Won Ton Baby! Embraces its Wackiness and Nonsense
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Won Ton Baby!, in other hands, would have failed, but instead accepts its ludicrous plot and goofy effects through great performances and legitimate humor.
Written by James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
June 5, 2011
Movie Trailer
Image Gallery
Release: 2009-2011 (Festival and Conventions)
Directed by: James Morgart
Written by: Suzi Lorraine (Story) and James Morgart (Story and Screenplay)
Starring:
Debbie Rochon as Madam Won Ton
Lou Martini, Jr. as Det. Hardin
Suzi Lorraine as Little Wing ‘Lily’ Won Ton
Abe Tran as Ben Won Ton
Gunnar Hansen as Dr. Kurt Severson
Madam Won Ton (Rochon) runs a popular Chinese restaurant along with her slacker son, Ben (Tran) and her kindly, naïve daughter, Little Wing (a hilariously-accented Suzi Lorraine). Unfortunately, things haven’t been going so well with cops investigating prank callers who claim the restaurant’s a brothel and Little Wing having health issues. When her stomach problems get to be too much to bear, Madam Won Ton takes her daughter to Dr. Severson (Hansen) who informs her that her daughter is suffering from the real-world medical abnormality known as “fetus in fetu”.
In essence, when she was conceived, when the restaurant actually was a brothel Madam Won Ton owned and worked at, Little Wing was a victim of a birth defect that caused another fetus or fetus-like mass of tissue to form in her body at birth. While she grew up, the fetus slowly developed until the present day where its size is threatening her life. Dr. Severson, due to the case’s advanced state, immediately puts Little Wing into surgery where the team manages to extricate a deformed baby with a long flailing umbilical cord. Little Wing loves her “brother” for all its deformities and weirdness, but she may have to reevaluate her position once it starts showing surprising strength, a sex obsession, and homicidal tendencies.
The thing that is most impressive about Won Ton Baby! is that it’s the kind of story that would be very easy to mess up. For instance, the character of Little Wing could come off as offensively racist and the plot is ludicrous. However, this film overcomes those pitfalls to become hilarious, entertaining, and unique, and manages to work on its own terms.
Probably the best aspect of Won Ton Baby! is the acting. Debbie Rochon continues to show why she’s one of the most beloved horror actresses working today delivering a great performance of a legitimately unique character: a faux-asian former prostitute turned mother and restaurant owner. It takes talent to bring all the emotions seen in that role including the love and compassion of her mothering side, the strict punishing side and the business woman running a restaurant and the personal side seen in her chemistry with Det. Hardin (Lou Martini, Jr.’). Suzi Lorraine, on the other hand, takes what can only be described as a racist and stereotypical Asian accent… and turns it into something lovable, cute, and hilarious in a “she doesn’t know better” kind of way. Interestingly, the character even becomes more awesome later in the movie when secrets from her past are revealed. Finally, this film stands as proof that, should an indie film or any film need a doctor in it, they need to at least put Gunnar Hansen on the call list because his portrayal here is both deeply serious and spectacularly funny.
Important to Won Ton Baby!’s success is its sense of
humor.
Little Wing’s accent is hysterically funny, but it’s really the tip of
the 
iceberg. The Won Ton Baby itself, a visually
goofy and fun puppet
creature, delivers funny one-liners throughout and finds itself in more
than a few perverse situations. The scene in the operating room is
inspired, breaking up the seriousness of that kind of environment with,
of all things, a discussion of a certain young Disney pop star. There
are more than these points, but I’d rather not spoil too much of the
deftly handled comedy.
There are a few significant flaws with Won Ton Baby! that bear mentioning. For one, this is undeniably a low-budget indie film, so its visual style is a little washed-out and unpolished. Additionally, some of the kills are a little jump-cutty and difficult to see. The sound is also a little weaker than I’d like on some dialogue scenes. However, I’ve seen many degrees and levels worse on these counts in other films. I’ve been told that color-correction and other work on the sound will be done as it has been picked up for a DVD release possibly by the end of the year. Given that the convention screening I first saw was overly dark and the screener that I witnessed after that fixed that to an extent, I am optimistic that this will be the case. Also, it should be noted that the middle chunk seems a little slower when compared with the rest of the movie, particularly an overlong sequence involving two drunk women and toilet humor that seems a little out-of-place with the rest of the film. Finally, most of the effects are decent, but there are moments when the viewer can “see the seams” such as early on when Little Wing’s bloated stomach is… less than convincing.
In the end, however, these flaws don’t hold Won Ton Baby! back from being an entertaining slice of indie horror comedy. The film’s great performances and well-handled, appropriate script distract from and minimize the impact of any technique flaws. If the final release product fixes the few flaws I pointed out, the film will be even more recommended. As it is, I can confidently say that this crazy story is above average indie horror that is, at the very least, worth a look.
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