NAKED CITY: WENG WENG – A REAL ACTION HERO!

Whatever happened to the real action hero?  The current crop of movie pretenders would be nothing without endless computer generated images and an army of stunt doubles.  Mercifully it hasn’t always been that way and back in the 1980s a diminutive Filipino actor by the name of Weng Weng took his country by storm with his death defying feats and kung fu artistry.

What was most amazing about Weng Weng is that he stood only 83cm high, a rare victim of primordial dwarfism but a remarkable entertainer despite his handicap. With numerous film and TV appearances Weng Weng became a household name in his native Philippines and in 1990 was awarded a special citation for services to the local film industry from first lady Imelda Marcos, with whom he was a particular favourite.

Sadly Weng Weng died in 1992 at the age of only 34 and it would be a decade or more before his cult status was discovered by Western film buffs. In Australia bootleg copies of his few surviving films circulated in the early 2000s, the Mu-Meson archives staged a number of Weng Weng nights, Drum Media ran a series of Weng Weng comic strips and Brisbane’s Andrew Leavold began a documentary project entltled The Search For Weng Weng.

Now almost two decades after his death, Umbrella Entertainment have released an officlal DVD of his classic James Bond spoof For Your Height Only along with the bonus inclusion of The Impossible Kid. What is truly incredible in these movies is that for the most part Weng Weng does all his own stunts, leaping from tall buildings, zipping through the air with his pint sized jet pack and taking on all comers with a display of karate kicks that would put Bruce Lee to shame.

Weng Weng’s movies are not without a sizeable body count but the violence is essentially a cartoon like parody and compared to today’s bloodbath of on screen violence and super nasty video games, it is almost benign. Best of all they are free of the posturing machismo, self righteous retribution and unbridled vigilantism that we associate with conventional action giants like Sylvester Stallone, Vin Deisel, Stephen Seagal, Chuck Norris and Jason Statham. Were Weng Weng alive today he would no doubt take them all on at once, demolishing them (and their stunt doubles) with a lethal karate kick to you know where!

Texas Chainsaw Trivia is staging a special launch party from 7.30pm on Wednesday 16 November to mark Umbrella Entertainment’s release of the double DVD set of Four Your Height Only and The Impossible Kid. The venue is the Darlo Bar of the Royal Sovereign Hotel in Darlinghurst (cnr Darlinghurst Rd and Liverpool St) and the night will feature Weng Weng trivia, celebrity guests, incredible clips on the big screen and the chance to win copies of this exceptional DVD release.  www.mumeson.org