Come Drink With Me (1966/Dragon Dynasty/Weinstein DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: C/C+ Extras: C Film: C
King Hu’s
Come Drink With Me (1966) is one of
the duller Shaw Brothers outings despite the supposed innovation of a female in
the swordsman role. The case brags
rightly (via a quote) that it made Ang Lee’s grossly overrated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
possible, but all in all, the film lags far more than anticipated despite the
best efforts of all involved.
Lead
Cheng Pei-pei here was even later in Lee’s film, but she is better here as a
lady agent (the spy genre was in full swing by then, including The Avengers on TV whose female leads
were doing Judo and using guns since 1963!) out to liberate a kidnapped
official from a rogue group. Her unwitting,
sudden partner is an alcoholic, but they’ll team up to get the bad guys and
save the day in the best tradition of many Hollywood Westerns. Worth seeing for historic reasons,
distinguished by its fighting at best, finally out on DVD or any other video
format.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 is a pleasant surprise in the fidelity of the
print and the transfer, looking very good for its age, including the color
richness and consistency. The Shaw
catalog has been getting some serious restoration attention and this is one of
the best beneficiaries we have seen to date.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mandarin Mono is more believable than the Dolby
Digital English 5.1, of course, but does the same music have to sound that much
better in the English dub? Extras include
two making of featurettes, trailer gallery, audio commentary with Pei-pei and
scholar Bey Logan, interview with acclaimed director Tsui Hark on the film and
separate interview with lead male Yueh Hua on the film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
