Dragon Dynasty’s ‘Come Drink With Me,’ ‘Heroes of the East’

Genius Products, in association with The Weinstein Company have formally announced the May 27th release of two new Shaw Brothers classics on the Dragon Dynasty label. Both film releases would be collector’s items without lots of killer bonus features but we’re getting them anyway.

COME DRINK WITH ME (1966) stars Cheng Pei-pei in the role that made her a superstar. She plays Golden Swallow, a revenge-seeking swordswoman who joins forces with a singing beggar (Yueh Hua) in an artful production directed by Taiwan’s acclaimed filmmaker King Hu. The film was successful enough to spawn a sequel, GOLDEN SWALLOW, directed by the equally great martial arts filmmaker Chang Cheh.

Bey Logan previously recorded an audio commentary for the Hong Kong DVD release. He’s gone ahead and recorded a new one with the queen of wuxia herself, Cheng Pei-pei! Other extras include “The King and I,” a featurette where director Tsui Hark remembers King Hu, a retrospective by Bey Logan, an interview with Chang’s co-star Yueh Hua, and a trailer gallery.

HEROES OF THE EAST (1978), aka SHAOLIN VS. NINJA, is another superb Shaw Brothers classic, one of the greatest kung fu comedies of all-time from action director and Hung Fist master Lau Kar-leung. It stars THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN’s Gordon Liu as a kung fu master whose marriage to a Japanese bride (Yuko Mizuno) turns into a battle of words and fists after he mistakenly offends her fighting family. It provides the perfect set up for a light-hearted confrontation pitting real Chinese kung fu against various Japanese martial arts styles performed by several real-life Japanese martial artists lead by genre superstar Yasuaki Kurata (FIST OF LEGEND).

The DD team comes through on this release as well by providing commentary by Bey Logan, a tribute to Lau Kar-leung, interview with leading man Gordon Liu, an exploration of martial arts forms in China and Japan, and trailers.

Both films are presented in 16×9 widescreen, include English and Spanish subtitles, and come with an SRP of $19.95. HEROES OF THE EAST is 104 minutes and includes the classic English dub along with Cantonese and Mandarin audio tracks. COME DRINK WITH ME is 91 minutes and comes with the original Mandarin audio track and a new English dub in Dolby 5.1.