On this day in 1992, we were robbed of one of the coolest little dudes to ever grace the big screen - Ernesto dela Cruz, better known by his stage name Weng Weng.
Born in the district of Baclaran in the Philippines, Weng Weng was roughly the size of a Coke bottle upon birth, and as a result required intense care from his parents, feeding him with a pipette and wrapping him in blankets. The severity of Weng Weng's dwarfism was soon realised when he reached what would become his tallest height - just 83cm. During his later film career his height would see him ranked as the shortest leading man ever in cinema; some other actors with dwarfism such as Verne Troyer of Mini-Me fame were actually shorter than Weng Weng, in Troyer's case by just one inch, however unlike Weng Weng, none of these actors ever landed a leading role.
Before he landed his film career however, Weng Weng had the pleasure of being something of a local celebrity in his hometown, with the people of Barclaran knowing him as the "child Christ", as his devoutly Catholic mother Rita DeGuzman dela Cruz would dress him up as such for an annual Baclaran Catholic parade. But portraying baby Jesus for the rest of his life was no plan of Weng Weng's, in fact around the 70s he'd found his true passion and life ambition - martial arts.
Weng Weng fuckin' loved martial arts, like he was super into it. He'd watch dozens of kung fu films whenever possible, and was known to then go out to his garden to practice the moves he'd just seen, doing sweet jumps off of stuff, and doing pull ups on a washing line. This caught the attention of a neighbour, who suggested to Rita that maybe Weng Weng should have a crack at karate lessons.
And so it was that Weng Weng attended his first karate class, and to everybody's amazement, Weng Weng bossed it. There has for years been a debate amongst people who knew Weng Weng personally as to whether his condition also caused him to be mentally handicapped, and while some still do attest there must have been something under the surface, Weng Weng seemed to all but quash these rumours with how well he excelled at karate, as he soon became one of the top fighters in his class, and was a favoured pupil of his instructor. Of the people amazed by Weng Weng's talent, there was one person who saw not just potential in Weng Weng, but also fame and success - and that person was Peter Caballes of Liliw Productions.
Both Peter and his wife Cora were determined to make Weng Weng a film star, and due to his tough home life with a full house of siblings and very low income, Weng Weng and his family agreed for Peter and Cora to take him to live with them whenever he was required to shoot a film with them, with his first film role being an uncredited one in the 1975 film Silkabo. The next year he was introduced to the world for the first time as Weng Weng, in the film Silang Matatapang, and just two years later he shared top billing on the film Chopsuey Meets Big Time Papa.
Weng Weng continued to impress those he worked with in the film industry, and with each outings he showcased how much untapped potential he truly had. This led to Weng Weng taking on comic roles as well as action rolls, though as you can probably deduct, one of the angles of his appearances in comedy films was his height, or lack thereof. Nevertheless, these film roles proved to be the roles that would make Weng Weng an international star, aided by his explosive outing in the cult hit For Your Height Only from 1981, in which he portrayed his iconic character Secret Agent 00, a character he'd already portrayed in a film of the same name only a couple months prior.
The release of For Your Height Only quite conveniently coincided with the first ever Manilla International Film Festival, which was established to gather more global interest in Filipino cinema. It was a chance for many artists in the Philippines to really showcase the art they could create, and hopefully land some international distribution deals from investors, however their dreams were completely dashed when Weng Weng showed up, for every day of the festival, performing live martial arts demonstrations for on-lookers, some of whom included Jeremy Irons, Franco Nero, and Priscilla Presley.
Film makers were incredibly butt-hurt over Weng Weng's popularity, as their precious festival created to highlight how artistic and "deep" they could be essentially became Weng Weng mania, with For Your Height Only outselling all other films at the festival that year for distribution. The distributor for the West Indies claimed he opened it the same week as Raiders of the Lost Ark, which it beat to first place, holding that position for two weeks. To this day, it is still outsells all other Filipino film exports.
With the festival over and For Your Height Only reaching every corner of the planet, Weng Weng had become a national hero to the Philippines. As their first ever international celebrity, he was constantly on talk shows and in interviews, which only fed to the nation's Weng Weng mania - much to the dismay and what I can only assume is jealously of "real" Filipino artists. But seriously, fuck those guys, Weng Weng worked just as hard as them to become a film star, in fact if anything he had far more odds against him before he could get there too, and yet he overcame every god damn one and reached to the dizzying heights of performing sweet karate moves in front of Scar from The Lion King.
Sure, it's fairly likely Weng Weng's dwarfism was exploited by some in the industry looking to utilise him as a spectacle to secure ticket sales from punters (more on that later), but that shouldn't take away from the fact Weng Weng was known to be a hard worker and extremely passionate about his craft, and if folk are willing to overlook that simply because they're in a sulk that their shitty little "meaningful" pictures didn't get the time of day, then that just goes to show that these people don't deserve the fame and recognition they feel they rightfully deserve.
So after the success of For Your Height Only, Weng Weng was at the peak of his career, and there was some pretty interesting opportunities for him on the horizon. He starred in a couple more notable films that came close to the success of For Your Height, such as its follow up The Impossible Kid and then D'Wild Wild Weng, and there were talks of him starring alongside a then unknown kick-boxer by the name of Jean-Claud Van Damme, he was in talks to star in his own Filipino Superman movie, and most bizarrely, an Italian Neorealist film, after he'd taken an interest to the genre. Sadly however, as the 80s came to a close, so did Weng Weng's film career.
Peter and Cora retired from Liliw Productions, and without their backing Weng Weng begun to struggle to find work. This abandonment by the Caballes was seen as a sign that the couple never truly cared for the well-being of Weng Weng outside of using him to turn a quick buck, and stories from insiders of Weng Weng's films would certainly support that. Although initially considered good people for pulling Weng Weng out of poverty and into the spotlight as he'd always dreamed, this was allegedly a facade for their true treatment of him, with people claiming he was underpaid, overworked, treat like a dog, kept out of important meetings and discussions regarding him, and most heinously it is claimed they actually held him back from making a career of his own without them.
Furthermore, a lot of the negative things spread about Weng Weng are said to have originated from the Caballes and their associates, such as the assertion Weng Weng was mentally slow, had no grasp on reality, would believe anything he was told, and was generally a little "odd" due to his condition. Others who acted alongside Weng Weng however claimed a lot of this conception of him came from people just assuming lesser of him because of his handicap, and also because he had a very strange sense of humour, with some actors claiming he was actually incredibly intelligent and almost seemed to play up to this conception as a means of messing with people. There are also the contradicting claims of Weng Weng's love life, with some including Weng Weng himself claiming he was very popular with the ladies, whilst others (again, usually Liliw Production personnel) stating he was in fact a virgin and had no experience around women, and would behave creepy around them. Were all these negative stories of Weng Weng all part of a bigger plan to hold him back in his career so that he seemed less appealing to work with without the constant supervision of the Caballes? Who knows, but it certainly is fishy.
Although his film outings dwindled, Weng Weng did remain a local celebrity at least, being made an agent at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, where he greeted tourists and was allowed to carry a gun, and he was allegedly made a secret agent by President Ferdinand Marcos. Tall tales such as this latter point though cannot be confirmed, as like many other tall tales of Weng Weng's life, there is an issue in differentiating myth from fact. For example as well as being made a secret agent, Weng Weng was allegedly also a dentist, a spiritual healer, a customs officer, and some even claimed him to be a comedian in on the creation of his myth. There are even rumours the Filipino police force would call on Weng Weng for police operations, using him to squeeze through vents to enter locked properties to unlock them for police access.
In terms of international fame however, Weng Weng's time as a global star had all but come to an end around this point. With no new roles and copies of his big hits like For Your Height becoming rare and expensive collectors' items, the world just seemed to turn their back on him, and eventually, so did the Philippines. With his money all but run out, Weng Weng returned to his hometown to live with his family, returning to the life of poverty. Around this time, Weng Weng also became upset to discover that Weng Weng impersonators were being used on TV shows rather than he himself being approached for roles.
Tragically, in 1990 Weng Weng suffered a stroke, which left him an invalid and partially paralysed. His health continued to deteriorate with a heart attack the following year, and finally on the 29th August 1992, he suffered a second heart attack and died. He was just 34 years old. The Caballes apparently never visited Weng Weng during his ill health, and made only brief appearances at his funeral, though his family do state that Peter paid for a casket for him.
And so ends the tragic tale of Weng Weng, the smallest action hero who could have been capable of so much more, but through the greed and selfishness of others was never able to meet his potential. But threat not folks, for even though Weng Weng's films faded into obscurity following the height of his success, with the advent of the internet his films were once again able to be distributed across the globe, opening Weng Weng up to a whole new generation of fans, which in turn led to the incredible The Search for Weng Weng in 2013, which if you've enjoyed learning about Weng Weng here, I'd highly recommend you check out.
Sleep well, Weng Weng.
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