VMX 2025, In Review

 

Time to bust this out again

In the year of our Lord 2025, 62 Filipino full length feature films were released on the VMX (formerly Vivamax) streaming service. This tally does not include releases from last year (e.g. the Ideafirst collabs such as Table for 3 and Bigayan), compilation specials such as Kiss/Kiss, VMX Rewind, Best of VMX 2025 (recursive!), and the seven films of the Cinesilip Film Festival, which started rolling out streaming releases on the service last month. All of the initial streaming dates for consideration are based on the date the film was first made available via PPV, which discounts Piem Acero's Teacher's Pet (debuted on PPV late 2024, had a wider release January 2025). There is no equivalent example to that this year.

I have seen every single one of those 62 films. I think a little part of my soul died. I am kidding.

Over the past 12 months, I've noticed some things on VMX that I'd like to share.

1. If you haven't noticed already, VMX made less films than the previous year's output of 86 films. That's a decrease of 28 percent. But things aren't as black or white as it looks: while there are less films, they are generally longer. The mid-length 40-50 minute film is gone, replaced by films hovering around the 70 minute mark. At the same time, longer films on VMX are a rarity, and very few films crossed even 110 minutes.

2. The decrease in local output is offset by an increase in output from other sources. Pinku eiga from Japan, softcore films from South Korea and elsewhere, as well as a slew of cheap action movies. BTS content for films continued, though the service also started offering an exclusive VMX plus/VMX Club service with additional content. VMX's sister service Viva One had a few popular releases this year as well, though that's a story for another day.

3. Some actresses from who did work on sexy films or sexy-film adjacent stuff in the late nineties and the first decade of the 2000s made their way onto the service. Krista Miller's appearance on films such as Sponsor was a nice surprise, and though Jem Milton's been in VMX films since the service's first few years, she had a handful of interesting appearances here. But by far the most interesting appearance this year is from Yda Manzano, who had a number of sexy roles in the late nineties and early 2000s. I guess it's VMX trying to appeal to the MILF crowd. She had a few interesting turns this years, but her best outing in my opinion is in Topel Lee's Mamasan, about a veteran strip club manager who forms a motherly bond with the new hire.

4. VMX also started remaking sexy films from that same period. Remakes of Yam Laranas' Balahibong Pusa and Erik Matti's Ekis made their way onto the service, and while they may not be as good as the originals, they are pretty decent, relatively speaking.

5. The inaugural Cinesilip Film Festival made its way to cinemas this year. It was mostly aimed towards the usual audience of VMX, even for films with a wlw theme, but Rodina Singh's Dreamboi, by far the most successful film of that inaugural run, showed that experimentation and audience diversification can draw in crowds.

6, The decreased number of films also coincided with several films that have an IMDB or Letterboxd entry but are not present whatsoever in the service. Some of the films were renamed (Bobby Bonifacio's Paalam, Salamat used to be called Paalam, Ligaya, for example) but some films, like a film called Sex Trip by Lawrence Fajardo, simply disappeared from the VMX service altogether.

VMX Directors and Actors of 2025

Bobby Bonifacio and Roman Perez, Jr. directed the most VMX films in 2025 with seven each, followed by Rodante "Roe" Pajemna and Topel Lee with six each. While Perez Jr fostered talent and directors through his outfit Pelikula Indiopendent (as well as a small, but hilarious role in Jon Red's L: Lakad), Bonifacio found his stride directing VMX films that are slightly different from the usual fare, or otherwise put a spin on familiar tropes.

Rica Gonzales had a bunch of films this year, but she had an interesting turn as a supportive older sister in Ray-An Ludwig Peralta's Hiram and a small but memorable role in Len Carillo's Sembreak. I have a soft spot for this lady, and I hope she doesn't get typecast as pitiful characters next year.

Aliya Raymundo seems to be the actress that VMX is pushing the hardest this year. After a relatively tame start with the middling Elevator Lady, she's been in a number of average films. Some of Raymundo's performances are okay (a mysterious classmate in Sigrid Polon's Mayumi, or as a young woman navigating her relationships in Rain Yamson's Violet), her real standout performance this year is in BC Amparado's Salikmata, a mind-bending Cinesilip horror entry that's told in reverse. 

Speaking of Salikmata, another actor from that film deserves the spotlight as well: Aerol Carmelo spent his time in VMX 2024 playing sleazy characters, but his performance in Salikmata shows that the man has range. Also of note is his turn as a sexual deviant with a cuckolding fetish in Dennis Empalmado's L: Lipad, a complex, fucked up character that's not easy to pull off.

Speaking of sleazy characters, while JC Tan had a number of roles this year with Barurot and Kirot, it's his turn as Bogart in Ronald Batallones' Tusok Tusok that takes the cake for sleaziest character in 2025 Filipino cinema.

Mark Dionisio may not be as much in the spotlight as his other VMX actors, but the roles this man gets are very fun. They're mostly antagonistic roles, but sometimes, like in JR Reyes' Kapag Tumayo ang Testigo, he's goofy as hell. 

Angela Morena is another actress having a decent VMX year: she even won an award for her performance in Pongs Leonardo's Pagdaong. Her performance in Bobby Bonifacio's Sex on Phone is also noteworthy, which also has a pretty great turn from fellow actress Zsara Laxamana.

Azi Acosta may have only appeared in one VMX film this year, but she made it count. She makes the main character in Sigrid Polon's Sorority someone you can truly root for.

And finally, Jenn Rosa had a number of really great performances this year, especially as the lead in Bobby Bonifacio's Kirot, and a small role in Rodina Singh's Dreamboi.

Favorite VMX and Cinesilip Films of 2025 (in no particular order)

Paalam, Salamat (dir. Bobby Bonifacio) - a decades-spanning tale of what I call the ultimate simp, Paalam, Salamat's most meaningful kind of love isn't sexual at all - it is a dedicated life of devotion. I kept on remembering that one person on instagram who said that remembering is more important than loving, or rather, it is the most important kind of love. And conversely, as this films shows, how painful it must be to not be remembered. 

L: Lakad (dir. Mervyn Brondial) - while Brondial may have directed this, writer Jon Red (who also directed another film in this "L" trilogy) has his fingerprints all over this wild and fanciful tale, which can be read as a commentary on VMX itself, consuming sexy 'content' and the pledge to commit to a loving relationship.

Kirot (dir. Bobby Bonifacio) - there are so many interesting thematic ideas in this film - the idea of literally gaining a heart and figuratively gaining the heart to fight back against abuse and the suffocating rigidity and hypocrisy of organized religion.

Sorority (dir. Sigrid Polon) - I've always wondered about the idea of campus frats and sororities, and how they operate to wield and facilitate systems of power (and sometimes, subsequently, abuse). This film does a little exploring in that regard, and shows how in order to challenge that power, one has to break down these systems with their own hands. While this is no Batch '81, it's elevated by a committed performance by Azi Acosta. 

L: Langoy (dir. Jon Red) - this one felt like another blast from the past from Red's digital cinema era, which is also what I said about his other VMX output in previous years. I suppose it's just Jon Red being himself. Esoteric and mysterious, it's a film that's hard to pin down, but it's one that talks about ideas of freedom, isolation and liberation (through relationships or sex.)

Sex on Phone (dir. Bobby Bonifacio) - Bonifacio has already explored the role of sound in sensuality with last year's Ungol, he expands that here. In Sex on Phone, sex isn't just a tangible act, it's also a fantasy, a promise of something unreal. A promise that, when its unreality is exposed, leads to nothing good.

Salikmata (dir. BC Amparado) - One complaint I have when I see a VMX film is that the vast majority of them feel samey, Since your audience isn't exactly watching for the plot, why not experiment or innovate? Salikmata is exactly the kind of film that's the answer to that complaint - formally inventive, well acted and very horny, not to mention creepy (and not always in a pervy way.)

Dreamboi (dir. Rodina Singh) - Another wish I have for VMX is to explore the very idea of desire itself, and Rodina Singh's Dreamboi delivers that in spades. Though it might not be a perfect film, it is one of this year's most important.

Haplos sa Hangin (dir. Mikko Baldoza) - more words about this in my favorites list (because I think it's that good,) but for now let me say this. Haplos sa Hangin is a deconstruction of the sexy films that VMX embodies, taking the tropes of 2000s era softcore and recontextualizing them as horror. It's quite a remarkable film all in all, and not just a good VMX/Cinesilip film, but a good Filipino film period.

***

Hold tight for my next post, which will be a roundup of Filipino Cinema in 2025. How many did I watch? How many do you think I watched? lol.