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.