Rating: B
Director: Raphael Warner
Star: Rupert Degas, Paul Rider, George Appleby, Leigh Gill
If this had the courage of its convictions, rather than ending in a caption which explicitly admits it’s fictional, this could have been a classic mockumentary. Instead, the results are amusingly deadpan, and make some pointed comments about the nature of reality in a post-truth world. Yet there’s a sense of the makers being a little guilty about being seen exploiting their topic, bleeping “the m-word”. Maybe that’s part of the illusion? I kinda suspect not. Me? I’m just here for the midget humour. For this takes inspiration from a famous 2005 myth, the Cambodian Midget Fighting League. This alleged a bout between 42 mid… um, little people and a lion, which didn’t go well for the humans.
The premise here is that an incident similar to it did take place, but was covered up, and called a hoax. An investigative journalist (Degas) describes his lengthy search for the truth. Turns out the battle was staged by shadowy entrepreneur Larry Ross (Rider). He had run a casino in Macau, and found a more profitable sideline for rich gamblers by starting the MFF. It stands for Macau Fighting Federation, though the M could stand for… another word. Luring actors of short stature from America with lucrative promises, the little people find themselves trapped and forced to battle for the amusement of Chinese whales. When local copy-cats cut into Ross’s business, he needs to find something new to keep his customers interested and placing bets. The titular match should do it.
The approach taken by Warner hits all the spots you would expect. Archive footage of Ross, interviews with his business associates and Interpol agents, etc. The key is testimony from two surviving fighters, Thomas Randall (Gill) and Donnie Johnson (Appleby), whose experiences form the backbone of the narrative. Though my favorite was Scottish dwarf Billy McGinn (Jimmy Vee), described as “South Asia’s number one cockfighting compere“, and Ross’s fixer, who acquired animals for the fights. “We had a dwarf, midget, or whatever you want to call ’em, fighting a rooster. If you’ve ever tried chasing a chicken about a garden, you know what they’re like.” He provides a glorious look into a ridiculous universe, just this side of implausible.
It’s also McGinn who offers the only eyewitness account of the massacre, which takes place in a warehouse in the middle of the Mongolian Gobi desert. Though since he “claims to have been high on a mix of Drambuie and animal tranquilizers at the time,” his recollection is likely a tad unreliable. Despite the po-faced surrealness on view, the makers do seem to want to make a serious point, for example, a montage splicing together reports of the event with other Internet stories of questionable veracity. I’m just not entirely sure what the point is. People make shit up online? I kinda knew that. Then again, as I said, I’m just here for the midget humour, and more than enough amusement is provided there.