Product Details

• Actors: Chang Pei-pei
• Directors: King Hu
• Format: Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Cantonese
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Dubbed: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: The Weinstein Company
• DVD Release Date: May 27, 2008
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0010X740K
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,599 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Come Drink with Me" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Nearly four decades before Kill Bill, the groundbreaking Shaw Brothers classic Come Drink with Me set the bar for sword-wielding kung fu heroines. "A revelation in martial arts filmmaking" (Ross Chen, LoveHKFilm.com), it stars legendary fight queen Cheng Pei-pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) as Golden Swallow, a deadly agent sent to rescue a kidnapped official from a bandit clan. To take down the clan's five ruthless leaders, she teams up with a hard-drinking martial arts mentor, who helps her to cut a path of destruction through her enemies. Featuring pioneering wire work, landmark fight scenes, and a stylized sense of cool far ahead of its era, Come Drink with Me "may be the most influential martial arts film of all time" (David Walker, DVD Talk).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great wuxia story with good DVD quality October 19, 2008

By green_bamboo

Format:DVD

This film, Come Drink with Me (Great Drunken Hero), is one of my favorite Asian movies, and I think it is perhaps comparable to Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai in terms of its contribution to the evolution of East Asian movies during the 1950s-1970s. I first saw this movie in either 1966 or 1967 at a movie theatre in the Far East, and recently I've seen it many more times on this DVD. The storyline takes place during the Ming Dynasty (either the 15th or the 16th century) in China's Two-River Province. The heroine Zhang, also known as Jin Yan Zi (meaning Golden Swallow), tries to rescue her older brother, the head prosecutor of the province, from captivity by the Five-Tiger Bandits. At the same time, a drunken beggar and martial-arts master Fan, called Da-Bei (meaning Big Drink), has to face the monk Liao Kung (Diao Jintang), his sworn older brother from the same Kung-fu league, to keep the Green Bamboo Pole that symbolizes the leadership of the Green Bamboo League. These two subplots merge together to become the overall story of this film: with the help of the drunken master, Zhang gets her brother back by destroying the ruthless bandits, and the evil-minded wushu master Diao, who turns out to be the real leader of the bandits, is also defeated by Fan in the final battle.

The story line appears somewhat simple, but it is meaningful in a sense that a wuxia story is told in a traditional Chinese way. The film is composed of beautifully choreographed sword fight sequences, seasoned with a subtle undertone of a romantic (although platonic) relationship between Zhang and Fan.... The carefully designed costumes representing the Ming Dynasty period, combined with the Beijing opera style music embedded in the early part of the movie, give the impression of being in genuine traditional Chinese scenes. The three songs sung by the drunken master in the inn, with background chorus and music performance by ten beggar children, enhance the exotic nature of the film. The first song introduces Fan himself, by revealing his view of life as a vagabond and a beggar, suggesting that life is momentary and empty, fame and fortune are meaningless, and all the sorrows of life can be forgotten by drinking. The second song describes Fan's concern about the current perilous situation of the Two-River Province under the rule of lawless bandits. The third song shows his intention to help Zhang rescue her brother, by providing a hint for Zhang to decode regarding the location where her brother is being held by the bandits. An additional genuine Chinese element of this film is that the two masters of martial arts (Fan and Diao) possess and use a mystical power (ch'i kung) in battle, which commonly emerges in many Chinese wuxia novels. I like the slow pace of the sword fighting in the movie, much better choreographed than the battle scenes seen in many later wuxia films where the super-fast sword fighting sequences give the impression of being fake, artificial, and robotic.

While living in the Far East during the1960s, I became addicted to Chinese movies and saw over two dozen films (mostly dramas, epic and fantasy films by the Shaw Brothers). These included four wuxia films: Great Drunken Hero (Come Drink with Me), Dragon Gate Inn, One-Armed Swordsman, and Golden Swallow, in chronological order. While all these four wuxia films are interesting, Great Drunken Hero is the best made, and in my opinion far superior to over-hyped modern successes in the West, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. With the role of heroine Zhang in this movie, Cheng Pei-Pei obtained fame almost comparable to that of superstar Li Ching among movie-goers in East Asia during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The quality of this DVD is very good, including well-restored sharp images, in light of the fact that the film is more than forty years old. Having seen this movie in different versions with subtitles in English and other languages, I think the English subtitles in this DVD are clear and straightforward. Personally I don't like to watch a dubbed version of foreign movies, and that holds true in this case, too. You get the impression in the English dubbing of this DVD that words were chosen so that the sound matches the lip movements rather than delivering the literal meanings of the actors' dialogues. One thing I should mention here is that, in the English dubbed mode, the bandits recognize the heroine as a woman from their first encounter. This is erroneous, since the bandits actually do not realize that the heroine is a woman until they meet her again in the temple. You should watch this film in the original Mandarin soundtrack with English subtitles.

I believe this DVD definitely deserves a five-star rating Read more ›

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie, Horrible DVD August 17, 2006

By Travis Dickason

Format:DVD

I am not giving the movie 2 stars, in my opinon it is required viewing for anyone interested in kung fu/wuxia cinema. This movie was groundbreaking for its time, and it was a lot of fun to see the many inspirations for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the film. It was also fun to see Chang Pei Pei (the villian of CTHD) in her early years. She and Angela Mao broke ground for future Hong Kong women warriors such as Michelle Yeoh. Now, as for the DVD itself...HORRIBLE. It is of such low quality that it wouldn't play on ANY player without skipping at least a little bit. The transfer looks horrible, it made what I am sure is a beautiful looking film look like I filmed it on a camera phone. And the worst offense, for about 20 minutes in the middle of the film you can't see the subtitles! They just drop off the screen! Well, not ALL of them, you can still read the tops of the letters!!! Somehow this is repaired before the film ends so the movie wasn't totally ruined. The day someone wants releases this movie in a even average quality DVD, BUY IT, WATCH IT, LOVE IT! Till then, I am sorry to say, don't bother with this horrible DVD.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Watch out ! VCD transfer... and a very bad one September 16, 2006

By viskaya

Format:DVD

Well, the only star given to this early martial arts masterpiece concerns only its value as one of the firts high production kung fu movies, for it`s artistic vision and great action sequences. Back in 1968 this film was widely consider one of the first action kung fu movies, moving forward from pekin opera.
Now, speaking of the edition of this dvd, if i can call this a dvd, let`s go for parts: first this is NOT a dvd, it`s an INTERNET VCD DOWNLOAD, edited with scene selection. As we all know, besides lousy picture and sound quality, VCD format includes one or more subtitles (in this case cantonese and english) IN the picture, meaning NOT REMOVABLE.
Second, there`s blackouts every three minutes and the scene were drunken cat shows his rock breaking finger powers, is actually a complete digital mess.
If you flip the disc, the reading side is purple, typical 4.7 GB dvd disc with picture logo. OK, asian editions are bad, but at least they`re originals. Some new york company manufactured this discs, and for some reason they `re selling them as DVDs.
So, There`s a warning: STAY AWAY FROM THIS EDITION!!!

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Shaw Brothers Classic June 9, 2008

By MMAfan

Format:DVD

Dragon Dynasty continutes to deliver great Shaw Brothers films one after the other. The 27th film to be released by Dragon Dynasty and their 6 Shaw Brothers release, you can't go wrong with this one. Widely considered to be one of the best Hong Kong films ever made, one can see why. It carries a great story along with awesome fight scenes and fantastic acting by Cheng Pei-Pei(commentary included with her and Bey Logan) and Yueh Hua.

Special Features include:
Feature Commentary with Bey Lognan/Cheng Pei Pei
King and I-Director Tsui Hark reflections on film
Come Speak With Me-Interview with Cheng Pei Pei
A Classic Remembered-Retrospective with Bey Logan
Return of Drunken Master-Interview with Yueh Hua
Trailer Gallery

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars From 1966, but much better than you would expect from a movie that old May 30, 2008

By morgoth

Format:DVD

Cheng Pei Pei stars as The Golden Swallow, and is known for her great fighting skills. A gang is trying to rescue their leader from going to jail, and they end up kidnapping a man (Golden Swallow's brother) so that they can make him their hostage and trade him for their leader. Some really wicked villains in this, and I was amazed at how well Pei Pei handles herself. She uses double daggers, and it's a refreshing change from the standard straight sword that you see in most movies. Yueh Hua has a good role as the "Drunk Cat". He appears to be the town drunkard, but he's really an expert martial artist. He helps Pei Pei out with anything that she can't handle. Hua is very likable, and plays his role well.

Come Drink with Me is a movie that still holds up today. Back in 1966 it was probably the best wuxia ever made.

4/5

Picture and sound are awesome, and there are plenty of special features. I will go over each one individually.

First up is a brand new commentary from Cheng Pei Pei and Bey Logan. Dragon Dynasty once again proves to be the elite company releasing martial arts movies. No one can touch the special features they provide, and this commentary is a Cheng Pei Pei fan's dream come true. This isn't your average commentary from some actor who barely remembers making the movie. Pei Pei knows this movie and the actors very well. Her English isn't perfect, but I could still understand most of what she said.

17 minute interview with Yueh Hua- I was surpised to hear Hua speaking English. He is not the most energetic person as he is pretty old now, but there is a lot of good information provided.

14 minutes with Tsui Hark- Hark gives his thoughts on the movie and talks about King Hu.... Great interview with tons of interesting information.

16 minutes with Cheng Pei Pei- It's amazing how well Pei Pei remembers everything. Outstanding interview.

17 minutes with Bey Logan talking about the movie and King Hu- the commentary is mainly for Cheng Pei Pei, so it's nice to see Bey be able to share his thoughts alone. Very nice interview.

Also included are the original trailers for Come Drink With Me and Heroes of the East. Read more ›