It was all the way back in 2007 that Australian director Andrew Leavold brought us The Search For Weng Weng, a so-strange-it-must-be-true documentary exploration of the diminutive Filipino cult film star Weng Weng. Standing less than three feet tall, Weng Weng starred in a string of film oddities - most notably a flagrant James Bond knock off titled For Your Height Only - much of which is chronicled in Leavold's film. But as much as is in the film there's more to tell in the story of Weng Weng. So much more, in fact, that Leavold has now published a companion book that he is touring with along with an on screen companion - The Lost Films Of Weng Weng - that features edited down...
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- 10/2/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Throughout the month of December, we will be highlighting a film a day that has some tie into the holiday somehow. Some titles will be obvious, others won’t be. Some films will be good and, again, others won’t be. However, we think all titles are worth your time whether to give you chills inside your home or to make you drink more eggnog until you puke laughing.
London at Christmas time. A rash of murders have grabbed headlines. Each victim has one thing in common, they were all dressed as Santa Claus. Inspector Harris (Edmund Purdom) of Scotland Yard is on the case. He contacts one of the victim’s daughters (Belinda Mayne) who he thinks could be next. A mysterious reporter (Alan Lake) may know what’s really happening.
Don’t Open Till Christmas brings a new spin to killer Santa movies by well, killing Santa. This...
London at Christmas time. A rash of murders have grabbed headlines. Each victim has one thing in common, they were all dressed as Santa Claus. Inspector Harris (Edmund Purdom) of Scotland Yard is on the case. He contacts one of the victim’s daughters (Belinda Mayne) who he thinks could be next. A mysterious reporter (Alan Lake) may know what’s really happening.
Don’t Open Till Christmas brings a new spin to killer Santa movies by well, killing Santa. This...
- 12/13/2014
- by Jeremy Jones
- Destroy the Brain
I first encountered the work of Filipino action hero and tiny man-child Weng Weng at this very festival in 2007. Andy Stark and Pete Tombs ran an absolutely bonkers reel of money shots from their Mondo Macabro release label in front of a Pakistani slasher film they produced that was playing at Fantasia that year. There was more than enough "Wtf" splashed on screen for those wild 16 minutes, but the clips featuring a 2 foot 9 inch James Bond sporting a jet pack, or jumping out of high rise and floating down with just an umbrella, was a stand out. This was the same year that The Chuds' Weng Weng Rap video popped up on a nascent Youtube, also featuring loads of clips from For Y'ur Height Only and The...
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- 7/28/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Those of you lucky enough to have seen 80s Filipino action oddity For Your Height Only will be familiar with the legacy of Weng Weng, and now there's a new documentary doing the rounds that pries open the legend of the pint-sized leading man, and Twitch has an exclusive first look at the trailer.The Search For Weng Weng is Andrew Leavold's obsessive quest to discover exactly what became of the 2'9" kung-fu kicking 'James Bond' of Filipino Cinema - one of his country's biggest stars throughout the 1980s.The film recently screened at Udine's Far East Film Festival and will receive its UK premiere at Sheffield Doc Fest next month. It will also be making its market debut at Cannes next week, courtesy of Monster Pictures.Shot...
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- 5/9/2014
- Screen Anarchy
The coming of fall might mean fewer free or cheap film events to choose from than in summer months, but plenty of films are still on schedule now that school has started. I asked around at some of the local venues, and received eager responses from folks excited about their upcoming programming.
Of course, fall also means the return of Austin film-festival season. There’s Fantastic Fest from September 19-26, Polari (formerly aGLIFF) running from October 16-20, and Austin Film Festival from October 24-31. Smaller fests include the first annual Housecore Horror Film Festival from Oct. 24-27, Cinema Touching Disability from November 1-2 and the Austin Polish Film Festival, November 1-3.
Below are some of the events on the horizon for Austin in autumn.
Alamo Drafthouse Ritz
Alamo Ritz starts their fall program with a Cinema Club screening of 1928 silent romance Lonesome (Mon, Sept. 9, $10) hosted by Caroline Frick from Tami...
Of course, fall also means the return of Austin film-festival season. There’s Fantastic Fest from September 19-26, Polari (formerly aGLIFF) running from October 16-20, and Austin Film Festival from October 24-31. Smaller fests include the first annual Housecore Horror Film Festival from Oct. 24-27, Cinema Touching Disability from November 1-2 and the Austin Polish Film Festival, November 1-3.
Below are some of the events on the horizon for Austin in autumn.
Alamo Drafthouse Ritz
Alamo Ritz starts their fall program with a Cinema Club screening of 1928 silent romance Lonesome (Mon, Sept. 9, $10) hosted by Caroline Frick from Tami...
- 9/9/2013
- by Elizabeth Stoddard
- Slackerwood
Secret agent 00 doesn't let his limited height get in the way of beating the baddies in this Filipino action caper.
Looking for a bit of budget Bond-style action with a small budget and, um, a small hero? For Your Height Only has only one joke, but it also has Weng Weng, who doesn't let his limited height get in the way of beating up the bad guys. As the joke wears thin, the action and the quirky character of a film that aims for the Western and Chinese markets and misses both still manages to make this more watchable than you might expect. There's martial arts action, beautiful...
Looking for a bit of budget Bond-style action with a small budget and, um, a small hero? For Your Height Only has only one joke, but it also has Weng Weng, who doesn't let his limited height get in the way of beating up the bad guys. As the joke wears thin, the action and the quirky character of a film that aims for the Western and Chinese markets and misses both still manages to make this more watchable than you might expect. There's martial arts action, beautiful...
- 8/14/2011
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Is it an impossibly sad hour in this lonely, pathetic little world when a guy who claims to be an aficionado of cinema boldly declares that a picture as goofy as Eddie Nicart’s surreal 1981 action/comedy “For Your Height Only” renewed his interest in the medium? If so, hang your heads and mourn the minutes, dear readers, for Weng Weng is responsible for saving this wayward sheep’s wavering cinematic soul. The film — and I use that term loosely — is, at its core, a cheap, one-note exploitation job featuring rising cult icon Weng Weng, a two-foot-nine Filipino martial artist who seemingly has the ability to slide across smooth surfaces with the speed, grace, and agility of a buttered baked potato. The story is utterly senseless; all you really need to know is that Agent 00 is hot on the trail of a shady organized crime syndicate which seeks to peddle cheap drugs to innocent,...
- 2/7/2011
- by Todd Rigney
- Beyond Hollywood
Plot: A fast-moving documentary exploring the world of Filipino exploitation cinema, which spawned such .classics. as The Big Bird House, White Mama Black Mama, T N.T Jackson, Savage, and For Your Height Only. Review: Machete Maidens Unleashed is director Mark Hartley.s follow-up to his brilliant look at Aussie-exploitation cinema Not Quite Hollywood. Anyone who.s seen that amazingly fun doc will know what to expect with Machete Maidens Unleashed and for me- this thing was catnip....
- 9/23/2010
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
If you were a fan of Mark Hartley's fantastic documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!, well there's a pretty good chance that you're going to dig his next film as well. Machete Maidens Unleashed! is another investigation into the outrageous low budget genre movies of a particular country, this time focusing on the Philippines. The movie features interviews with John Landis, Joe Dante, Roger Corman, and Sid Haig and looks at the making of such cult classics as Blood Island, Cleopatra Wong and For Y'ur Height Only. Although this might seem like a rehash of the same kinds of movies and stories featured in Not Quite Hollywood, I don't think anyone is complaining. Personally I think Hartley has positioned himself perfectly to make an endless series of documentaries about b-movies from every corner of the globe... and I'd watch every single one. Machete Maidens Unleashed!
- 8/26/2010
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
Wider than Cinemascope, deeper than 3D, more sonically astounding than Thx, it’s Foleyvision! Every line of dialogue, every note of music, every single sound effect if performed right before your eyes by the amazing Foleyvision cast.
This Thursday, a sound effect event will be happening at the Ritz that will blow your ears off. Foleyvision, those aurally creative people who brought us new soundtracks for such hits as Turkish Star Wars, Santa Vs. Satan, For Your Height Only, and Turkish Wizard Of Oz will be bringing an awesome new show: Flash Gordon’S Trip To Mars.
When Ming the Merciless projects a deadly ray from Mars to extract all of the nitrogen from Earth’s atmosphere, it’s up to Flash and his pals to use awesome special effects to save the world from destruction!
In case you’ve never been to a Foleyvision show, here’s how it works.
This Thursday, a sound effect event will be happening at the Ritz that will blow your ears off. Foleyvision, those aurally creative people who brought us new soundtracks for such hits as Turkish Star Wars, Santa Vs. Satan, For Your Height Only, and Turkish Wizard Of Oz will be bringing an awesome new show: Flash Gordon’S Trip To Mars.
When Ming the Merciless projects a deadly ray from Mars to extract all of the nitrogen from Earth’s atmosphere, it’s up to Flash and his pals to use awesome special effects to save the world from destruction!
In case you’ve never been to a Foleyvision show, here’s how it works.
- 6/29/2010
- by Daniel Metz
- OriginalAlamo.com
Fango’s Australian correspondent Michael Helms sent along word that a new exploitation documentary called MacHete Maidens Unleashed is coming from Mark Hartley, the man behind Not Quite Hollywood. Much the way that film (just out on DVD from Magnolia) delved into the history of Aussie genre fare, MacHete Maidens will be a feature-length exploration of Filipino cinema.
“It was the Marcos era—the country was under martial law and, at the same time people were being taken into the jungle and shot for their political views, filmmakers such as Roger Corman were making women-in-prison films full of revolutionaries,” Hartley told Screendaily.com. Produced by Veronica Fury and backed by the Melbourne International Film Festival, MacHete Maidens will spotlight the insane horror and action fare to emerge from the Philippines at that time (like the mini-James Bond epic For Your Height Only, pictured above), as well as the production of...
“It was the Marcos era—the country was under martial law and, at the same time people were being taken into the jungle and shot for their political views, filmmakers such as Roger Corman were making women-in-prison films full of revolutionaries,” Hartley told Screendaily.com. Produced by Veronica Fury and backed by the Melbourne International Film Festival, MacHete Maidens will spotlight the insane horror and action fare to emerge from the Philippines at that time (like the mini-James Bond epic For Your Height Only, pictured above), as well as the production of...
- 10/9/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (Michael Gingold)
- Fangoria
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