# Come Drink with Me (1966) Review: A Heroine With a Sword > Come Drink with Me is King Hu's influential Shaw Brothers wuxia film, with Cheng Pei-pei as a swordswoman on a rescue mission, and its best scenes still thrill. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/come-drink-with-me-1966-review/ Published: 2026-07-23 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 3.5/5 ## Verdict Mostly yes. It is a stylish, historically important martial arts film for genre fans and classic-cinema explorers, though its second half sidelines its heroine. ## Is Come Drink with Me worth watching? **Mostly yes. Come Drink with Me is a landmark of the swordplay genre, and Cheng Pei-pei's graceful, commanding heroine still feels startlingly modern.** King Hu stages fights with a choreographer's eye for rhythm and space, and the film's famous inn sequence remains a model of tension and action. The reservation is structural: the story's second half shifts focus away from its heroine, and some of the effects and pacing show their age. ## What is Come Drink with Me about? [Come Drink with Me](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/come-drink-with-me-1966/) is set in imperial China. When a governor's son is kidnapped by a gang of bandits demanding the release of their imprisoned leader, a skilled fighter known as Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-pei) is sent to bring him back. Her first move is to walk into an inn full of the gang's members and dare them to try their luck. That encounter introduces her to Drunken Cat (Yueh Hua, credited here as Elliot Ngok Wah), a wandering, perpetually inebriated beggar who sings for his supper and takes an unexpected interest in her mission. Chen Hung-lieh plays the bandits' sneering leader, the Jade-Faced Tiger. King Hu co-wrote and directed the film for Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers studio. It is a Mandarin-language production that runs 91 minutes, and it was released in 1966. ## Cheng Pei-pei sets the template The film's lasting achievement is its heroine. Golden Swallow is not a love interest or a sidekick but the central fighter, calm, confident and utterly in control. Cheng Pei-pei, who trained as a dancer, moves with poise and precision, and her fights feel like performances of skill and nerve rather than brute force. Decades later she would play the villainous Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a film that owes this one a considerable debt. The inn sequence is the highlight. Hu builds tension from glances, poised chopsticks, flying coins and the careful positioning of bodies around the room, so that the eventual burst of violence feels like the release of pressure. It is a scene that later swordplay films would imitate again and again. ## King Hu's eye for rhythm and space Hu was deeply influenced by Peking opera, and it shows. The fights are staged with musical timing, punctuated by percussion and sudden stillness, and the camera frames them in clear, wide compositions that let the audience follow every move. Compared with the frantic cutting of many later action films, the clarity is refreshing. The locations add to the atmosphere. Forests, temples and mountain paths give the second half a more expansive feel, and Hu uses architecture and landscape as part of the choreography. It is easy to see the seeds of his later masterpieces, including A Touch of Zen, in these compositions. ## Where the film loses its focus The film's weakness is its second half. As the story develops, Drunken Cat increasingly takes centre stage, and Golden Swallow is pushed to the sidelines just when she should be at her strongest. Some of the later action, involving more supernatural displays of power, relies on effects that look dated today, and the pacing becomes uneven as the plot's many strands converge. The first half is a classic; the second is merely good. ## Who should watch Come Drink with Me? It is essential for fans of [martial arts action](https://celluloidscore.com/genres/action/), wuxia and Hong Kong cinema history, and for anyone who loved Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and wants to see where its ideas began. At 91 minutes it is brisk. Expect sword fights with some blood and a few moments of graphic violence, mild by modern standards. To trace the genre forward: - [A Touch of Zen](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/a-touch-of-zen-1970/), King Hu's later, more ambitious wuxia epic, with another unforgettable swordswoman. - [The One-Armed Swordsman](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/the-one-armed-swordsman-1967/), Chang Cheh's Shaw Brothers hit from the following year, which pushed the genre towards harder, bloodier heroics. - [The Grandmaster](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/the-grandmaster-2013/), a modern martial arts film whose poised, formidable female fighter echoes Golden Swallow. ## The verdict Come Drink with Me is a pioneering, stylish martial arts film whose best scenes are as thrilling as anything the genre has produced. Its uneven second half and dated effects keep it from classic status overall, but Cheng Pei-pei's heroine and King Hu's staging make it essential genre history. **Rating: 3.5/5** ## Related title - [Come Drink with Me (1966)](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/come-drink-with-me-1966/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)