Cheng Pei-pei, center, broke ground as a sword-wielding heroine in 1966.
A woman slowly draws her short swords. After a short burst of movement, her assailants are on the ground. I’m not sure what happened, but I want to watch more.
I first saw King Hu’s Come Drink with Me (1966) when Ang Lee brought the wuxia pian (martial arts swordplay) genre to global audiences with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Hu’s influence on Lee brought attention to Hu classics like Dragon Inn (1967) and A Touch of Zen (1971). Crouching Tiger is approaching 20 years old, so it’s an excellent time to revisit Come Drink with Me.
Hu has never left the radar of the folks who program UW Cinematheque, of course. They presented a digital restoration of Hu’s Legend of the Mountain (1979) back in February. Now they will present Come Drink with Me as part of their 35mm Forever! series on July 6 at 7 p.m. in 4070 Vilas Hall.
Tarantino fans will recognize the opening images: the logos for Shaw Brothers Studios and the ShawScope format, borrowed in Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Watching a Shaw Brothers martial arts film from this period is like watching a MGM musical from the 1950s: You get the one-two punch of star power and genre filmmaking journeymen perfecting their craft. In Come Drink with Me, Cheng Pei-pei provides the star power as the kickass heroine, Golden Swallow. Cheng’s performance created a new template for martial arts heroines, and Lee paid tribute to that tradition in Crouching Tiger by casting Cheng as Jade Fox.
Those expecting the sloppy action and snap-zooms of chop socky martial arts films from the 1970s will be surprised by the elegance of Hu’s visual style. His balanced widescreen compositions frame the slow dance of the fight choreography. While typical martial arts action follows a pattern of attack and repose, Hu often emphasizes the pauses between attacks.
It helps to be familiar with wuxia conventions to appreciate how Hu handles them in Come Drink with Me. An initially jarring example is how the film handles gender, as no one initially seems to realize that Golden Swallow is female (Lee repeats this trope in Crouching Tiger with Zhang Ziyi’s character).
Modern audiences associate the superhuman acrobatics of wuxia with the spectacle of wire work, or “wire-fu,” which Crouching Tiger brought to new heights. Hu handles these moments with elliptical editing, showing you the before and after but not the leap itself. This technique, combined with the emphasis on the pauses between attacks, gives the film a unique rhythm that teases your expectations.
As contemporary American blockbuster films balloon to over two hours, Come Drink with Me offers an efficient, 90-minute alternative for those looking for action heroes without capes, masks or blasters on a Friday summer night.