you can't see a thing. The style in this movie struck me as samurai styled swordplay, even though the weapon our heroine used was a pair of short swords rather than katanas. The weapons used too were real, lending a sense of realism when the combatants clash.

There are still some opera influences in the movie, especially when it comes to the music, done with Chinese orchestra, and accentuates the scenes like a big opera. Playing in sync to the action on screen, it's an early base on which films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon adopted to great effect. The cinematography is great too, given the many exterior shots in backlots and elaborate sets, featuring classical locales like inns and temples. The introductory scene in the inn will take your breath away, never mind that some cheesy (for today) techniques of stop motion and the reversing of film were used.

Cheng Pei Pei is a star in the movie, and she has managed to infuse her background in ballet and dance to the martial arts moves for the movie, bringing forth a very beautiful poise when executing her moves. Her eyes too were luminous and have a life of their own, and can stare daggers at her enemies. Yueh Hua though felt more carefree, given his role as a wandering beggar. And while there are hints of romance between their characters, don't hold your breaths on counting them developing it any further.

A to-the-point story, and excellent martial arts. This is a definite must watch for all martial arts genre fans.

IVL Code 3 DVD Extras:

A departure from the other IVL releases I've watched so far, this DVD had a valuable commentary by Cheng Pei Pei herself, and daughter Marsha Yuen, presented by film producer Bey Logan, in English. It's quite hilarious listening to Logan try and identify some of the actors, but always getting them wrong and had to be corrected by Pei Pei, until he knew not to embarrass himself further and allowed Pei Pei to introduce them instead. Marsha however, had little to contribute, except to laugh loudly into the microphone.

There are two Come Drink With Me trailers included, one the original which had its written script which you have to read running from right to left, and the quality is pretty degraded. The new remastered one is definitely clearer, and so were the trailers for other movies, some starring Pei Pei herself.

You have the usual extras as well, like the few movie stills, one original poster, a one page one paragraph worth of production notes, as well as a short cast and crew biography and filmography. A pity thought that you can note some typos in the DVD menus and subtitles.

The real gems of the extras, are the interview clips.

The longest interview on the disc is with Cheng Pei Pei (18 mins 30s) done in English, where she compares martial arts movies then and now, shared some production nuggets such as the duration of shooting the fight scenes, on sexuality of those days, her working relationship with King Hu, provided insights into working under Shaw Bros. explained her ease with learning martial arts, and shared on her working experiences with Yueh Hua.

Yueh Hua too has an interview included, though it was quite short, clocking at 4 mins 45s. He shares his thoughts on working with King Hu and Cheng Pei Pei, as well as revealing that he had real wine in that wine bottle prop to assist him in getting into character. However, the interview is conducted in Mandarin, with no subtitles provided.

I'm surprised at the inclusion of an interview with Marsha Yuan (daughter of Cheng Pei Pei) in English, for 6 mins and 40s, as she shares her thoughts on the movie, her realization when growing up that her mom was famous, and the big revelation is that there is going to be a sequel she's gonna star in. Is there?

The last two interviews are with film critic Paul Fonoroff and film producer Bey Logan, as both talk about Cheng Pei Pei and King Hu, clocking at 9 mins 50s, and 4 mins 40s respectively. The former interview is more insightful though, as he shares a little on the history of the rivalry between Shaw and Cathay in their heydays.

The restored version in the DVD is pristine, save for one or two scenes in soft focus which seemed a little blur. Audio transfer is great too. The only pity is that it's not in Anamorphic Widescreen.