Has the ongoing environmental collapse that’s scorched the planet and turned marine life against us got you feeling down? Do you pine for the days when our fears of Armageddon were driven more by nukes than nature? Do you dream of post-apocalyptic wastelands dotted with palm trees and pristine beaches? Then come join us at Spectacle this August for a look at the work of Filipino filmmaker and master of “Maxsploitation” cinema, Willy Milan.
Milan came up among the same wave of Filipino filmmakers that included Eddie Romero, Bobby Suarez, and Cirio Santiago, whose careers were boosted by foreign studios’ interest in the Philippines as a haven of lax regulation and low-cost labor in the 1970s and 80s. Yet while his contemporaries’ work was shepherded by the likes of Roger Corman and Samuel Arkoff for distribution to North America’s drive-in and grindhouse circuits, Milan’s films were largely domestic affairs, produced and distributed primarily for Pinoy audiences.
Milan was arguably the Philippines’ earliest adopter of “Maxsploitation” cinema— The subgenre of dystopian action movies sparked by the success of MAD MAX and its sequel— at a time when the genre was dominated by Australian and Italian filmmakers. Milan’s early films helped put the Philippines on the post-apocalyptic map, with the country’s beaches and jungles making for a fascinating alternative setting to the barren deserts and decimated cityscapes preferred by the Aussies and Italians.
Surprisingly, to this day much of Milan’s output has yet to see stateside theatrical or home video releases, with many of his films surviving solely via dusty Paragon VHS releases from over 30 years ago. In other words, perfect Spectacle summer viewing, replete with high body counts, logic-defying action, awkward dubbing, and killer soundtracks.
W IS WAR
dir. Willy Milan, 1983
Philippines. 91 min.
In English (dubbed).
TUESDAY, AUGUST 1 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 – 5 PM
MONDAY, AUGUST 14 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 26 – MIDNIGHT
The Weapons of Death, The Vehicles of Destruction, The Army of Terror… Together they spread their evil across the land. But then there was… W!
Filipino action staple, Anthony Alonzo, stars as W (inexplicably referred to as “W2” throughout), a rogue police sergeant who winds up the victim of evil cult leader-slash-opium supplier-slash-castration enthusiast, Nosfero, after his corrupt department… ahem… drops the ball on their investigation. Newly testicle-less, W vows his revenge on the crime lord and his army of mind-controlled biker thugs, willing to engage in all-out war with or without the help of his department.
Milan came out the gate firing on all cylinders with his first Maxsploitation feature, which features some of the best “tooling up” montages and literally explosive climaxes of its era.
MAD WARRIOR
(aka CLASH OF THE WARLORDS)
dir. Willy Milan, 1984
Philippines. 75 min.
In English (dubbed).
THURSDAY, AUGUST 3 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, AUGUST 28 – 10 PM
In the battle for life, you have to kill or be killed.
Anthony Alonzo returns as Rex, a survivor living in the aftermath of World War III. Most of the world has been rendered uninhabitable, save for a small fortified island colony in the Pacific led by the sadistic Maizon, a one-eyed cyborg who gets his kicks forcing his legions of gladiators to fight each other to the death. After a botched escape attempt, Rex’s wife and child are killed at the hands of Maizon, setting our hero off on a bloodthirsty quest for revenge.
Willy Milan’s Maxsploitation trend continued full-force with this spiritual sequel to W IS WAR, reuniting many of the same performers, locations, costumes, and armored battle tricycles featured in its predecessor.
ULTIMAX FORCE
dir. Willy Milan, 1987
Philippines/United States. 82 min.
In English (dubbed).
FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, AUGUST 29 – 10 PM
The Ultimax Force is an elite group of operatives, each a trained U.S. Commando and card-carrying member of the Ninja Society of California. Their mission: To liberate a Vietnamese POW camp run by a sadistic colonel who’s mercilessly slaughtering prisoners in a display of rabid madness.
With the Maxsploitation trend mostly languishing by the late-80s, Willy Milan turned his sights towards two other VHS market-friendly subgenres that were gaining popularity abroad— Ninjas and ‘Nam— in this co-production between the U.S. and Philippines. The two are combined with about as much subtlety as the heroes’ bandanas emblazoned with both the American and Japanese flags, but what it lacks in nuance it more than makes up for with its incredibly well-choreographed fight sequences and a truly ridiculous amount of explosions.
“Several of Michael Dudikofs mates with swords and guns. American Ninja meets Missing in Action. Fank u”
—Literally the IMDB synopsis