Hot Picks
|
|
|
The Search for Weng Weng
Australia 2013
produced by Daniel Haig, Andrew Leavold, Jessica St. Bruno for Death Rides A Red Horse
directed by Andrew Leavold
starring Celso Ad. Castillo, Tikoy Aguiluz, Tilman Baumgaertel, Don Gordon Bell, Teddie Co, Rez Cortez, Roland Dantes, Celing de la Cruz, Editha De La Cruz, Nick Deocampo, Dolphy, Jim Gaines, Peque Gallaga, Eddie Garcia, Franco Guerrero, John Kater, Marrie Lee, Ed Lejano, Maria Isabel Lopez, Anthony Maharaj, Imee Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Pia Moran, Eddie Nicart, Dante Pangilinan, Rusty Santos, Henry Strzalkowski, Bobby A. Suarez, Edgardo Vinarao, Andrew Leavold, Weng Weng (archive footage)
written by Andrew Leavold, Daniel Haig, music by Damien Devaux, The Screaming Meanies, Francis de Veyra and members of Radioactive Sago Project, The Chuds, Roy Arabejo
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
Whoever's not familiar with Filipino action cinema from the early
1980's will probably think this is a mockumentary: This is a film about
Filipino action star Weng Weng, whose main claim to fame it was ... that
he was just under three feet tall - and yet, one of his films, For
Y'ur Height Only, was the smash hit at the inaugural Manila
International Film Festival in 1982, where it sold internationally ... and
this is a true story. Now For
Y'ur Height Only itself is a rather childish James
Bond-parody that has a few laughs (mostly of the un-PC manner
from today's point of view), but also its fair share of misfires. However,
none of Weng Weng's subsequent films managed to even come close to the
success of For Y'ur Height Only,
and eventually he was forgotten by international and local audiences alike
- until Australian Filipino-B-movie-buff and -historian Andrew Leavold
started to ask questions, and his "search for Weng Weng" became
a 7 year journey during which he managed to collect background information
on the actor not yet available anywhere, got to talk to many of his
collaborators - including his main director Eddie Nicart and popular
Filipino comedian Dolphy, but also controversial former first lady Imelda
Marcos, who saw herself as a patron of the arts and who was happy to talk
about the diminuitive star even on the day of her lavish birthday
celebration. Unfortunately, Leavold did not have the opportunity to talk
to Weng Weng himself, he passed away in 1992, but his brother Celing de la
Cruz and Celing's wife Edita were happy to fill in the gaps ... Despite
the title, The Search for Weng Weng is not just about Weng Weng
himself but Filipino low budget genre filmmaking as a whole, which has
given birth to some of the most wonderful oddities of movie history,
including of course this diminuitive pseudo James
Bond. And thanks to the many clips from Filipino madness from
the 1960's to the 80's, intermingled with great interviewees giving great
information, this is a movie as entertaining for the B-movie afficionado
as it is informative for the film scholar with a predilection for the
obscure - and for all those who are just into Weng Weng, this movie offers
such a wealth of information compiled nowhere before.
|
review © by Mike Haberfelner
|
Feeling lucky? Want to search any of my partnershops yourself for more, better results? (commissions earned) |
The links below will take you just there!!!
|
|
|
Thanks for watching !!!
|
|
|
Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
|