DVD Review: The Search For Weng Weng

If you’re a film enthusiast, you’ve likely heard of the Filipino actor Weng Weng. Even if you haven’t seen any of his films, you’ve probably seen photos of him. At a height of two feet nine inches, Weng Weng holds the Guinness World record for shortest actor to have a lead role in a movie. He starred in films like For Y’ur Height Only and The Impossible Kid, and became quite popular in the early 1980s. Strangely, not much information has been available on him, and much of what was known was speculation and rumor. So filmmaker Andrew Leavold (a film buff himself, who owned Australia’s largest cult video store) set out to discover what happened to this tiny leading man.

The Search For Weng Weng is the story of his journey to the Philippines, and of Weng Weng’s journey to stardom and then back to relative obscurity. The subject is clearly a passion of the filmmaker’s, and as a result this is an enjoyable movie. And if you haven’t heard of Weng Weng (whose real name is Ernesto De La Cruz), you’ll likely want to watch some of his films after viewing this documentary. The film includes plenty of footage from Weng Weng’s films, as well as interviews with his co-stars and directors. Marrie Lee (who played Cleopatra Wong) talks about picking Weng Weng up to see how light he was. “We were passing him around, like as you would with a baby,” she says. Another actor describes him as a sad, lonely person.

The film provides a bit of background on filmmaking in the Philippines, and the effect that Apocalypse Now had on the industry there. One of the actors interviewed tells us: “In the late ‘70s and the early ‘80s, there was a huge industry going on, over three hundred films produced every year in the country. So we were able to do just about anything that we wanted to do.” We also get a bit about the political landscape of the time, and Andrew Leavold actually interviews Imelda Marcos about Weng Weng. He and his film crew are invited to her eighty-third birthday celebration. This material is certainly interesting, but some of it does feel a bit off the subject. However, it leads to information on the Manila International Film Festival, and that part is fascinating, how Weng Weng was to emerge from that as a big star.

One of the most touching interviews is with Celing De La Cruz, Weng Weng’s brother, who talks about growing up in poverty. And yes, in the closing credits, the film tells us where the name Weng Weng came from.

Special Features

The DVD contains a commentary track by director Andrew Leavold, in which he talks about his passion for Weng Weng and gives more information on the people that he met while making the movie.

The special features also include an extended sequence with Weng Weng’s brother and the neighborhood where he grew up and the cemetery where Weng Weng is buried. There is also an extended sequence with Eddie Nicart, who directed For Y’ur Height Only and other Weng Weng films. He talks about his career as a stuntman before turning to directing, and of course about working with Weng Weng, including information on specific scenes from his films. This sequence is approximately fifty minutes. There is also a sequence with Filipino actor Palito, an interview that is approximately seventeen minutes.

The special features also include audio of the Q&A with Andrew Leavold from the Sydney Underground Film Festival, as well as a music video for the song “I Love Weng Weng” and a short promotional piece for another of Andrew Leavold’s films, Gone Lesbo Gone.

The Search For Weng Weng was released on DVD on November 8, 2016 through Wild Eye Releasing.

Blu-ray Review: Never Open The Door

Never Open The Door is a kind of quirky horror-mystery about six friends who gather together for a Thanksgiving dinner and receive an unexpected guest. It is presented in black and white, to help transport the viewer into a less familiar world, and to bring to mind those classic supernatural and psychological suspense series like The Twilight Zone. And it is mostly effective.

After a delightful and playful opening credits sequence, the film begins with someone running through the woods, someone we don’t see. The camera provides his perspective, as we hear his hurried footsteps and anxious breath, so yes, there is some jerky camera movement. He is being followed, as the film provides a second perspective, differentiated by the change in score and the speed of the movement of the camera. The score by Carlos Vivas is excellent, by the way. That frantic movement is then contrasted with the static, calm shot of the exterior of a house, through the windows of which we can see the friends having dinner, unaware that their calm is about to be destroyed.

The dinner scene is quite good, quickly establishing the characters’ relationships and showing their playful, though occasionally biting humor toward each other. One couple is planning a wedding, while another couple announces a pregnancy. But perhaps it is the third couple that is most interesting. They aren’t actually a couple, though it is clear that Terrence (George Troester) is attracted to Tess (Jessica Sonneborn). We learn that Tess is seeing an older man, though that relationship is not all that serious according to her. If it were, wouldn’t that man be present at the dinner? Perhaps. But Terrence implies that maybe Tess’ sexual tendencies lean in another direction. All of this will come into play as the movie unfolds. But just as the conversation might turn serious, as there is some confusion as to just which one of them found this house to hold their holiday celebration, there is a loud pounding at the door.

When Tess opens the door, a man stumbles in, spitting up blood on her before collapsing on the floor. He points at Terrence, then tells the group, “Never open the door.” Strange advice from a man who kept knocking, demanding to be let in. But things are about to get very strange for this group of friends, whose cell phones mysteriously cease normal functions, though one of the them, Luke, begins receiving text messages about his wife and friends from an unknown source. Meanwhile the lights go off, and when they come back on, Tess is missing. But moments later, she arrives at the door, as if she had never been there, which, as you might imagine, weirds out the group. And Luke receives a text message indicating that Tess is an imposter.

There are some problems, of course. Why doesn’t Luke respond to the text messages, asking the person to identify himself or herself? It seems he is all-too-ready to become unhinged, perhaps was on his way to delusions and fears even before this Thanksgiving gathering. In fact, all of the characters seem to accept this altered reality quite quickly. There is also the problem of characters not hearing things that they would have heard, like other characters screaming upstairs. That is, unless the isolation of various characters is so complete that they are unaware of the others, like the house itself is keeping them from hearing each other. Also, it seems a lot of the dialogue was improvised, which leads to a whole lot of repetition, like them saying multiple times that Tess was standing right there. At another point Maria asks Luke “What are you doing?” like half a dozen times in a row. Some of this should have been cut, but the movie is only sixty-four minutes as it is. But interestingly, much of the dialogue does have a natural feel, and the cast largely does a decent job of conveying their fears and uncertainties in a believable way. And the creepiness of the atmosphere is maintained throughout.

Special Features

The DVD contains interviews with Jessica Sonneborn, director Vito Trabucco and producer Christopher Maltauro. Jessica talks about shooting at Big Bear and about the makeup. And yes, she does mention that there was some improvisation. Vito Trabucco talks about the story idea, the shoot, and his love for Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Christopher Maltauro talks about the script, and mentions that the original running time was too short (which is incredible, considering how short the final product is). For Maggie contains more from these three interviews, the topic here being Maggie Dillon, who did the special effects makeup for the film, and who died soon after the film was made. There is also a photo gallery of production stills, as well as the film’s trailer.

Never Open The Door was directed by Vito Trabucco, who also co-wrote the script and plays a minor role in the film. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 6, 2016.