RKS CHINESE FILM: “Operation Hadal”: Beyond the Classic War Movie?

“Operation Hadal” exhibits all the tried-and-true elements of the classic war movie; bad guys, good guys, the old warriors, the young boastful bucks, blood, guts, tension, suspense, bravery, sacrifice for country and fellow warriors and hand to hand combat…and that schmaltzy over the top Top Gunish type music. Let’s not forget the patriotism and pride doffing our hats to the Chinese navy and commando units!

As the film was made for the Chinese audience, a Chinese Navy submarine, its crew and commando units on board are the good guys and the bad guys (all English speaking) are from some fictious country named Siekerman. The bad guys are constantly challenging the supremacy of the Chinese in the Asia Pacific. At one point in time the bad guys from Siekerman had developed powerful nuclear weapons which they then stored in undersea bases (Project Stella) later abandoning their evil efforts ratcheting down their bad boy behaviour by suspending the project but Siekerman rebels became the new bad boys hijacking the bad guys super advanced submarine with the goal of reactivating Project Stella, triggering massive nuclear destruction inflicting heavy damage in the Asia Pacific region including China.

A newly developed Chinese submarine springs into action to hunt down the rebel bad guys and ensure they do not detonate the Project Stella nuclear devices. Chinese audiences will be happy with the results!

Be prepared for a submarine war movie not yet seen on the screen. Not a Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart or Lloyd Bridges manoeuvring a tin can but ultra sophisticated submarines and mini submarines. Tech is king and the Chinese are portrayed as having a good handle on it and defeating the rebel bad guys. What astounding sets portraying the interior of the Chinese submarine!

What underwater action with awesome torpedo scenes, explosions and a tsunami of suspense and tension. You like action here then you have it all including extensive hand to hand combat between rival commando units. For some the action is just too much!

Most war movies of the 1940-1970 era have a heavy propaganda slant to them perhaps broken by such films as “Apocalypse Now” or “Platoon” but one may certainly detect a patriotic effort here praising the military prowess of China defeating an English-speaking nation. No finger pointing please as perhaps it is time China’s military kicks some ass in a fictious adventure. How well this film does in the United States in an era of “Make America Great Again” where Trumpian belligerence accusing China (and Canada for that matter) of “ripping off” America remains to be seen. And if the Chinese don’t give a damn bravo to them.

A simplistic plot with heavy duty action and brilliant cinematography make this a good watch but its traditional and perhaps even American inspired war movie traditional elements do not make it a great watch but how many war movies are really a good watch?

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiwzDwDZ7sY

Directed by Dante Lam.

Available on Blu-Ray and DVD exclusively on Amazon 29September2026.

RKS CHINESE FILM RATING 72/100.

RKS Greek Literature: Aphrodite Let Me Win This Round! (Sappho)

Sweet mother, I can’t take shuttle in hand.

There is a boy, and lust

Has crushed my spirit – just

As gentle Aphrodite planned.

Since I have cast my lot, please, golden-crowned

Aphrodite, let me win this round!

Sappho (630 BCE-570BCE), “Come Close”

RKS Greek Literature: Blest Bridegroom (Sappho)

Blest bridegroom, this day of matrimony,

Just as you wished it, has come true:

The bride is whom you wished for…

You

Move gracefully; your eyes are honey;

Charm was showered on your radiant face –

Yes, Aphrodite granted you outstanding praise

The ambrosial mixture

Ready in the mixing bowl,

Hermes went round with a pitcher

And served the gods. When all

Had tipped their goblets and poured offerings,

They prayed that the groom suffer only the good

things.

Because there is no other girl than she,

Bridegroom – a child still of such quality.

Sappho (630 BCE-570BCE), “Come Close”

RKS Greek Literature: Can’t Stand Being the Old One (Sappho)

As you are dear to me, go claim a younger

Bed as your due.

I can’t stand being the old one any longer,

Living with you.

Sappho (630 BCE-570BCE), “Come Close”

RKS British Literature: Hitler Did Not Betray Himself (John Fowles)

‘The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.’

‘I suppose I could say that Hitler didn’t betray his self.’

He turned.

‘You are right. He did not. That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good.’

John Fowles, “The Magus”, 1977.

RKS British Literature: A Mad Lust Not to be Killed (John Fowles)

Desolation. Rubble, fragments of plastered wall, broken rafters, the yellow splashes of lyddite everywhere, The drizzle that had started again gleaming on the stones. On the skin of corpses. Many Germans had been caught in the houses. In ten minutes I saw a summary of the whole butcher’s shop of war. The blood, the gaping holes, the bone sticking out of flesh, the stench of burst intestines – I am telling you this only because the effect on me, a boy who had never seen even a peacefully dead body before that day, was one that I should never had predicted. It was not nausea and terror. I saw several men being sick. But I was not. It was an intense new conviction. Nothing could justify this. It was a thousand times better England should be a Prussian colony. One reads that such scenes give the green soldier nothing but a mad lust to kill in his turn. But I had exactly the contrary feeling. I had a mad lust not to be killed.

John Fowles, “The Magus”, 1977.

RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): The Toronto Blue Jays and an Entourage of Traitors

The Toronto Blue Jays and an Entourage of Traitors

You see them on television in American ball parks

travelled across the border like duped marks

Obviously, baseball Trumps a sense of decent nationalism

A sort of ignorant traitorous priapism

Just let “you know who” rip and tear Canada and threaten and roar menacing insults

But you devoted baseball fans pour into the United States and spend your deflated Canadian dollars

Noticed here are your duplicitous hollers

Have you no sense of shame

Where a baseball game you attend bolsters the coffers of the USA

Assisting you know who to hold sway

When the camera comes your way

Canada knows you’ve sold them out

Best cover your face with a mask

So when returning no one can hold you to task

Robert K. Stephen

RKS British Literature: A Third-Class Degree and a First-Class Illusion (John Fowles)

I acquired expensive habits and affected manners. I got a third-class degree and a first-class illusion: that I was a poet. But nothing could have been less poetic than my seeing-through-all boredom with life in general and with making a living in general. I was too green to know that all cynicism masks a failure to cope-an impotence, in short; and that to despise all effort is the greatest effort all. But I did absorb a small dose of one particular thing, Oxford’s greatest gift to civilized life: Socratic honesty. It showed me, very intermittently, that it is not enough to revolt against one’s past. The truth was I was not a cynic by nature; only by revolt. I had got away from what I hated, but I hadn’t found out where I loved, and so I pretended that there was nowhere to love.

John Fowles, “The Magus”, 1977.

RKS Canadian Film: “Armageddon Road”: About Time Las Vegas a la Sodom and Gomorrah is Visited by the Four Horsemen

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Different cultures in different points of time have given varying interpretations of their meaning. The commonality is that their appearance is bad news for the world signalling its ensuing destruction.

The White Horse symbolizes conquest. Some believe it symbolizes Christ.

The Red Horse rider carries a sword representing war, bloodshed and civil strife.

The Black Horse symbolizes famine and pestilence.

The White Horse symbolizes death.

There are no horses in “Armageddon Road” rather 4 coloured miniature animated cars each representing one of the Four Horsemen.

Steve (Brian McCaig), a convict on parole in 1976 Las Vegas, chauffeurs Delilah (Natalie Grace) for a mob boss Big Moe. Delilah, a crass floozie, fatally overdoses on cocaine and touched by a sword of a horseman returns at 04:50 to Steve’s big red car with gleaming red eyes (for a moment) and sword ornament attached to her necklace loses her bimboish personality to a very serious one with a dignified British accent. It is clear she is on some sort of mission as they head out in the desert and encounter three other cars in the journey eventually meeting at a remote site in the Nevada desert, a nuclear test site of the past.

Is the world ready for destruction? Perhaps not at this point of rendezvous but who says destruction must be imminent as the four horsemen converge. The mere fact of convergence is a horrific omen irrespective of the Thelma and Louise ending whatever that should mean.

What genre “Armageddon Road”? Not easy and that may be half the fun of this film. Could it be horror satire, B movie satire, comedy, spoof or simply a poor movie with most interesting camera work? It might be a bit of all of these but the mere fact it has you guessing in my view takes it out of the B movie ream or at least a bad B movie realm. Sometimes those hard to figure out films are very good ones for whatever they stand for. If you are suffering from confusion at least enjoy the interesting soundtrack even if some of it is crotch rock.

The official premiere was in Vancouver 4/5August2026 and on September 4/5 it shows in Toronto.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsPl5DGsZRc

Directed and written by Karen Lam.

RKS CANADIAN FILM RATING 81/100.