FOR Y'UR HEIGHT ONLY - Maraya - "Weng's World" (1981)

Hiyah Kids, Hiyah, Hiyah! We've dug deep to come up with this week's special edition, Weng Weng Wednesday!! Now if you don't know who or what Weng Weng is, well, then it's just as the man who turned me on to this movie would say, "The truth will all be revealed in time," or something close to that!

Ernesto de la Cruz was born on Sept 7, 1957, and his short life ended on August 29, 1992, at the young age of 34, but Ernesto was also Weng Weng, a 2 Ft, 9 in. tall Filipino actor and martial artist, and in this movie, "For Y'ur Height Only" he stars as not 007, but Agent 00!! Weng Weng was so popular that at one point he was given the rank of honorary Philippine Secret Agent by the shoe queen herself, Imedla Marcos!

Mike Cohen is the infamous Dr. Van Kohler, the inventor of the N Bomb, and he's been captured by the nefarious Mr. Giant and his gang of surly cutthroats who have plans on taking over the whole world!!

Polyester is as common to the Philippines as pork adobo or lumpias! It's like a Hierarchical organization of fashion, the louder the shirt, the higher up the ladder you are!

I know that in this ever growing climate of political correctites, it probably seems wrong to use a small person as a novelty in a movie, but get this one thing straight, as funny as it seems, this isn't a comedy, and Weng Weng is very serious about his performance and his martial art skills!

Well, of course there are going to be scenes like this, but I've seen Bruce Lee do some pretty funny moves too!!

Not being a comedy doesn't mean that they still aren't going to take advantage of the fact that Weng Weng was the shortest actor ever in a lead role!

Just like James Bond, Agent 00 is supplied with numerous gadgets, special tools and weapons like this blow gun!

So, now, you can tell we're moving up in rank of the bad guys, because this cat known as "The Big Guy" not only has a special flowered shirt, he's also sporting a totally mis-matched striped jacket!!

Weng Weng uses this little sliding across the floor as he's shooting up at his victim trick more than once over the course of this film. You'd think the bad guys would eventually think to aim a little lower, but then that would also shorten the length of the film!

The band of evil has a cool VW Bug with a fancy chrome luggage rack up top that they use on a number of jobs!!

The little guy as viewed through the Big Guy's legs!

The Big Guy has his criminal cohorts stuff Weng Weng in a box for safe keeping, but he foils them with another one of his devices, the knife in the plastic boot with the platform heels!

The Big Guy is cut down to size after being surprised by another one of Agent 00's tricks, and goes down hard for the final count! After being called every short insult in the book from half pint shrimp to midget, Agent 00 evens up the score on multiple counts and proves that indeed, "Short people DO have a reason to live!"

In the Philippines, they call this dying with style!!

The theme song for this film titled "Nilikha Ba Ako Upang Masaktan" was written and performed by Maraya! No other musical credits are given!


Weng Weng was quite the ladies man, and was a very popular personality in the Filipino community for a good ten years, before joining the ranks of all the other forgetten stars of the ages! The various leading ladies he has join him on his adventures in this film are, in no particular order, Yehlen Catral as Lola, Carmi Martin as Marilyn, Anna Marie Gutierrez as Anna, and Beth Sandoval as Irma!

Weng Weng exudes confidence and kicks ass all over the island! There is a lot you can find out, but to this day, the legacy of Weng Weng still retains mystery!

It's time to get serious, break out the swords, now it's time for Agent 00 to take on a black guy and a white guy, instead of those Filipino regulars!

With the Big Guy out of the picture, now it's time for this guy's shirt to move up in the ranks a notch, have mercy!!

I'm serious, I am very, very colourblind, so I can only imagine what this room really looks like!

Oh, Yeah, Agent 00 has it all, even a rocket backpack!!

Finally after doing in scores of the vile, nasty, and generally unpleasant minions of Mr. Giant, it's time to do battle with the man himself, and it turns out that Mr. Giant ain't exactly the bigshot you were expecting him to be!!

You know that there's going to be a big crash 'em up explosive ending, and I just dig the fact that the unmerciful army of evil all have targets on their chest, just to make the job that much easier! Like C.O.D.? You're gonna love "For Y'ur Height Only!" After I saw this film, I discovered that lo and behold, of all the amazing things, and for your plesure, "For Y'ur Height Only" is available on Netflix as a double feature with some flick called "Challenge Of The Tiger."

And on a completely unrelated subject, please do yourself a favor, and go by and check out some of the killer rockin' music by Tom Frost's newest project, "The Bloody Tomahawks" Tom was my inspiriation for starting this blog, and I think all the reasons are pretty damn evident in his music, and you can hear it right HERE for free! Teaming up with Shouting Thomas Torment is a prefect match, and tell 'em Eegah!! sent you!!