The wuxia genre is one that has flourished into one of the most beloved forms of filmmaking, albeit one that can occasionally be considered a bit overwhelming to those looking to get into this form of entertainment, as the vast wealth of entries into the martial arts genre being amongst the densest in all of action and adventure cinema. One of the more compelling films in the wuxia genre is one that is cohesive to both newcomers and ardent devotees, the seminal classic Hong Kong adventure epic, Come Drink with Me (Mandarin: 大醉俠), King Hu’s masterful exploration of social themes through the guise of some of the most gorgeous cinematography in the history of East Asian cinema, and a story that could rival the towering Hollywood action films that were inspired by this incredible voyage into the customs and traditions of a culture that has always been so fascinating, yet so oddly impenetrable, with Hu’s perspective offering us incredibly meaningful insights into the machinations of a society that has become almost folkloric in its reputation. The director breaks down the various boundaries and presents us with a raw, uncompromising tale of vengeance and heroism, all made with the same visual splendour and incredible attention to detail that makes Come Drink with Me one of the most masterful entries into the enormous canon of wuxia cinema.

Taking place during the Ming Dynasty, a brutal warlord (Chan Hung-lit) known as Jade-Faced Tiger kidnaps the son of a prominent general, and holds him hostage, demanding a ransom. As a response, the general sends his most powerful warrior to rescue his son – his daughter, Golden Sparrow (Cheng Pei-pei), a skilled warrior who has become infamous for her talents at combat. Venturing into enemy territory, she hatches a plan to save her brother and return honour to her family’s name after being manipulated by Jade-Faced Tiger and his endless army of violent goons. However, she underestimates both his skills and refusal to take prisoners and soon finds herself struggling to find a way to overcome the challenges he poses. She encounters Drunken Cat (Yueh Hua), a vagabond with a proclivity for alcohol, who she initially rebuffs when he offers her help, with Golden Swallow soon realizing that there is more to this mysterious hermit than she realized, particular in terms of his skills, with his past harbouring a long, storied history of mastering the art of hand-to-hand combat, making him a worthy ally for Golden Sparrow, who is in desperate need of any assistance to face a group of manipulative adversaries, among them the sinister Abbot Liao Kung (Yeung Chi-hing), whose own past hides a malicious secret inextricably linked to the two protagonists who fight against the odds to defeat these cruel villains and restore some sense of order to the society that they’re hell-bent on destroying.

The wuxia genre is a challenging one, insofar as it has an endless amount of entries, but a seemingly finite set of qualities that many normally reduce them to, often without any sense of appreciation for how groundbreaking these films are, and how they essentially defined modern action cinema. Come Drink with Me is undeniably one of the strongest wuxia films of its time, with Hu ensuring that he constructed a daring film that didn’t only entertain, but also made great use of the resources available to them, which is the precise reason why it has come to be seen as one of the better martial arts films of the era in which they were unquestionably at their peak. This film can be considered a gateway into wuxia, mainly because it is the film that can convert the cynical, and make those who were previously bewildered to the passion surrounding these films fully aware of why it has inspired so much adoration from global audiences. From the stunning visuals to the disciplined execution that the director brings to every frame of the film, to the magnificent story underlying it,  Come Drink with Me is an incredibly interesting work of unhinged narrative and stylistic brilliance that captivates the audience from the first moment of aching beauty, and holds our attention until the final shot, which is one of the most joyful in the history of action cinema. In no uncertain terms, Come Drink with Me is an enormous success and further proof that there is far more to this kind of film that irrational logic and excessive combat scenes, and that there’s an underlying brilliance that makes them such endearing works of cinema that persist as enthralling pieces of entertainment to this day.

For a film like Come Drink with Me to have such longevity, whereby it still feels as exciting and breathtaking today as it did over half a century ago, it requires an analysis of the various components that the director brought to the making of this film, which resulted in a timeless classic. The success can be found at the intersection between the story, which is a remarkably simple affair with an abundance of thrilling twists and turns, and the style, which was done with such immense lucidity, leaving very little space for the absurdity that detractors normally assert onto films like this. Much like many martial arts films produced around this era, Come Drink with Me does employ a very loose sense of logic, but it never becomes as ridiculous as those looking to deride the genre for its implausibility would suggest, which is a testament not only to the skilful work done by director Hu, but also the fact that this film draws the viewer in, and gives them an immensely satisfying experience, where the stylistic beauty and captivating storyline make for a truly mesmerizing work of escapism, albeit one that harbours a great deal of depth and nuance, never surrendering entirely to the more surreal aspects that underpin the story. Wuxia films are characterized by their heightened sense of reality, which is subsequently manipulated to form these compelling narratives that take the viewer to almost mythical eras, in which history is made to appear far more action-packed and enthralling than it was in reality. It doesn’t necessarily betray reality (and gives insights into the traditions at a time before any of us were born), but rather makes use of it in very interesting ways.

Layering fascinating socio-political commentary with beautifully-choreographed, unhinged action is always going to be a winning formula, and Hu (approaching this film less as a martial arts film, and more as an excessively violent historical ballet), provides one of the most interesting wuxia films of its time, and a highly influential work, not only in terms of the genre in which it was made but to cinema in general. Hu sows the seeds of inspiration for half a century of action cinema, all of which can undoubtedly be traced back to this elegant, enduring masterpiece that is both a riveting action film with broad overtures of dark comedy and a beautifully poetic character-driven drama that doesn’t neglect the melancholic human side of the story. The combination of strong performances (Cheng Pei-pei and Yueh Hua make a truly formidable duo), beautiful cinematography that produces some of the most gorgeous compositions of the 1960s, and an overtly poignant story about revenge that never becomes too ensconced in its grandiosity to ignore the more intimate concepts that are found throughout. Caught somewhere between boldly entertaining and beautifully earnest in its intentions, Come Drink with Me is an unquestionable masterpiece that does very well with all the available resources, and becomes a truly iconoclastic work of mid-century filmmaking that would go on to inspire legions of other cinematic artists to follow the same path of blending masterful storytelling, sincere emotion and visual splendour to create something gorgeously enthralling and endlessly enduring to present and future generations.