Wrath of the Monkey King!

So I watched The Forbidden Kingdom yesterday. It's not exactly an epic movie, but it's quite good and fun. I know stories of China's Monkey King have been done many times and many ways, and I can't say I'm familiar with more than a few, but I still recognized some elements here and there. The action sequences were good. The story was relatively sound in and of itself. Seeing Jet Li and Jackie Chan on screen at the same time was amusing. I'm not a big Jet Li fan (as I have a poor opinion of most of what I've seen him in), but I've no complaints about him here. Very good entertainment movie. It even has a couple training montages.

And, unsurprisingly, it's good inspiration for Exalted. Over-the-top wirework and action is a given. The Jade Emperor and his court appearing from Heaven every five hundred years to partake in elixirs of immortality gives shades of Yu Shan and the sidereals/gods there. The Monkey King himself makes a good solar in terms of power and the imprisonment/return theme. The kung-fu-users could be exalts of varying powers lending their training to put a mortal into the heroic/enlightened range. Good stuff all around, which is really more a reminder to me that Exalted draws influence so heavily from Chinese mythology.

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