RKS Literature: “The Communist Manifesto”: FREE TRADE

“The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all the feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors” and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous cash payment. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervor, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal wealth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single unconscionable freedom- Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions. It has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “The Communist Manifesto”, 1848.

RKS 2026 International Film: “Blades of The Guardians”: Epic and Spectacular Martial Arts Film!

The Chinese film “Blades of the Guardians” directed by Yuen Woo-Ping leaves no doubt there should be no disparaging of Chinese film. True, it is yet another martial art centric film, but can there be one more spectacular?

Majestic cinematography, enthralling costuming, creative sets, momentous and artistic martial arts choreography and a Gobi Desert location all combine to create an epic Chinese cinematographic masterpiece.

Martial arts to the extreme. Levitating bodies and stunning acrobatics. Hard core martial arts aficionados have just found their Cinema Paradiso! Newbies to martial arts films may find the scenes impossible to believe due to the special effects and implausibility of one against 500 victorious but isn’t that part of the fantasy of martial arts films?

The plot is intricate enough to pique the interest of viewers with sharp minds and eyes for detail to process the extensive parade of characters. Some viewers may be overwhelmed by this so my advice may be to focus on good guys and bad guys and enjoy the action.  

The Sui Dynasty is in decline with the desert clans fighting amongst themselves for control of their territory. The leader of the Flower rebellion Zhishilang represents a challenge to the Sui Dynasty and becomes the most wanted man of the dynasty with a huge bounty placed on his head.

Dao Ma (Jing Wu) a bounty hunter and former imperial guard participates in the slaying of corrupt desert war lord Chang (Jet Li) and has a bounty, the second largest in China, placed on his head by Chang’s clan due to Dao Ma’s slaying of Chang. Dao Ma’s benefactor Lao Mo (Tony Ka Fai Leung) convinces Dao Ma for the good of China (and the liquidation of all his debts) to transport Zhishilang to safety and hence the epic journey commences.

Dao Ma is pursued by dynasty forces, bounty hunters and clans seeking desert prominence. Meeting foes and enemies and friends some of which are in fact enemies present martial arts display scenes never seen before on the screen.

Be prepared for political treachery and intrigue, astounding martial arts and battle scenes, colourful characters, chopped off body parts, pools of blood, romance, fair damsels, handsome dudes, armies of extras in Ben Huresque proportions and a new quasi-Darth Vader bad guy.

Of course, the good guys win but at a terrible cost but what are hundreds of victims in a martial arts film?

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJjGHK0qL88

Released in the People’s Republic of China and North America 17February2026.

RKS 2026 International Film Rating 86/100.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: LOSING MY MANHOOD: WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?

LOSING MY MANHOOD: WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?

West Highland Terriers have a tremendous hearing ability and there is some weird talk going on here at home and on my walks which by the way I LOVE! Puppy fighting is the best!

I think they are saying soon I will be losing my manhood. What could that mean for a six-month-old puppy? I am a dog and not a man.

Some crude person, identity protected, said they would be “cutting off my balls”. I don’t have any balls to cut off but I love to chase them.

I hear the word “neutered”. I am not new so how can this word apply to me?

Puppydom is full of riddles!

RKS Literature: “The Communist Manifesto”: The History of Existing Society

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.

Freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in he common ruin of the contending classes.”

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “The Communist Manifesto”, 1848.

RKS Literature: The Fleeting State of Happiness (Anton Chekov)

“Someone ought to stand with a hammer at the door of every happy contented man, continually banging on it to remind him that there are unhappy people around and that however happy he may be at the time, sooner or later life will show him its claws and disaster will overtake him in the form of illness, poverty, bereavement and there will be no one to hear or see him . But there isn’t anyone holding a hammer, so our happy man goes his own sweet way and is only ruffled by life’s trivial cares as an aspen is ruffled by the breeze. All’s well as far as he’s concerned.”

Anton Chekov, “Gooseberries”, 1898.

RKS Poetry Anthology: The Unwitting Hitler within parents

The Unwitting Hitler within parents

Two sisters some decades ago

Mother and father purchase a gleaming red tricycle

For the other

The victim, the sister of the other, despite salty semi-professional whining, receives nothing

As the government of favours places its tenders

Contracting within the grey matter commandant to supervise the laying

Of the barbed wire

And land mines

Against Viennese schooled underground fighters

Who tack exit lights in the surrounding woods

One a week for thirty minutes

Robert K. Stephen

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: MIDNIGHT TUNNEL RAT CAPER AND THAT FAMOUS ROBERT DUVALL LINE

MIDNIGHT TUNNEL RAT CAPER AND THAT FAMOUS ROBERT DUVALL LINE

One minus 18 evening in Toronto Bob and I finished watching the CBC national news which Bob turned off in disgust. Imagine Adrienne Arsenault the anchor saying Alexander the Great was Macedonian? He was Greek and considered himself Greek!

I slipped out the back door and Bob called me in at 23:30 but as I was having so much fun tearing around in the snow I “didn’t hear him”. When I did hear him his tone of voice was angry. I thought he’d cool down a bit if I romped around a bit more. All was quiet for 15 minutes until at midnight I heard an ultimatum being delivered “COME IN RIGHT NOW!” Oooh I think that means trouble and Bob came charging out….yes I could see him in the frigid moonlight struggling in the snow in his boots and pajamas. I dodged to and fro and like an American soldier tunnel rat in Vietnam zipping in and around my snow tunnels until a furious Bob caught me delivering a blistering tongue lashing. The mortality rate of tunnel rats in Vietnam was close to 90%. I escaped death. I just hope I remember this experience, so it won’t happen again.

Speaking of Vietnam my favourite line in that war movie “Chickenpox Now” was by Robert Duvall that he loved the smell of napalm in the morning. Well for me it is, “I love the smell of toasted bagels in the morning.” Bob gave me a piece the next morning so I guess we are friends again. I love the crunch but those sesame seeds stick to my gums!

RKS Literature: Happiness as Mass Hypnosis? (Anton Chekov)

“But we don’t hear or see those who suffer: the real tragedies of life are enacted somewhere behind the scenes. Everything is calm and peaceful and the only protest comes from statistics-and they can’t talk. Figures show that so many went mad, so many bottles of vodka were emptied, so many children died of malnutrition. And clearly this kind of system is what people need. It is obvious the happy man feels contented only because the unhappy ones bear their burden without saying a word: if it weren’t for their silence, happiness would be quite impossible. It’s a kind of mass hypnoses.”

Anton Chekov, “Gooseberries”, 1898.