The Search for Weng Weng

A former cult video store manager turned guerrilla film-maker and B film detective goes looking for the two-foot-nine James Bond of the Philippines.

It sounds like the bizarra plotline of one of Leavold's most favoured cult films, but in the case of his 2013 documentary feature The Search for Weng Weng, reality does indeed kick fiction in the nuts, then returns between its legs.

With Weng Weng's real story buried under more than thirty years of faulty memories, urban myths and forgotten pop culture, it seemed a Herculean task. Was he really a black belt, super-spy, stunt king, ladies' man, living saint and plaything of the Marcos family? What was his real name, how many films did he make, and was he possibly still alive?

It took Leavold seven years to complete the film, against seemingly impossible odds, and then screen the film all over the world, including Weng Weng's front yard.

But that was just the start of the story.

Published in 2017 by The LedaTape Organisation

239 pages / Paperback