The Wuxia genre is described as the grouping of Chinese historical martial arts works of fiction, however, the cinematic incarnation of the genre got it´s language of fast cutting/movement and swift strikes of frenetic montage with today´s film, Come Drink With Me by King Hu.
Hu was the filmmaker who solely kickstarted the martial arts sword fighting genre in its current form and with the unmistakably Chinese angle, aesthetics and philosophy. A bit of American editing, a bit of Japanese samurai techniques and plots, and finally the morals and values of China, all stylized and carried by strong female heroes. Some of Hu´s later classics include Dragon Inn (1967), A Touch of Zen (1970), The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and The Valiant Ones (1975), among several other quality films.
One of the many incredible discoveries achieved by Hu in this picture is the casting of actress Cheng Pei-pei in the leading role. The former ballet dancer had zero martial arts training but Hun envisioned his fights more as dances and choreographies rather than typical combat, which meant the dancer was perfect for the role, without undermining her combat and physical capabilities. This forecasted the “Bullet Ballet” style from the heroic bloodshed movies and John Woo´s films. Cheng would go on to have a very prolific career in Hong Kong and Chinese cinema with films like Princess Iron Fan (1966), That Fiery Girl (1968), The Lady Hermit (1971), The Shadow Whip (1971), Wing Chun (1994), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Naked Weapon (2002), Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009), Mulan (2020), and MANY more.
The film follows heroine Golden Swallow, a swordswoman and martial artist who is tasked with a mission that involves rescuing her brother (both are children of a governor) who has been kidnapped by the fiendish bandit Jade-Faced Tiger, who is looking for the liberation of his master.
Swallow infiltrates the bandit´s territory posing as a man and quickly shows off her incredible fighting skills, making the rebels very wary of her presence. Eventually she is discovered and aided by a drunktard (fittingly nicknamed Drunken Cat) who turns out to be a magnificent Kung-Fu master, the drunk beggar has a troubled backstory with corrupt abbot Liao Kung, another powerful master and now an ally of Tiger. Both Swallow and Drunken Cat will join forces against Kung and the rebels.
Revenge, family bonds, blood brothers, fraternity, ambition and conviction; universal ideas often explored by wuxia films and perfectly encapsulated in this film´s storyline, even if the result is predictably a bit disjointed for modern audiences when it comes to normative story structure. The film is an effective fable, engagingly directed and with unrelenting action that has all the thrills and tricks to entertain even the most jaded martial arts film fans because the focus is on the solid narrative and characters.
The film advances with a distended plot progression, taking place in a few locations and moving slowly, but never feeling sluggish because of it´s firm visual storytelling. Hu´s great control of the image, in widescreen no less, with resounding tracking shots and panning shots, detailed shot compositions and large framing help make more interesting his handling of the filmic space.
The fights are noteworthy for their rhythm, pace and editing techniques rarely seen in such a way in popular Chinese cinema. These are dense confrontations of extreme silence interrupted by quick and loud attacks, breaking the atmosphere in a striking manner but always with full dominance of the form and rhythm. Overexcited instants (marked via sound effects and music stingers) cut off the established pace before promptly resuming it, irruptions that create anticipation and disrupt the flow intentionally, serving as accentuation for the action. The type of non-gratuitous and non-shallow action I appreciate in these classics.
One aspect that´s bewildering is the way Hun stylizes certain fragments and sometimes reaches an exaggerated overstylization that, far from becoming a negative, gets to a point of heightened reality, a beautiful rejection of strict reality (the quick cuts when the heroine is attacked by a horde of enemies cutting from a multitude of swords to a shot of suddenly unarmed enemies, Drunken Cat being able to catch heavy rocks with one hand, etc...).
Having a female being the heavy hitter protagonist was also a relatively new addition to Wuxia (although, it certainly wasn't a new idea for China's popular cinema as other heroines became popular around that decade as well), she was certainly a prototype for the powerful and dignified heroines of action movies done in China even today. The final showdown with Golden Swallow´s all-female warriors is also a magnificent and refreshing inclusion, it set up a standard for the now common “Amazon Brigade” trope in fiction.
One minor flaw is the ending, which declines giving the heroine the proper win, but instead Drunken Cat and Kung end up doing the final fight. Director King Hu was supposedly discontent with the addition of a second ending that rejects the merciful ending he probably had planned and goes straight for revenge. This would make him leave Shaw Brothers and go to Taiwan, where he would make his following films for Union Film Company.
A sequel was released in 1968 simply titled Golden Swallow with Cheng Pei-pei reprising her role. The film continues the characters adventures but this time the direction duties went to Chang Cheh (another martial arts movie legend).
As mentioned before, the film quickly became a hit and one of the most influential movies of all time, several future plots, themes, settings, aesthetic elements, editing tricks and art direction in Wuxia will be either directly or indirectly associated with Come Drink With Me in some way, from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) to Kill Bill (2003-2004).
Easily a recommended picture for anyone interested in the genre and its genesis.
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