Quintessential eXalted films

P

Persell

Ten Thousand Club
It happens to all of us, we're watching a film and want to turn round and say to our fellow watchers 'Now HE'S an eXalt, see how he jumped up 3 flights of stairs, beat down half a dozen assailants and not a lock of hair was out of place afterwards?!' Sometimes you can even break it down to when characters use charms (only without the attendant anima flashy stuff).


So, name a film which for you screamed 'exalted' when you first watched it, with maybe a little bit of explanatory text as to why. Just the one! (and no anime, as that's generally a given..)


To start the ball rolling I'll say 'Brotherhood of the Wolf'. Each of the main characters is defined and epic in their background, demonstrates skills clearly above the 'mortal' norm, and the story itself has many twists and turns. The combat scenes are also great examples of stunts and skills, with the background scenery adding greatly to the feel of the film.


Anyone else have some good suggestions? Or else comments on the films being listed, please feel free.
 
As has been discussed in another thread: The Chronicles of Riddick. Those Necromonger's scream "Abyssals".


-S
 
What films scream Exalt-lisciousness?  Damn near every action flick ever made nowadays.  Wuxia films and anime are a lot of inspiration for the game, so it's no surprise there.  Trying to nail down a few to talk about is going to be hard, because you've got everything from Stephan Chow's Shaolin Soccer and Jet Li's Hero; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Equilibrium with our new Batman, Christian Bale.


Sindbad: Legend of the Seven Seas had the proper feel of action with a mythic storyline, and a nice sense of humor to boot.  Beat Takeshi's revival of Zatoichi does a stylish stab at reviving chambara films, with gallons of CG blood, and a fantastic drum number at the end--not enough films take a moment for a musical number nowadays. House of Flying Daggers with Andy Lau also had style. Ninja Scroll was a great template for Exalted-lisciousness, and was a great introduction to the genre for a lot of folks, and is still  a great source of inspiration.


Stunt-wise, you can draw a lot from most action films. Hollywood has done away with their old school fight scenes, having been outdone by the HK industry, who put the Wow factor in even their cop films thanks to folks like Sammo and Jackie Chan. Kill Bill was chock full of inspiration, and a great looking film, but everyone knows that--though, I will admit that seeing Gordon Lau all over again is still worth the ticket price.


LotR upped the ante for everyone who wants to do epic films. No surprises.  Gladiator was a fine film, and illustrates nicely a grittier style of Exalted play, but you've still got King Arthur and Troy for stunts--not great films maybe, but you can still draw inspiration galore.


Boils down to it--you can take inspiration from everything from the Bourne series--dispite the shaky cam experience, The Bourne Supremacy had some nice moments to steal--to Shrek.  The field is a bit wide, since everyone in Hollywood got pantsed by the HK industry.  Hollywood now either has to roll with the over the top style, or go extra gritty and realistic, which still means that you've got to have great stuntmen to execute the scenes.


And even still, Western films often miss the mark. Underworld or Van Helsing--or as I like to call it, House of Dracula 2000--anyone?     Don't get me wrong, I loved The Mummy, and that style of pulp action got a lot from the new style, and I like what Stephan Sommers does normally-- I'm looking forward to him doing a remake of Flash Gordon--but Van Helsing fell to the Annoited Boddhisatva of Sucktitude, Kate Beckensale and tried to do too much, cover too much ground, and wound up making a film that had great looking moments, and not enough stuff in between those moments.  Wesley Snipes has some of those problems with some of his films as well--though I'm crossing my fingers for The Black Panther and I'm really hoping that John Singleton can pull off Luke Cage, but just because a film has a pulp or comic inspiration, doesn't guarantee that the story will be there.


Hollywood still has a tenuous grasp on what it wants action films to be. They've gotten out styled and out stunted by HK films with fractions of the budget for years, and while not above ripping them off, hiring their stunt teams, they still aren't sure how they want to implement these tools.   Comic book films are getting better, but original stories for them are a lot harder. For every film like The Matrix you get pieces of garbage like Underworld that look pretty at times, but can't sling a story--and Underworld couldn't even look pretty for the most part.


So it's back to animated films. Wuxia and anime, and comic book films.  Epic style flicks are getting grittier, since Hollywood has the 800lb gorilla of LotR setting the standard. I'm interested in seeing what Vin Diesel does with Hannibal, but then you've got poorly plotted films that have great action sequences like Troy in the meantime. Pirates of the Caribbean had some nice bits to swipe, but films that you can really dig into for things to mine are still rare.


So you take what you can, from a LOT of sources. Bits here. Bits there. Stunts here. Plot pieces there.  There just aren't a lot of films that you can really dig into that crank out of Hollywood. Instead, you have to look at the foriegn market, who take a few more risks, or have traditions that Hollywood hasn't muddied down for the broadest possible appeal.
 
MOK said:
... How can we reply to that?  =o(
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I was just thinking the same thing! Jakk, you've simultaneously done the thread proud and killed it in one go ;p


Shaolin Soccer and the more recent Kung Fu Hustle abound with stunts and charm use (if you haven't seen Kung Fu Hustle, go do so now!), can't wait to see more films from Stephen Chow.


The recent Crouching Tiger, Hero and House of Flying Daggers are almost constants of the exalted genre, I doubt there are groups out there that haven't seen them and used them as good examples of combat and the like. Takeshi's take on Zatoichi (where more was spent on the CG blood effects - they look like blooming flowers - than the rest of the film), is beautiful to watch, full of fancy swordwork and character interplay.


I could go on and on, but Jakk has already espoused the pros and cons of several of the above quoted films. Ok, for a change of focus (and now pretty much all the obvious/standard film fare has been covered), can anyone suggest a forgotten or overlooked gem of a movie *cough* Brotherhood of the Wolf *cough* that others might not of seen? Has anyone else seen it?!
 
roninkitty said:
can anyone suggest a forgotten or overlooked gem of a movie *cough* Brotherhood of the Wolf *cough* that others might not of seen? Has anyone else seen it?!
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I've heard that BotW was awful. As in, completely, totally, and in all other ways awful.


I highly reccomend Happiness as an oft overlooked marvel of cinema. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Exalted, but it's a great pitch-black comedy.


-S
 
Brotherhood of the Wolf is a decent watch, and one that I've recommended to many over the course of its life. I'm not saying "Go watch it because I told you to," but rather, "Don't not watch it because you heard some crap reviews. Watch it and make your own decision."


I, personally, thoroughly enjoy it, and watch it on frequent occasion. Normally I'm in the mood for it when I'm in the mood for Scorpion King, The 13th Warrior, and Drunken Master (not "Legend of..." - the original, where Mr. Chan's name is still spelled "Jacky")
 
And - though I know that here, the topic is Exalted - I remember sitting in a movie and coming to the conclusion that superspies (James Bond, Ethan Hunt, etc) and folks that work with them (Q, 99, etc) could be represented by Mages. The spies are specialised Entropists, for the most part (how else do you imagine the gun happened to land right at his feet?), but everyone has their specialties.


Even went so far as to design a secret organisation that trained up young, awakened folks from CIA, MI6, KGB, etc as a sort of WoD Rainbow Six group. Had a lot of interest, but unfortunately, no time to play.


Woulda been fun, though. Jim Burns and Mac Smart were two of the instructors. They thought it was funny how, when stories of their exploits leaked, people kept getting their names wrong.
 
I've been getting into Andy Lau's work a lot lately. He's not Chow Yun Fat, but he's coming up in HK films, and he does HK gangster flicks proud, with plenty of convoluted plots, and betrayals.


His The Duel wasn't fantastic, but it was chock full of stunts and delisciousness.  There's always the The Storm Riders which has lots of CG fu, Fire Monkies, and Sonny Chiba.  Sammo Hung's Blade of Fury was top knotch, as was Tsui Hark's The Blade--though serious on the blood and grit. Warriors of Virtue just makes me smile a lot, as did Six String Samurai, but that might have been from the Red Elvises.


You can take any of the Once Upon a Time in China series and get lots from them--especially for nasty cults and corrupt officials. Then again, almost anything that has to do with Wong Fei Hong in an HK flick is going to be great fodder, even the not so great Tai Chi Master II--it's got Christie Chung though and that makes a film well worth watching.


There's a great gangster machete fight in Metade Fumaca, directed by Ip Kam Hung and starring Eric Tsang, Shu Qi, Nicolase Tse, and Kelly Chen, but that's not why you rent or own this one. It's a great story about a failed gangster who returns home to Hong Kong because he's got Alzheimer's and wants to the see the bar girl that he's dreamed of for years one last time before he forgets her. Great story, great film. The fight scene is incidental, but is just fantastic.


Jean Reno's Wasabi is a French made Yakuza flick that's got plenty to recommend it. Great action bits, and the pacing and heart are fantastic inspiration for an ST. Deep down though, dig into the Shaw Brothers vaults, and get Master With The Cracked Fingers, Kid With the Golden Arm and all the rest, including Shaolin Wooden Men, because these are the films that Exalted was inspired by, and they are the originals that Quinten Tarrentino was looking at when he made Kill Bill.


And lets face it. Go to IMDB and check out ANYTHING that Donnie Yen's made. You saw him in Shanghai Knights and Highlander: Endgame, and in Blade II, but his Iron Monkey was top knotch, as are most of his flicks.


You want great HK titles? Go to IMDB and just start working from there. Look up Jackie Chan, Sammo Hong, Jet Li, Gordon Lau, Sonny Chiba, Donnie Yen, and Andy Lau, and work your way through their filmographies, and branch out from there to get other folks to track.


IMDB is your friend. Them, and Godzilla...
 
and Drunken Master (not "Legend of..." - the original' date=' where Mr. Chan's name is still spelled "Jacky")[/quote']
That movie rocks because inspired my ECR SN.


Hmmm.. whats left?


Big Trouble in Little China which John Carpenter (who was also inspired like Quentin Tarrantino by classic chop house flicks) made a few years before HK started kicking Hollywood's ass in the action/stunt scene category.


When I first read about Warstriders (the Mecha of Exalted) I immediately thought Evangelion.
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Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters is great. Extremely silly, though, and with a plot that is a bit hard to follow, to put it mildly. But it has it's stunts and charms and the Vampire is a study in Deathlords and/or -knights.


MUSA the Warrior and the Princess of the Dessert (yes that is actually the title) is a Korean production (I think) with Zhang Ziyi (from Crouching Tiger and Hero) is more gritty and way more nasty than most Asian films I've seen. It's also a good study in Chinese/Korean warfare in the 1300ds, command and good leadership. It is also a fantastic film in all ways. This one, you should really watch.
 
I just thought of Plunkett & Maclean, which aside from being an extremely crass and entiertaining flick, could easily be imagined as a couple of DB (or even Solar) bandits in the Realm.


-S
 
I know someone's gonna kill me for this, but The Lord of the Rings is a good example.  I screamed out "Exalted!" every time I saw Legolas pull off some insane stunt or Aragorn do just about anything.  And Gandalf makes an excellent Sidereal with some Celestial Circle Sorcery, if I do say so myself.


The Fifth Element is another great one.  When Corben (Bruce Willis) busted out of the theater and started blasting away at the aliens, it screamed pure "Exalted" goodness.  Leeloo's martial arts abilities also cry out "Exalted" for me, because she's touted throughout the film as an exalted (lower case) being.


Leon: The Professional is clearly a Night Caste Solar, given the way he acts and reacts to situations.  Everything he does throughout the film screams "Exalted!"


Lastly, I continue to tout The Crow as an "Exalted" film.  Eric Draven is clearly an Abyssal who finds out that those who destroyed his life's love are still at large and he returns to Creation to exact his revenge upon them.  Little does he know that said killers are the henchmen of two other Abyssal Exalted.
 
Suprised no-one's mentioned Resident Evil and Apocalypse. 28 Days Later and Sean of the Dead should be seen for Zombie/Ghost games. Dawn of the Dead, both the original, and revised, are cool, as should be the upcoming Land of the Dead.


The Batman series could quite well be a Night Caste Solar, and is worth a look, except for Batman & Robin, which was just BAD.


Lady Snowblood, while I haven't seen it, was apparently the inspiration for Kill Bill, so...


Immortel is brilliant, even for it's verbal Stunts:


"Is anyone in this cab feeling particularly mortal?"


"I am!"


"I don't think so Mr...?"


"Ra."


The original comic is clearly the inspiration for 5th Element


The Matrix should be mentioned. Don't bother with the sequels, just download Matrix Dezionized. Animatrix is worth it though.


The Alien Series. Teaches you how to pull horror (the first one), action (the second), wrong (the third) and right exaltation (the fourth). 'Nuf Said.


The Cell should be mentioned. This is how to do locations and terrain, especially in the Labyrinth.


Dovetailling into Series', Full Metal Alchemist cannot be gone past for Thaumaturgy, Autochthonian or otherwise.


Hellsing (the anime series, not Van Helsing) kicks ass for an Abyssals/(Sidereals/Dragonblood) crossover.


Many of the recommendations above are flawed. They are, however, often so obvious in thier flaws that they are excelent examples of what and how to avoid making similar mistakes. This makes them valuable learning materials for both STs and Players alike.
 
Six String Samurai' date=' but that might have been from the Red Elvises.[/quote']
Ha! This film gave me the perverse idea of having a band of Solars touring the Scavenger Lands.


As in, rock band. They're inspired musical geniuses, enhanced by the touch of the Unconquered Sun. As they embark on a rock odyssey to uncover their powers, their show packs ever larger venues, as rumours of their sound and lights show set the East on fire. Tradition is overthrown as throngs of screaming teenagers abandon their work in the fields to follow them on tour, and parents forbid their children to attend their concerts as rumours begin to spread that the new music is the work of Anathema...


Later, their arch-nemesis shows up. She's an Abyssal titled Brittle Spears, and despite her lack of musical talent she has Irresistable Succubus Style. The Scavenger Lands fall into her thrall and the world is drowned in darkness.


On the subject of films, Volcano High is the most over-the-top martial arts film I've seen. The lead character is clearly elementally aspected (though not the same elements as in Exalted). He's a troublesome student who's been booted out of nine high schools and is finally sent to a tough school for potent supernatural martial artists. The school clubs battle it out over the Secret Manuscript and the Dux is framed for murder. Fights involve translucent shockwaves, super-fast and super-strong fighters, and element control. There's even a nice example of Charcoal March of Spiders Style in action.
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I don't think anyone's mentioned Shaolin Soccer yet.


Needs to be seen for Flaming Lion-dragon soccerballs of DOOM (Thrown or Archery attacks) encountering a perfect defense (Block).


That, and the anima effects.


...no one's going to belive me when I say this is worth it, are they? Just try to see the non-American release already.
 
Some anime for Exalted combat: Ikki Tousen and Tenjho Tenge (I've seen the latter with about 5 different spellings). TenTen is the better of the two IMO with a great manga.


Ran by Akira Kurosawa is an adaption of King Lear and a great representation of the Realm's bickering leading to outright violence. Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven, and Samurai 7 are all looks at a circle/pack/brotherhood/whatever defending a settlement. Substitutes for bandits could be Wyld barbarians, Fair Folk or the undead.


Predator gave me an idea for a group of DBs trying to get to Rathess being attacked by a powerful Lunar or pack of Lunars.


Not my ideas but still good: Black Hawk Down with Lookshy troops operating in hostile territory in the Hundred Kingdoms. Then you can take about any Vietnam movie and have An Teng in rebellion.


Another mention for Riddick, just change the planet's name to Thorns. I still feel Escaflowne is the best warstrider stuff out there.
 
Just watched Volcano High the other day.


If you were wondering where they got the inspiration for Dragonblooded training schools - WATCH IT! It even has the Sidereals running around trying to "fix" everything.
 
I just watched Million Dollar Baby. The way the protagonist breaks her neck and then languishes in her hospital bed just screamed "Exalted!" to me.


-S
 
Sin City. Most of the characters could be argued as God-Blooded or even Heroic Mortals, but Marv and Kevin are definitely the real deal. Kevin is of course the perfect Abyssal, and Marv reminds me of a Lunar's warrior ethos, actually. And Hartigan reminds me a lot of an old, tired Dragon-Blooded Magistrate.


Although the action is very realistic, the storyline, characters, and music/cinematography for Last of the Mohicans have a lot of the epic Exalted feel to them. Magua was just one of the better directed, better written, better acted villains of the 20th century.


Conan the Barbarian hasn't been mentioned yet. Although cheesy in some ways, I felt that this movie rose way, way above most of the other lame, leather bikini sword-and-sorcery movies of it's time. The score is epic, the acting is dead on for what it's supposed to be, and the story is gritty, bloody, tragic and fatalistic.
 
I don't think has mentioned King Arthur, the story was pretty good and the fighting was certainly at least Drogon Blooded level. The knights under Arthur could definitely be considered his sworn brothers and so on and so forth.
 
On an Autochthonian note:


The <b>Ghost in the Shell</b> franchise. There's been a Playstation game, two movies and a series. The series (Stand Alone Complex) is really the one to watch (just think of the Tachikomas ((sp?)) as spirits and you'll be fine). The first movie is great - and started it all, but it does get a little long. The second movie (GitS: Innocence) has a good 30 mins (of a 2 1/2 hour movie) showing differently shot, but essentially the same, 10 min scene. It also gets a little ranty philosophically. From memory, the game was <i>awesome</i>, but not hugely Autochonian. Play it as a piece of fluff, but be aware that you'll have to fight with rabid GitS fans to get it. <b>Edit:</b> Just discovered that there's a GitS:SAC video game. Apparenly mixed reviews. I'm talking about the PS1 game in this.


I, Robot may have been slagged by many fans of Azimov (probably your best source of robotic sci-fi) but could be a great little Alchemical or Gremlin chronicle (if you ignore the female supporting character) due to it's stunts and story. If you like the story, check out Blade Runner (make sure you get the director's cut).


1984 gives you an idea of what it must be like for mortal Autochthonians, as would Brazil.


In terms of upcoming movies, things like The Island (and it's seeming inspiration Logan's Run) may provide some inspirational fodder.


Finally Metropolis. They mention it in the front of E:tAu, but it really <i>cannot</i> be stressed enough. I haven't seen the anime remake, but I've heard some dodgy things. The original is wonderful - try for the black and white version if you can, although it can be a little inaccessible if you're not used to B&W.
 
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