Viking Night: Come Drink With Me
By Bruce Hall
September 6, 2017
BoxOfficeProphets.com
So went my dreams of sitting sideways in my dope leather chair, smirking at Lieutenant Uhura while Chekov fired the weapons and Spock handled all the math.
That didn’t stop me from having idols, though. So I took advantage of the kung fu movie craze, which was still in full swing by the time parachute pants became a thing. And - although it may be hard to imagine today - seeing cable TV for the first time is what made me realize there were, in fact, things greater than pouring Pixy Stix into your Slurpee and riding the Cherry Dragon. It was at this time that I discovered martial arts films, and for a brief period they were all my fickle pre-teen mind wanted to watch. And through them, I got a whole new stupid idea in my head about what I wanted to be when I grew up.
That ended when I hit myself in the face with a nunchaku. But the films were engrossing, and upon uncovering an old email where I waxed on about the old Shaw Brothers films, I thought it might be a great time to revisit them. You can read the history of Shaw Studios elsewhere, but you may consider them the Elder Gods of kung fu movies, if that helps. I couldn’t have been happier to find that I loved these classics as much today as I did then, especially since I’m old enough to actually follow the story.
Yes, these fighting movies have stories, and many of them are truly great ones. Since the list of awesome “Shaw Bros” films is so long, I decided to choose four, and feature them this month in what I have decided to call…well, I haven’t actually decided. Shaw Bros September? Shaw-bros-tember? Shawtember? I’ll let you decide. Maybe I should have waited till next month and called it “Shawtober.”
Oh my God. That’s what I should have gone with.
Oh, well. I only have about six hundred words left, so let’s get on with it, shall we?
Come Drink With Me might be the film you were thinking of when you saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and felt sure you’d seen that woman before. Not Michelle Yeoh. I mean Cheng Pei-pei, who played Jade Fox.
She’s best known for a pair of films she did as the character Golden Swallow, and Come Drink With me is the first of those. As with many classic Shaw actors, Cheng’s background included dance. And as with many classic Shaw films, Come Drink with me combines elements of that and many other forms of expression to tell what is actually a really beautiful story. No, I’m not comparing it to The Shawshank Redemption. But it does pack more emotional weight than you’d expect to see from a film where so very many people are hacked to pieces by whirling swords.
Golden Swallow is the daughter of a powerful general, whose son has been taken hostage (so, maybe not so powerful). She is sent to negotiate with the kidnappers, led by a rather disarming rogue named Smiling Tiger (Lee Wan-chung). And when I say “negotiate,” I mean “threaten to rage-murder them unless the prisoner is released.” I should point out that at this point, Golden Swallow intentionally carries herself like a man - not to impersonate one, but to make it extra super embarrassing when she easily disarms them all.
She gives them five days to turn over her brother, which is basically the same as giving them five days to hunt her down and kill her. If you recognize Golden Swallow as a poor tactician, then congratulations. You might be Drunken Cat (Yueh Hua), the town’s official minstrel/souse. There’s more to him than there seems though, as he follows Golden Swallow and saves her life when assassins attempt to poison her. Luckily he’s not really a wino, but he CAN really sing and his real name is Fan. Also, he’s the secret leader of a secret kung fu society and an expert at curing poison.
No, that is NOT stupid. That is awesome, because it also serves a thematic purpose!
It’s also helpful to Golden Swallow, who according to her new friend, is hot-headed and overconfident. After an extended convalescence, Fan teaches her some sweet new moves. The two determine that the bandits are hiding out at a local monastery. A man named Liao Kung (Yeung Chi-hing) is their true ringleader, and a former rival of Fan’s. A web of associations is revealed, loyalties are tested, and Golden Swallow never really does learn to control her temper.
The mismatched duo turn out to share a powerful set of common interests, but have very different ideas of how to achieve them. For most of its run time, that’s what provides Come Drink With Me its central conflict. The inevitable good-versus-evil naturally dominates the final act, and the two story threads are inevitably (and rather satisfactorily) resolved. But the relationship between Fan and Golden Swallow is the engine that makes things go here, and it’s fascinating to me for a couple of reasons.
First, they are never romantic with one another, and it never even comes up. I’d like to chalk this up to quality writing, but it’s also fair to point out that both characters are after the same people, but for very different reasons. There’s no shortage of interesting characters, interpersonal drama, and clever plot points in this story already. The fight choreography is wonderful, and Cheng Pei-pei creates an immediately iconic character with her no-nonsense comportment and elegant two-blade fighting style. The set design and visual effects are excellent, and there’s a surprising amount of blood, even considering the high double digit body count.
Simply put, clogging things up with a superfluous love subplot would have earned this movie a flying spin-kick to the face, to be executed by someone other than me.
On the downside, even though Golden Swallow is a suitably strong character in her own right, Come Drink With Me behaves as though it doesn’t entirely want her to be the star. Don’t get me wrong - Fan is a terrific character, even more finely nuanced than the actual protagonist. And that’s the problem - too often Golden Swallow must be rescued from herself, ostensibly because women cannot master their emotions well enough to be consistently great fighters. There are discrete male and female leads here, but let’s be honest - the role of “hero” is shared, and slanted toward Fan.
But that’s okay. I’m not trying to strike a political tone here, it’s just something that kind of sticks out to me about the story. It wants the woman to be the hero, but...not TOO much. Part of that is no doubt my modern, Western eyes. Come Drink With Me was made in 1966, and by American standards, Golden Swallow made John Wayne look like a candyass. Like I said, Both Golden Swallow and Fan are wonderful characters and their respective natures, combined with their respective motivations, form the heart and soul of the film.
So much for that seven hundred words.
Be that as it may, I stand by both my glowing review, and my coinage of the term “Shawtober.” If you love movies that prove women make great heroes too, then you’re going to love Come Drink With me. I sure as hell do.