1982 - D’Wild Wild Weng (Liliw Films International)
[Release date 25th March 1982; released in South Africa as “Wild Wild Weng”]
Director/Stunt Director Eddie Nicart Story Cora Ridon Caballes Screenplay Cora Ridon Caballes, [uncredited] Eddie Nicart, Bonnie Paredes Executive Producer Peter M. Caballes, [uncredited] Cora Ridon Caballes Cinematography Bhal Dauz Music Pablo Vergara Editor Edgardo "Boy" Vinarao Sound Effects Rodel Capule, Lando Capule Field Soundman Ruben Gultiano Production Manager Tino Veluya Assistant Director Mando Pangilinan Routine Instructors Oscar Reyes, Mando Pangilinan Makeup Artist Baby Gonzales Props/Setting Jaime Dionio, Eddie Caster, Bobby Caballes, Rod Reyes Assistant Cameraman Andres dela Paz Schedule Master Bobby Caballes Assistant Editors Isagani Cells, Danny Gloria Stills Ricky Diaz Sales Manager Rene Pascual
Cast Weng Weng (Mr Weng), Yehlen Catral (Elsa), Nina Sara (Clara), Max Alvarado (Lupo the Mute), Max Laurel (Gordon), Romy Diaz (Senor Sebastian), Ernie Ortega (Ku Manchu), Robert Miller (Gaspar), Rene Romero (Acosta), Ike Lozada (Grateful Villager), Dencio Padilla (Mr Dencio, Clara’s Father), Joe Cunanan (Villager on Ground), Jay Grama (Senor Sebastian's Henchman), Gil Bandong, Nelson Armiza, Ray Albella, Lito Navarro, Fred Esplana (Senor Sebastian's Henchman), Alex Pascual, Lito de Guzman, Rio Esguerra, Domeng Reyes, SOS Daredevils, Goliath (Apo Lawin the Indian Chief), Erning Reyes, Brando Navarro, [?????????] Fullosa, Gody Pacrem, Arthur Liobon, Rey Valenzuela, Ben Sanchez, Elpidio Navillon, Bert Gamboa, Ernie Gubaton, Thumblers, Lawin Stuntman, Barusio Stuntman, Porso Boys, D’Professional Stuntman, [uncredited] Oscar Reyes (Running Villager), Jimmy Reyes (Goon in Cowboy Hat), Jimmy Labarro, Mando Pangilinan (Armando the Concerned Villager), Usman Hassim (Senor Sebastian's Goon), Mel Arca (Senor Sebastian's Goon)
COMEDY/KUNG FU/WESTERN
Review and Eddie Nicart and sales agent John Kater interviews by Andrew Leavold
[Previously published in Leavold's book The Search For Weng Weng (2017); Leavold's interview with star Yehlen Catral is HERE]
The Caballes were quick to bankroll a follow-up feature, this time another Western, called D’Wild Wild Weng (1982). Quickly dubbed in time for the 1982 American Film Market, the film, from a screenplay by Eddie Nicart and Bonnie Paredes, a Times Journal reporter who also worked on the For Yúr Height Only script, is the most obscure of Weng Weng’s three English-language films, and outside of micro-releases on Lebanese and South African VHS, I'm yet to find evidence of any other international releases anywhere, either theatrically or on VHS. In fact its existence only became known once it surfaced as a grey-market VCD in 2007 after two and a half decades of complete anonymity, and even now is often mistaken for Da Best In Da West, and vice versa. Personally I find it hard to believe there are TWO Filipino midget Westerns, and this version with everyone in Mexican mustaches and sombreros! Yehlen Catral plays Elsa the barmaid, Romy Diaz is note-perfect with mestizo superiority as the corrupt governor Sebastian, Max Alvarado takes a turn at playing a sympathetic non-Goon character as the mute Lupo, and Nina Sara is Weng’s love interest Clara. It’s no coincidence that all four actors ALSO worked on Da Best In Da West, considering producer Pete Caballes scored one of the many gratuitous cameos, was good friends with Dolphy, and secured Weng Weng roles in three of Dolphy’s films. In a vain attempt to capture Dolphy’s box office success, you can almost picture Caballes on the set of Da Best... with a huge butterfly net and box of pins.
D’Wild Wild Weng is not strictly speaking an Agent 00 film, as Weng Weng trades in his characteristic white suit for a tiny waist coat and ruffled shirt (incognito, you understand). He is only ever referred to as “Mister Weng” or “Mr Wang”, depending on how hungover the guy in the dubbing booth was. He does, however, strip down to karate pants to do some suave martial art moves and, once the sight of Weng without a shirt becomes too much, dons the familiar white attire AND blue paratrooper duds for target practice, just in case you’ve forgotten what he’s capable of.
Silhouetted against the opening Spaghetti Western credits and Pablo Vergara’s jaunty mariachi score, government agents “Mr Weng” and his mountainous sidekick Gordon - who, played by former FPJ bodyguard and future Zuma star Max Laurel, is more than twice the size of Weng - head to Santa Monica to investigate the slaying of the Mayor and his family. They find the Mayor’s caretaker Lupo has had his tongue cut out (Max Alvarado grunts and squeals and pulls faces, but under his Chinese villain mustache we can still see his tongue!) and the evil governor Senor Sebastian in control, along with his henchmen (our drinking buddy Robert Miller, and For Yúr Height Only’s Rene Romero) and the familiar faces of the SOS Daredevils as Sebastian’s army of Goons, decked out in uniform sombreros and gunbelts. Villages are burnt, townsfolk are lynched, goats and chickens are confused. These are desperate times indeed.
Weng and Gordon rescue kindly villagers Mr Dencio and his daughter Clara, who warn them of Sebastian’s terrible ways. Later, sensing an opening, Weng tunelessly serenades Clara outside her window with Gordon on guitar and Lupo squealing harmonies; it’s a direct steal from Dolphy’s hopeless attempt at seduction in Da Best In Da West, in which Weng strums a guitar as big as he is. Less than a minute later they discover the family has been kidnapped - by ninjas, no less! - and are tied to X-shaped crosses by Sebastian’s samurai sword-wielding associate Ku Manchu (Ernie Ortega). Weng helps them escape, but is later captured himself, spread-eagled between four posts with his shirt more than a little ruffled.
As always, Weng’s stature is the main source of amusement - from being carried around in a sack on Gordon’s back, to stealing bananas from under a table, to Gordon launching him like a coconut at Sebastian’s balcony. It’s as if a performing monkey had its cigar taken away and was cross-bred with Arnold from Diff’rent Strokes, then dressed in a set of Tijuana pyjamas. At one point Gordon rescues Weng from his cell by dressing as a monk, while Weng crawls under his cowl and clings - fetal style - to his belly, before hanging down like Max Laurel’s third leg. Shudder. He then slides across the floor, in vintage 00 mode, through a goon’s legs and karate chops their hamstrings, and does a bionic leap from a sixth-story church tower into Gordon’s waiting jeep. "That was also quite high," remembered Eddie of the late 17th Century church in Baras, rural Rizal province. "That was in the third, or fourth floor…and the landing space is full of cartons. Before, in America, it was duffel bags - here, it was just cartons with a mat. With Weng Weng, just 20 pieces of cartons and one mat is okay for him already. He’s okay with that, because he’s so small, and so he won’t sink. Even just one layer of a pack of cigarettes is okay for him already."
Eddie shot D’Wild Wild Weng fast and on a threadbare budget, mainly around the familiar FPJ and Lito Lapid western landscapes of Satum Bato and Porac in Pampanga province. According to Eddie, it was a five-man crew: himself, Mando, Oca, another guy, and photographer. “When we arrived in Pampanga, we checked-in in a hotel, just one room for us staff. The late Romy Diaz was one of my guests. In just one week, the shoot was almost finished, just in the desert.”
After the gruelling Pampanga schedule, the production shot a few location sequences in Panay, Rizal, then moved to Manila for Senor Sebastian's mansion an old Spanish-era house on Balete Drive in Quezon City, often used for movie shoots; the church interiors were in the old Fort Bonifacio buildings in Intramuros. “The shoot was just a little over a week. Ten days. The budget was really small. Imagine, you do not have to pay anyone, because you do not have big stars. The only known actor there was Romy Diaz, may his soul rest in peace. The rest were all unknown. And us, we did not expect to be paid. It was just okay with us.”
There are very few gadgets in the Wild West other than a Gatling Gun, even bigger than Weng Weng, mounted on the back of an old Volkswagon converted by Eddie into a war wagon for the big finale. And what an ending: Mr Weng, Gordon and Lupo face-off against a veritable army of Goons.
Mr Weng: “Where’s Clara?”
Gordon: “Where’s Elsa?”
Lupo: “Bla bla bla bla? Huh?”
On the signal, Weng cranks the rattling Gatling’s handle as fast as his little arm can, mowing down wave after wave of “Mexicans” in slow motion (recalling the best moments of Sam Peckinpah’s D’Wild Bunch [1969]). As with the ending of For Y'ur Height Only, the same fifteen stuntmen are "killed" over and over again, alternating between sombreros and ninja hoods. Stage left, a tribe of pygmy Indians - you ready correctly, Hobbit House waiters in red-face and warpaint, led by Mr Giant himself, Goliath - launch a counter-attack with bows and arrows amidst a sea of explosions. Oh, and let’s not forget the ninjas. It’s one of the most insane Filipino B-endings, a micro-Apocalypse Now and a dadaist triumph for Nicart’s merry band of pranksters.
Eddie was philosophical about the film’s relative obscurity. “I think D'Wild Wild Weng is not like For Y'ur Height [Only], because it had a different concept. We even bought a car, a small one, a Volkswagen, for Weng Weng. That was what was used in the desert…. But it did not [go] boom as much. Because the [charm] of For Y'ur Height [Only] was really different, he was a solo lead there. In D'Wild Wild Weng, he had co-stars. But it did not flop that much, because it did not have a lot of budget to begin with. If ever it earned a bit, then it would have covered the cost. But I do not know if it was sold abroad.”
John Kater was present at Magnatech Omni studios in Quezon City with his friend, dubbing supervisor Jesse Ramos, as D'Wild Wild Weng was being prepared for international release. During the Eighties and Nineties, Magnatech Omni was THE most utilized post-production house in the Philippines. Closed long ago, all that remains is the anonymous building front opposite popular goon drinking spot Ihaw Balot, itself a stone's throw from the Film Academy building, Tropical Hut and National Book Store. "The first time I saw a Weng Weng film being dubbed into English, it was absolutely horrifying to some degree, coming from England. I'm there in the projection room, and there's one loop of film which is going round and round, and there's one bloody loop of soundtrack that's going round and round, and they're both dragging over the floor of the projection room! So heaven knows what quality it's going to be like when they've finished…"
From the moment Weng Weng opens his mouth in D’Wild Wild Weng, you know you’re in for a wholly different experience. Gone is the breathtaking stupidity in the revoicing, with the dubbers playing the script straight, which in context makes sense: the supervisor, Jesse “Og” Ramos, former scriptwriter to Lamberto V. Avallana, award-winning documentarian, and caveman character opposite Fernando Poe Jr and Chiquito in several Lo’ Waist Gang movies. This is clearly not the person to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. Weng Weng’s voice itself has dropped frighteningly in tone, somewhere between a cruise ship crooner and a slightly breathless Barry White. And as for the dubber who revoiced Lupo, there’s no chamber in Hell big enough to host the indignities due to befall him.
Weng Weng, Peter and Cora Caballes flew to Los Angeles in March 1982 for the American Film Market with their latest production D'Wild Wild Weng fresh from the film laboratory.
John Kater was also at the American Film Market representing Entertainment Philippines. "I can remember being with them in Los Angeles, and Cora had locked them out of the hotel suite because they were out on the town one night. This was Pete AND Weng Weng! He managed to get the door open but the chain was on. He and Weng Weng were trying to unscrew the chain between them!"
I asked John how successful the AFM trip was. "Medium successful. Weng Weng was successful. The Filipino films, even the really good ones, were a much more difficult sale. Weng wasn't the normal kind of picture that one was selling from the Philippines. You could divide the Philippine pictures at that time into two. You've got the pictures that told the story, and you've got the action films. And Weng Weng was exceptional, because he was an action picture and he was a commercial picture. A lot of the other films like the Lino Brocka pictures and these Ishmael Bernal pictures, would go to art theatres. It's another culture. And if you look at film sales around the world, you can sell a film to West Africa where they speak English - supposedly - but they have difficulty understanding it. So what you want is a film that they can see what's happening up on the screen. And Weng Weng was like that - Weng Weng had a sense of humour. And that was a saleable picture. It wasn't a top-of-the-line picture or anything like that, but it gained its followers."
You do remember them selling to some obscure territories? "Oh yeah. They were the kind of pictures that would go very well in places like Germany, Italy… The Middle East would love that kind of picture. It sold pretty widely. This was also the era of video, Betamax tapes. Video was also a market - it was a secondary market, but it was important."
1984 - Caliber 357 (Liliw Films International [credited on trailers only]/Mirick Films International; distributed by Solar Film [credited on layouts only]
[Philippines release date 26th January 1984, original title “Tatak: Magnum”; also released internationally as “Burning Power” and in West Germany as “Danger Man – Der Unerbittliche Vollstrecker”]
Director/Stunt Director Eddie Nicart Story/Screenplay Cora Caballes, Bonnie Paredes Producers [uncredited] Peter Caballes, Cora Caballes Executive Producer Jesse G. Chua Cinematography Bhal Dauz Musical Director Pablo Vergara Editor Edgardo “Boy” Vinarao Sound Engineer Rudy Baldovino Special Sound Effects Rodel Capule Production Manager Evelyn Baruelo Assistant Director Mando Pangilinan Fight Director Fred Esplana Assistant Fight Instructor/Continuity Oscar Reyes Special Effects/Props "Torrente" Makeup Artist Baby Gonzalez Set Hands Boy Caceres, Jun Lapuz Assistant Cameraman Boy Anao 2nd Cameraman Ver Dauz Legman Edmund De Guzman Stills Roger Baruelo Titles Ramon "Ramje" Capinpin
Cast Nelson Anderson (Nelson Grant), Jean Saburit (Marlene), Azenith Briones (Mrs Verlosa), Malou Bendigo (Malou), Romy Diaz (Rodrigo Santos), Renato Robles, Johnny Wilson (Senor Verlosa), Beth Sandoval (Lorna Rodriguez), Elena Marie, Dan Alvaro, Mario Marasigan, Robert Lee (Interpol Agent), Ulysses Tzan [listed on local ads as "Ulysses Santiago"] (Interpol Agent), Ernie Ortega (Tomao), Robert Rivera, Allan Garcia, David Light (Mancini), Sam Lombardo, Mike Schrichter, Karola Mayer, Angela Prestel, Damela Rubi, Lieli Hurstler, Cathy March, Jane Andrew, Rene Kiefer, Franz Kung, Peter Henzelmann, Walter Tschopp, Erich Muller, Steve Rogers [as Steven Rogers] (Verlosa's White Goon), Kruse Michel, Vic Varrion, Belo Borja, Edgar Garcia, Robert Miller (Rodrigo's Henchman), Jimmy Santos, Danny Riel, Avel Morado, Lauro Flores, Joe Andrade, Joey Infante, Nonoy De Guzman, Rene Romero, Mel Arca, Bert Giron, Erning Reyes, Telly Babasa, Fred Esplana, Jay Grama (Mancini's Goon), Tony Tacorda, Mario Tobin, Joe Curray, Ramon Jimenez, Frank Bautista, Jimmy Cruz, Tirso Mediavillo, Lito De Guzman, Nestor Brilliantes, Boy Sta. Maria, Mario Cabero, Boy Sarmiento, Doming Reyes, Oscar Reyes, Boy Carceres, [uncredited – scenes cut by producer Jesse Chua] Weng Weng
ACTION/KUNG FU
SYNOPSIS (from the original export poster)
Nelson Anderson and Andrew Leavold holding the original export poster featuring Weng Weng's name, Nelson's LA home, November 2014
Review and interview with actor Nelson Anderson by Andrew Leavold
[Previously published in Leavold's book The Search For Weng Weng (2017)]
Eddie Nicart’s next film after The Cute...The Sexy n'The Tiny (1982) was Caliber 357 (filmed in 1983, released 1984), a welcome return to his straightforward stunt-based action fare. Half-breed Nelson Grant (Nelson Anderson) travels back to the Philippines to avenge the death of his friend and fellow Interpol agent at the hands of Manila's biggest international drug cartel: Senor Verlosa (Johnny Wilson), his king pusher Rodrigo (Romy Diaz), and samurai-weilding Tomao (Ernie Ortega) and his Ninja army.
As fate would have it, I received a Facebook message from a Filipino-American friend of mine in Los Angeles. "I'm with Nelson Anderson right now," he said, "and he's telling me stories about being Weng Weng's co-star."Nelson Anderson, I wrote back, star of Eddie Nicart's Caliber 357…also starring Weng Weng? Now, I'd seen Caliber 357 a number of times, along with Eddie's other non-Weng Weng action features, and I am certain I would have remembered a two-foot-nine sidekick somewhere amongst the goons and ninjas. No, Nelson insisted that Weng Weng was indeed his co-star. I emailed Nelson my contact details and waited breathlessly for his response.
Nelson’s half-Swedish, half-Cherokee father was in the US Army stationed in the Philippines when he met his datu (village leader) wife from Tarlac province. “I grew up in Tondo,” Nelson told me via Skype from his home in Hollywood. “It was a tough neighbourhood! I sometimes saw two or three people get killed. That's why there was so much respect, because any time you locked horns with anyone, you'd be dead - if you didn't bring that person down, he's gonna get back at you and get you back, so you're better off killing that person. That's why there's always that mutual respect.” Nelson’s family relocated to California in 1966; the teenage Nelson acted in local theatre, became personal trainer to the stars, and maintained his childhood interest in Martial Arts.
“By the time I was three years old my grandfather would take me to the province, then when I was about seven or eight he used to have me put a glass of water, and I would do the Filipino dance thing without spilling the water. The whole summer he had me do that. Then the following year I realized that they were actually movements. Then he started showing me how to do stick, Eskrima, until I was about ten. When I was twelve, I started doing gymnastics, and I started taking ballet lessons and going back to martial arts. Then I started doing Kung Fu, and from twelve until I was about 22 I was working on martial arts about five to six hours a day. Getting a scholarship at UCLA in the Gymnastics Team, I was going to go to Med School, and then after about three semesters I dropped out because I couldn't really stand the sight of blood!”
How Jesse Chua and the Caballes choose you for the role? “A friend of mine was helping to manage me, he was trying to break in as a writer in the Philippines. When he came back here he already talked to Viva and Regal, and Jesse, Pete Caballes. We sent pictures of me doing martial arts to about five different companies there. As soon as Jesse Chua received it, there was already a plane ticket there. They were going to pay me $25,000 for the movie, and when I found out it was going to be a lot of hard stunts, I asked for another $25,000. Also they didn't even want to get insurance for me, and I said I wanted to get liability and life insurance, just in case something happened. Thank God that I never really got hurt!
“Jessie was a pretty straight-forward guy, he comes from a well-off family so he doesn't really need the money. Jessie just likes being in business because he likes discovering - Lito Lapid, actors like that. He was really happy discovering new talent.” In a way, Jessie Chua was looking at you as his next Lito Lapid? “Yeah. That's what they were seeing in me. That's why he was really proud that this is going to be my new Lito Lapid.
“I signed a three-year contract with Mirick and Liliw, the Caballes. They were a joint venture together. It was four pictures a year - three I get to act on, the fourth one I get to direct. I was really bold with them - I said 'I don't really want to be an actor, I'm just doing it to get experience, I really want to be a director.' ‘OK, that's fine.’”
Nelson arrived in Manila in January 1983, during Imelda’s second and final Manila International Film Festival. “We started filming around the first or second week of February. I arrived just before the beginning of the festival, so we were making the rounds, meeting people and stuff like that. I knew a lot of the American actors who were there, because I used to train actors and actresses back when I was started teaching when I was fourteen, I trained a lot of heads of studios, from Gene Kelly to Debra Reynolds to George Hamilton. Actually I saw George Hamilton there, he was surprised to see me!
“The first time I went to Cora's house, the first time I met him, he told me about…they call it anting-anting. I didn't know what to make of it at first. I thought maybe he was kidding me with it!” In the Philippines, an anting-anting or agimat is a type of charm or amulet often worn to protect the wearer from evil spirits or to grant them superhuman powers. “It was kinda like a greenish stone. He had a cup full of them. One red one, and one kinda like a black one.” He would carry them around with him? “Right. Because Filipinos are very superstitious. He said, 'Just look into my eyes, in between my eyes…' He said you're going to feel a heat on your hands. And I did! It felt like somebody was putting a cigarette on my arm, but it was just his hand. I actually had to pull my hands away, I really thought he had a cigarette in his hand, it really felt like someone's burning my hand. He said, 'Don't tell too many people about that, because I really don't like to share that to anybody.'”
You really believe he had mystical powers? “Yeah, he did. He had that gift. I thought it was like a joke, but then I experienced it. Throughout the filming, my body was really hurting and sore. Then he would reike on me, with my back and my neck and my shoulder - I have old injuries from gymnastics when I was competing - and I would feel this heat. He would barely touch you. It was almost like Reike - barely touching you, just sending energy, and it would get so HOT. ‘OK, stop!’ He did have that mystic power.”
Did he ever talk about the Santo Niño? “Yeah, but he asked me what my religion was, and I told him that I grew up, with my aunts and uncles on weekends I would stay with them so they would take me to Catholic Church, and my Mom is Seventh Day Adventist. But then I said when I was twelve, when I was finding out that I was part Native American, I started more believing in the Great Spirit. It's a different kind of inner connection. I'm not down on any of that religion, I just don't practice it, but I am respectful to any religion, but it's just not me. So he didn't push that into me, but he shared that with me about his mystical power that he has, a healing power. But he never really got into the stuff about Santo Niño.”
For Caliber 357, Eddie Nicart had reassembled his usual Liliw crew: Pablo Vergara, contributing a signature Bond-esque score; cameraman Bhal Dauz, editor “Boy” Vinarao, production manager Evelyn Baruelo, Mando Pangilinan and Oscar Reyes as fight directors and assistant directors, and goons Fred Esplana and Jay Grama. For Y'ur Height Only's Beth Sandoval ("Irmaaaaaaaa!") has a small role as a reporter.
Nelson worked closely with Eddie while preparing for the shoot. “Considering a lot of the directors that I've worked with in the Philippines, and some of the directors that I've met, he's only one of the few that read a lot of those books, and I was really surprised that he loved French film, he loved Hitchcock, he was reading a book on Hitchcock, and I was like, wow!
“When we shot that movie we didn't have a script, they just had a sequence treatment. When I first met Eddie, I said, "What are we going to do with the script?" He asked me if I knew who Alain Delon is. I said, of course, Jean-Paul Melville, I love his films. I didn't realize he watched a lot of those movies, like Le Samourai (1967). I really love that movie, I said, because the first 25 minutes, he doesn't say anything, there's no dialogue. He said, 'It's going to be like that.' Right there I understood what he said.
“I remember after we finished the movie and then they did the trailer, Eddie Nicart was telling people, 'He looks like a young Alain Delon, that moves like Bruce Lee.' After he said that, that's the best compliment I could ever get, coming from him.
“At first they didn't think that I spoke Tagalog. When we shot, we shot Caliber 357 in English and Tagalog. We did the dialogue in English first, then after that we did it in Tagalog. But there was very minimal dialogue - somebody's trying to kick my ass, I'm trying to kick somebody's ass…
“I remember the first big stunt that I had to do, I had to jump off a three storey building.” In the early scene from Caliber 357, Nelson trades punches with several of drug pusher Rodrigo’s goons, before smashing through a plate glass window into a swimming pool below. “As you know they don't really use candy glass there, right? They use real glass! So I was concerned about, they said I had to break the glass first and then collar up, make sure you cover your eyes.” That scene when you went through the glass, you land in the pool – no double? “It was all me. If you put it in slow motion you can see my face. They set up I think four cameras - one across the street from the roof top so you can see me coming out of the window, and then one below, and then one from inside the room before I jumped, and then one camera was hand held.
“When they called 'action' I totally froze. 'Cut, cut!' Then I went out to the window, you could see down below, I said, "Cut, cut!" and all the people around filming there, they all started booing at me. They were saying 'If you don't jump, man, the words are gonna spread around that you're chicken.'
“So I had to tell them, the boxes in front of me, I had to have them move forward. They were saying you don't have to go that far. No, I said, I don't want to miss my landing. So two more stacks of boxes in front of it instead of closer to the building. Because they thought when I was going to make my jump, I was going to go straight down, but then I used to be a gymnast, so I went up first, and then I realized when I looked down I was going to miss my landing, so I just fell straight down, and I barely missed the camera. By the time I put my foot down, my foot was on the ground, my butt was on the edge of the box. So if I didn't move those boxes…
“There was another scene where I was crossing the balcony - that was a seven storey building, and I didn't have any cable, so I was walking onto the ledge. I had a double who was also a gymnast, and my stunt people, they couldn't even figure out how to get around it. I said, why don't I just stand up on it and walk around it? They said oh man, that's too dangerous. I said, no, I can do it, no problem. So we had to do three or four takes because they told me I was doing it too fast. They wanted me to slow down and make it look difficult!”
Another impressive scene sees Nelson chases several white goons in a speedboat, the water around him erupting in a sea of bullet fire. “Those are real bullets. If you really watch it carefully, those are actual M16 bullets that they use. Eddie was firing one of them, and one of the stunt guys was firing one of them. He used to carry a .45 with him all the time, because he was an ex-military guy. He fought in the southern part of the Philippines, Mindanao.
“We did it by numbers, we rehearsed a couple of times, and you had to learn it. I guess that training came in handy, training in martial arts, and gymnastics, so I knew how to make moves. OK, show it to me first, the second time I'll try it, we'll walk through it, and then the third one we'll do a rehearsal, and after that (clicks fingers), let's just shoot it.”
If Weng Weng was your sidekick, how is his character introduced in the movie? “He was my connection, another Interpol agent.” So he was probably Agent 00! “Yeah! After I shot that scene where the bridge is, after the fight scene, that was always towards the end, and that's when I meet up with him. At first we go into this café and we meet, he rides his little motorcycle up to the café, I park my car, and then we go behind this restaurant where you can see the view of the rice terraces up in Baguio. Next thing you know we're in this building where we're shooting up everybody, then we got trapped - that's when we jump off the five storey building. It was a huge umbrella! I said, 'You're sure? It's OK for Weng Weng…' Eddie said, 'It's OK, we tested it already.' I said OK… He was strapped up on me, when we jumped off. They said maybe we should be separate. I said let him strap on me in case something happened, at least we're together, I'm not going to be able to catch him!
“Then we were fighting, it was a five nipa hut village. We were hanging from the rope, and he was on my back - I was shooting to the front, he was shooting from the back. For me, that was the best scene of the movie! I remember when we were watching the rushes, everybody was laughing, especially with that umbrella - it was OK I think after the third storey, because we jumped off the fifth storey, and as soon as we got to the third, the thing just went WHOOSH! We shot straight down. 'Pray!' he was telling me! Everybody couldn't stop laughing, every time we talked about that scene.
“We had a scene where we had to jump off of a five storey building, and we had this big umbrella. I said, ‘Direk, do you think this going to work?' For him, I guess he was lighter, but when I was with him, it kinda folded up! It went straight down like a missile! We had boxes and stuff like that, but it was the funniest thing. Then we had a scene where we were inside a martial arts studio, where we took on, we fought like thirty guys between the two of us, just doing martial arts.”
What was Weng Weng like as a martial artist? “When we went to his martial arts studio, he said, 'Let's spar!' I couldn't really take him seriously, but then I realized how good he really was! He had a snappy kick, he was trying to go for my balls! (laughs) We went for my knees, and he really connected, 'cos I was wearing cuffs. I said damn, he was really fast! He won my heart, because everyone was kinda making fun of him, but then I realized, 'You're really good!'
“We'd go out to one of the strip bars…I told him, 'Don't drink, you shouldn't be drinking. It's not really healthy for you.' 'No…!' He'd just get sleepy. He'd even half a glass of beer and just pass out!” You wouldn't say Weng Weng had a drinking problem? “I think he did it for fun. And the reason he liked going out with me was he knows that I attract girls, so he'd say, 'You get all the cute girls!' They were all surrounding us!”
How would girls react to Weng Weng? “They find him amusing and cute. They had fun with him. They didn't really make fun of him or anything like that. One time we almost got in hot water because while he was going to the bathroom, one guy tapped him on the head, and I confronted the guy and we almost got into it. But we just left, because that really pissed me off when the guy did it. He was already a little bit tipsy, and Weng Weng wanted to confront the guy!”
Why do you think the guy tried to pick a fight with him? “You know how people in the bar are. There's a happy drunk, and then there's a bitter drunk. It was kinda like making fun of him. Several incidents like that happened, we'd be sitting in a restaurant and then they'd try and joke, and then once I gave them a dirty look, they'd realize just knock it off, what are you trying to prove? He's like of us, he's like a human being!
“He got to really like me because, I left the Philippines when I was ten years old, but I used to be friends with a lot of handicapped [people] in the Philippines who nobody would like, they used to make fun of them, especially the little guys like that. I was always close to them. I was kinda like an outcast too growing up in the Philippines, because my hair used to be reddish, and I had light skin, so they used to call me 'gringo' all the time. I used to get into fights all the time. They were always trying to bully me, trying to pick me on, but I'd fight back.
“When I was with Weng Weng, he told me a lot of horrifying stories from when he was growing up, the crap that he had to deal with, being bullied and stuff like that. So I used to tell him stories too, they'd do the same thing to me. He said that he started doing martial arts because that gave him confidence. That's why the money wasn't that important to him, I think he got the respect and the recognition that he wanted; finally people were accepting him as a human being, instead of this little guy who's a freak.”
People really made fun of him as he was growing up? “Yeah, Filipinos are like the most racist, making fun about those things. I experienced it! Me, I was a normal kid, except because I'm half white and half Filipino, I'm a half-breed. Even people from the south, the Visayas or Mindanao, when they come to Manila, they experience that. That's why I really felt for Weng Weng. I can totally feel what he went through.
“When I was about eight years old, that's when I realized that never ever try to make fun of anybody. In Divisoria, near Santa Cruz, there was a little guy, they had one of those humps on their back, he was a little bit taller than Weng Weng. I used to get into trouble as a kid from my family and from school because I used to imitate people, their voices and physicality. One time - he had cowboy boots on and a cowboy hat, he was walking long strides. So I got behind him, and I started imitating him. Everyone was laughing at him. All of a sudden he realized that I was behind him, and he threw a back kick. I fell, he knocked the air out of me, and I was trying to get up and he hit me again! Then I tried to get up and he punched me. After he did that I stood up, and then he did like a spinning kick, busted my lips. I remember saying sorry to him, but ever since then, I never ever messed around… When I told that to Weng Weng, he was laughing so hard!
“I would take him out to eat and then I would ask him questions. He started telling me that they gave his family some food. 'They just give me pocket money, basically.' I said what? What do they do with all the money? It kinda breaks my heart; they do that to a lot of the actors in the Philippines. At least with Jesse Chua he was a little bit more generous when it comes to that.”
Weng Weng was aware that the Caballes were making a lot of money? “For him, he was happy, because for him it was more like recognition - he was really happy about that. They could feed him and feed his family, but I think the recognition was more important to him than the money itself. But he would be nice, and said if I could… They did make tons of money from him, because they did really well on the foreign sales.”
What do you remember about Peter and Cora Caballes? “There was something about them… I know they were nice and sweet, but after hanging out with them for a couple of weeks and after I saw the way they treated Weng Weng, I got really turned off already. That's something that I couldn't really trust.
“[Cora] was a hard woman. She reminds me of a really strict teacher, a mean teacher when I was studying in the Philippines! I remember they would get into a confrontation, and Cora would look at Pete, and Pete would withdraw, they would stop arguing. She was like a Lady Dragon, that's how I would describe her. Even though she was trying to be sweet to me, but then she was always business-like. I had to watch myself around her, not to say anything odd to her. And then, when I would pick up Weng Weng, she started not to like it, because maybe she thought me and Weng Weng were doing something behind her back. I'd tell her, 'I'm not doing anything, what am I going to do? I have a contract with you guys!'”
What about Peter, how would you describe his personality? “Pete was more cooler. He was more pleasant, he was more of a gentleman. Basically their system was coming from Cora. As far as Pete, he likes to have a good time, likes to have fun. I think he was almost like a Mama's Boy. Whatever Cora does, he goes along with it. He was pleasant, he was sweet.” You get the impression he wanted to be in the film industry, not Cora. “Yeah, he was really serious about it, he really cared. I think he cared more about Weng Weng too. Even the way he responded to Weng Weng, he was genuine. It wasn't pretentious; he was really caring and there was a lot of love there that I saw from Pete.”
Many people told me they thought Weng Weng had the mentality of an eight or nine year-old…you're giving me the impression that he's quite a complex adult.
“Yeah, absolutely! I don't think anybody had looked at him that way. Cora and everybody else treated him pretty much like a puppet, a kid. I didn't treat him that way whatsoever. There was mutual respect, especially after I saw him do martial arts, I was really taken by him. I would have liked to have adopted him! He had the talent. And he wasn't scared! He had GUTS! He wasn't afraid to do those stunts. I used to give him a ride on my motorcycle too. I would put him in front of me instead of on the back. I would put a belt on him because I didn't want him to fall off! He used to get mad. I said, 'I just don't want anything to happen to you, I don't want you flying off the motorcycle!'
“I would see the way everyone else talked to him. But I looked at him as this really fragile human character, and I really identified with his woes, what it was like being bullied, because I went through that. I even took him to my old neighbourhood. There were times he would stay with me for a couple of days, and then of course Cora would always send someone to pick him up.” They were like his controllers? “Yeah, they were. That's why he got really to be fond of me and very close, wanted to hang out with me. That's when Pete and Cora were trying to keep him away, so every time I'd go over there they'd say he wasn't there, and then I would leave and I'd see him standing on the second floor in the window looking at me. 'I'm sorry, they won't let you out. I can't do anything about it.'”
It seemed like they were keeping you apart so you wouldn't start comparing notes? “Yeah. But, he was afraid that I would say something to them, what he told me. I said no, I can keep it confidential, what you and I talk about, it's just you and me, no-one has to know. And I never did. Even to Eddie and those people, because a producer over there, they look upon them as like God. Everybody has to kiss ass. That's what everyone was telling me, the crew, they said hey, it's different over here.
“Then they were getting insecure at times because I would pick up Weng Weng and take him out, just hang out with him, because we were going to do something together too. I was trying to figure out what we can do, so I wanted to listen to his story. We talked about it, he really got excited about it. I told him, 'Since I have a three-picture deal and by the end of the year, the fourth film I get to direct, even if I have to direct on my behalf, we're going to do it.'
“There were places you can go, they have old movies. I used to go to this place in Mabini, there was an old video place, they had a lot of those old films. I actually showed him The Bicycle Thief (1948), and I said, 'We should do something like this, like Neo-Realism…something gets stolen from you that really means a lot to you. It doesn't have to be a bicycle, but something…' And then we go out and look for this thing. And the entire movie we go on this search. He said, 'I like that, I like that!' So he was really looking forward to be working on that. That's what he loved about being around me, because I was educating him in films. I showed him a lot of the Neo-Realism films. I was also showing him Bunuel, Los Olvidados (1950)… I even showed him a Truffaut, and told him The 400 Blows (1959) was one of my favourite films. He was like WOW. We started to open up to him about ideas, and I said we can make an action and drama and comedy at the same time, with a better story, with real people too.
“I showed him one film of Fellini, La Strada (1954), because that whole realism about real people, real situation, we could do exactly the same thing, we can set it up right here in the slum, and we can even do it in black and white. That was really one of goals, hopefully I could have done something with him with that. The fact that I was really trying to educate him with films and stuff like that; he said, 'I never even knew this kind of film existed.' He did love The Bicycle Thief. The first time he saw it he was actually crying. He was crying too at the end of that film, because the fact he was an underdog, he was abused by his mom and his dad and the whole system. So he told me he identified with that character. Then he was put away, and he ran away, and then he always wanted to see the ocean, and finally he did. That was like a human reality. That's one thing he really appreciated about me, because I'd treat him like he was my own little brother. That's the way I treated him.”
Did he ever talk about his anting-anting? “He talked about it, because when we were talking about, after the fourth time we would watch The Bicycle Thief, that was kinda like the thing that we were thinking of doing, that he owns this supernatural thing that he had that was stolen from him. Are you familiar with a writer named Carlos Castaneda? He wrote a lot about mysticism back in the Sixties and Seventies. I was telling him about that. I told him that when I came back, I was going to read it to him and translate it to him. That was the direction that I wanted to do.”
The information Nelson was giving me was explosive, and in an instant completely changed the way I looked at Weng Weng, having turned much of what everyone had told me on its head.
The Tagalog version, Tatak: Magnum (“Brand: Magnum”), was released locally in January 1984 to a receptive box office. Wilson Tieng's Solar Films handled distribution, and the press took to the film and its new star Nelson Anderson. "It was a big hit," said Nelson. "I used to be able to take a jeepney, buses, walk around everywhere, and once that movie got released, I couldn't even go anywhere without the crowd asking for autographs and pictures with me. Because I was a really private person, this is not what I really want. I like to be able to go places by myself, I've always been a loner. And so that was the end of that."
Conspicuously missing from Tatak: Magnum’s newspaper ad is Weng Weng’s name, which was prominent in the advance poster Nelson showed me from 1983. It’s therefore possible Weng Weng scenes were also edited out of the local version. There are thirty minutes missing from the export version - it would have originally run around two hours, then edited down to a more serviceable 90 minutes. In the two-hour Tagalog version, Weng Weng's scenes would have existed for comic relief; perhaps Jesse Chua and the Caballes felt Weng Weng’s scenes detracted from the serious action, or that his name was no longer a drawcard locally or internationally.
In May 1984, Peter and Cora took the export version to the Cannes Film Market, along with a dubbed and repackaged version of Tony Ferrer’s Sabotage 2 (now simply called Sabotage). Also at Cannes was Conrad ‘Boy’ Puzon, Filipino producer and distributor representing his Cinex Films and F. Puzon companies. "They’re in competition,” said Boy Puzon of the Caballes, “but they didn’t have a booth. Booths were expensive. My first time in Cannes, the Caballes were on the same Air France flight, and I offered them a spot. They must have helped, because I was selling like hotcakes!"
It was the first half of the Eighties: the home video market was booming, and there was a mad scramble for titles. The huge VHS market in the United States was an obvious destination, but so were smaller, less discriminating markets: Greece, Finland, West Germany, Central and South America, Pakistan, Egypt and the Middle East. Genre titles with micro-budgets allowed international buyers with shallow pockets to purchase movies that resembled - at a distance, at least - their Hollywood prototypes. The quality demands of the home video market were so much lower than the cinema market: much smaller screens allowed for a diminished image quality, and would eventually cancel out the need to shoot on 35mm film. With genre titles in particular, consumer expectations are somewhat lower than those of the arthouse or quality drama crowd; it makes no difference to a Greek-speaking action fan if the film is poorly dubbed or not, so long as there are the requisite number of explosions or disembowelings. Rather than film prints, a distributor would merely require a Betacam master and key art for the VHS cover, and they had an instant release for a modest outlay. Even a modest return, thanks to the Philippines' lower cost of living, would still translate into a modest profit for the producers once converted back into pesos.
Just as familiar as Silver Star was Cinex, the distribution company run by Conrad “Boy” Puzon and Pio C. Lee, who also fronted the production company F. Puzon Film Enterprises. Between 1980 and 1983 Cinex produced a string of critically acclaimed dramas for the local market, before testing international waters with their Catholic gore film starring an anting-anting wearing Ramon Revilla Sr battling the Horned One himself in Lumaban Ka Satanas (retitled The Killing Of Satan; 1983) along with a number of genre flicks purchased from other producers, all redubbed and repackaged. Cinex became regulars at Cannes and the American Film Market, where their eclectic roster made an unpretentious splash with his cheap imitations of Mad Max, Clash Of The Titans (1981) and First Blood. "I bought a couple of Rey Malonzo films - Search For Vengeance (Limbas Ng Cavite; 1981), Force Of The Shaolin Boxer (Pedrong Palaka/"Pedro The Frog"; 1980), Classified Operation (Kumander 45; 1982). Raging Vendetta (Bagong Boy Condenado; 1982) with Rudy Fernandez. Many of the territories we sold to also bought Weng Weng. Greece, Trinidad – Tony Maharaj, he came to me. At the time I had a big poster, competing with Cannon Group. I was in the middle selling Search For Vengeance, Stone Boy (Rocco Ang Batang Bato/”Rocco The Stone Boy”, aka Boy God; 1982), W (1983)… I would always slip them my card, 'Give me a call.' You just leave your card, no deal, no nothing. Every now and then I’d offer them a Dom Perignon. Just because I’m at a loss and I need help."
To Filipino distributors like Boy Puzon, the Caballes were pioneers in a film market soon to be saturated with Filipino B product. "I don’t mind sharing a booth with them, because I don’t know anything about the Market, I don’t know anyone, and in fact the only people I know are the Caballes, who happen to be on the same plane. Kimmy Lim was already there, but Kimmy, you couldn’t get anything from him or the wife. We were the Filipinos there at the time, and no-one else." The second half of the Eighties would see other aggressive direct-to-VHS distributors hawking repackaged Tagalog action films in addition to their own productions at every Film Market around the globe; in 1984, the Filipino competition were almost solely Cinex, Kinavesa and Liliw, all staggering their way intuitively through the international film jungle. "To be honest," said Boy, "I was just playing around, inviting myself to parties. There were a lot of Filipinos buying movies – Alex Chu, Movierama, Solar Films, and GMA, Jimmy Pascual. But we are the only guys who are brazen to sell our kind of movies."
The 1984 Cannes trip resulted in Caliber 357 netting a number of sales. Nelson Anderson, under contract to the Caballes for four films a year, immediately began to formulate plans for the next one. “I had a lot of ideas, and Eddie and I, him being a stunt man, we never really had a chance to prepare for that first movie. When I got there, two weeks we're going to start filming. I just went along with it, but I was saying to them hopefully we can really prepare for the next one, just choreograph it. Eddie was ready to do that, he was willing to work. Him being a stunt man, that's why I was having him watch those musicals: Vincente Minnelli films, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I was showing him ballet - look at how this was choreographed. We can do the same thing, and we don't even have to go full speed with it. We can do the fight scene almost half way, half speed. We just rehearse the stunt man, and then later on we can speed it up, control the speed of the fight scene, this way nobody gets hurt. Then it will have a nice flow to it. I never really got to do that, that's what I wanted to do. That was always my dream, of building that fight scene. So that's why the deal that I did. But the mistake that I made was I signed an exclusive contract with them, instead of non-exclusive.
“One of their accountants was married to Roger, a steel man. They were the ones who told me that kind of money they were making, from Weng Weng and also the money they made from me. I only got to do that one movie with Mirick Films and Liliw Productions, because after that movie was released they did really well in foreign sales, and on the foreign sales I was supposed get 15%. So they owe me close to $150,000 they didn't want to pay me. You know how it goes over there, like that thing with Weng Weng.
“When they came back from Cannes Film Festival after selling the movie, they said they got pictures of Van Damme. He wrote me several letters in the Philippines, and then we talked on the phone. I remember he hardly spoke English then. Then we were also going to do a movie with Jackie Chan as well. We met in Hong Kong, then we had dinner and talked about what we were going to do. I remember showing him the picture of Van Damme, he said this guy looks pretty good. I said we're going to be starring, the three of us, in one of the films. Then Jesse Chua was already talking to another company that he was going to loan me to them with a fee. He was going to get this certain amount of money for him and Liliw if they loaned me to this particular production company. I was going to get lesser money.
“The thing was, they already made a lot of money off that movie. I think Jessie told me that they [the Caballes] were the ones who got the money. The spend on [Calibre 357] was $250,000. We shot it for about three months because we went all over. I told them, 'I risked my life! Everything that you asked for, even how dangerous it was, I went for it.'
“I basically left because I was disgusted. Even before I left I had a conversation with them. I went to their house and also went to Jesse Chua, and I said if you don't get this thing squared away I'm not coming back, until the contract runs out, I'm not coming back here ever again. I said I did my part, and you guys just do your part. I don't understand, we didn't even have script, and if we really plan the second film out, that's even ten times better that what we actually made right now…bring in the right people, I'm willing to sacrifice and work, work for two to three months, work with the stunt people what we talked about. It put a real damper to the whole thing. Then they start pinpointing one another, 'Just ask Jesse, ask Cora or Pete, they have the money…' It just went back and forth with it. I said SOMEbody's got the money! It was like about $150,000, just give me half of that, I said. Just give me $50,000, we'll call it even.
“Before I left I asked for my whole money, because I heard through the grapevine about people not getting paid sometimes. After I got there the rest of the $25,000 was incremented, it was broken down over the whole time of filming, and by the time I got through filming, the last part of it, it was kinda pulling tooth already, until they finally saw the rough cut on it, and decided to do the trailer, and that's when they saw the really big potential on it. I was already feeling wary, so that's why I started hanging around with my stunt people and Eddie.”
So short term greed and short-term ambition ruined it? “The thing is, how could I trust them again? This only our first film, they just signed a three-year contract with me, at least you should honour that. That's when I really got turned off by the whole thing. That's when I really became good friends with him. That's when I really thought, poor Weng Weng.”
Nelson made one more film in the Philippines, Pagsabog Ng Galit (international title High Calibre; 1986) for a lower-shelf rival company Visa Films International. Once again the film sold overseas and Nelson never received his promised share. By then all contact with Weng Weng and the Caballes was severed, and he never saw or heard from his friend again. The prospect of a Weng Weng film with Van Damme, or a midget remake of The Bicycle Thief, remain two intriguing “what ifs” floating in an ocean of lost opportunities and abandoned dreams.
Nelson Anderson (Nelson Grant)
Jean Saburit (Marlene)
Azenith Briones (Mrs Verlosa)
Malou Bendigo (Malou)
Romy Diaz (Rodrigo Santos)
Renato Robles
Johnny Wilson [left] (Senor Verlosa)
Beth Sandoval (Lorna Rodriguez)
Elena Marie
Dan Alvaro
Mario Marasigan
Robert Lee (Interpol Agent)
Ulysses Tzan [listed on local ads as "Ulysses Santiago"] (Interpol Agent)
Ernie Ortega (Tomao)
Robert Rivera
Allan Garcia
David Light (Mancini)
Sam Lombardo
Mike Schrichter
Karola Mayer
Angela Prestel
Damela Rubi
Lieli Hurstler
Cathy March
Jane Andrew
Rene Kiefer
Franz Kung
Peter Henzelmann
Walter Tschopp
Erich Muller
Steve Rogers [as Steven Rogers] (Verlosa's White Goon)
