Come Drink with Me 4K 1966

When talking about King Hu, most critics confidently pronounce - 'wu xia', thus showing their education and understanding of Chinese aesthetics. However, despite all the external correspondences, I am inclined to believe that Hu has mixed Chinese flavor with the trendy American western. The resulting effect turns out to be very vivid. First of all, it should be noted that the picture is watchable. The staging of the fights, the plot, the camerawork - everything deserves the most approving words. The more than ten-minute fight scene of 'The Golden Canary' is amazing in its grace and accuracy. Well, and the finale in general - fairy thanks to two absolutely fantastic in beauty and fast enough (which is believable) fights.

Well, and the plot itself deserves a Hitchcockian texture. The whole thing is that for the first half of the movie the viewer is sure that the main character is a warrior girl named 'The Golden Canary'. She is here to counteract a gang that is allied with one of the monasteries. However, it is only in the second half of the movie that everything falls into place. It is just a prelude to the battle between two disciples, powerful warriors. One is the temple abbot who patronizes bandits. The other is a drunken hermit. The one who is more benevolent will win (and could it be otherwise). But can a wandering drunkard be a standard of virtue?

We have before us a bright, beautiful movie about Chinese knights, which I like much better than King Hu's recognized masterpiece, 'Dragon's Inn', which came out a bit later. While the movies are generally similar, the advantage of 'Come Drink With Me' is its clearer plot, details, brutal fights and brevity. I would recommend watching this movie to film history buffs who care to trace the sources of inspiration of Lo Wei and Xu Hark, John Woo and Zhang Yimou.