Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa

Tagawa's villains rarely seemed to be making an effort to frighten anyone. Stillness, voice and a held expression did much of the work, with his martial arts background lending assurance to the movement. We value that economy, especially in supporting parts with little time to establish a character. The difficulty was how often the films wanted the same sort of man.

The Last Emperor (1987) gave him his breakthrough as Chang in Bernardo Bertolucci's historical drama. We recommend it for the way imperial ceremony becomes fascinating and painfully lonely, though the adult protagonist can remain frustratingly remote. It is a useful starting point before the succession of films that asked him chiefly to look dangerous.

In Mortal Kombat (1995), his Shang Tsung has the elegance as well as the menace that made his villains memorable. Yet the recurring problem was the writing: films such as The Phantom (1996) confined him to one-note antagonists. Giving those figures poise made them more watchable; it did not make them more fully written. We can admire the actor without pretending every part justified the attention he gave it.

Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009) gives him a gentler part as Ken. We were moved by Richard Gere's bond with the dog, because their attachment needs so little explanation. Lasse Hallström's direction earns those tears, though the piano insists on them and the surrounding humans are thinly written. Tagawa brings warmth to one of those supporting parts without making us forget how little the script provides. The pleasure is in seeing a familiar presence used kindly, even in a film that still gives its people less attention than they need.

The later television work included Nobusuke Tagomi in The Man in the High Castle (2015), a substantial recurring role. It belongs to a later stretch in which he had more opportunity to play sympathetic or complicated people. Start with Ken if the only Tagawa you know is waiting to threaten somebody.