Having been very disappointed in King Hu's most famous film, A Touch of Zen, I was actually eager to see one of his other supposed masterpieces. I wanted to see if the guy just didn't work for me or what. Fortunately, his earlier film, Come Drink with Me, made for Shaw Brothers, impressed me a lot. I would still complain about the choppy editing during the kung fu sequences, which not only makes it difficult to understand what's going on, but also makes the martial arts magic less believable. But while there are a few brief scenes where I thought the editing was weak in such a way, there are three extended action sequences that are eye-popping and heart-stopping. Cheng Pei-Pei, best known now for her latter-day role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, plays a powerful kung fu student trying to rescue her brother, who has been kidnapped by a gang of dissidents, led by the chalk-faced Hung Lieh Chen. He's one of the all-time great bad guys, and I love his cohorts, as well. The film is full of fantastic character design. Cheng teams up with Hua Yueh, a drunken beggar who is secretly a kung fu master. What really comes through is Hu's supreme visual sense. It definitely made me more interested in the man's works, and even in revisiting A Touch of Zen.
Review of Come Drink with Me
