# Any Detectives of Asian ancestry PLAYED by actors of Asian ancestry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348 "2015-06-24T12:50:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/201 "2015-09-04T02:41:01Z")
Has anyone mentioned “The Corruptor”, with Chow Yun Fat as NYPD Lieutenant Nick Chen? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2015, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/202 "2015-09-04T10:59:40Z")
[QUOTE=Wolf333] Has anyone mentioned “The Corruptor”, with Chow Yun Fat as NYPD Lieutenant Nick Chen? [/QUOTE] Back on page 2, as it happens. Also as it happens, I was about to add that the aforementioned Liufau was in the aforementioned “The Ghost” with George Cheung – who, sure, was Detective Fong in “White Tiger”, but who I’m mentioning because he was also in “New York Cop”, with Tôru Nakamura top-billed as the titular NYPD officer. (Well, sort of; IMDB gives Nakamura top billing, but the movie poster it shows bills him second under his gangleader nemesis Chad McQueen. But come on: could there even _be_ a more NYPD title than _“New York Cop”_? It approaches perfection!) Anyhow, [here’s](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AcJamsBwsPM) the trailer – and, yes, that’s Cheung with the gun; and, yes, that’s Mira Sorvino, a scant two years before earning her “Mighty Aphrodite” Oscar, as Nakamura’s love interest and McQueen’s sister; you can see where this is going. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/203 "2015-09-05T14:59:47Z")
Also appearing in “New York Cop”: Paul J. Q. Lee – who later got work on, y’know, “New York Undercover”. Also appearing in “New York Undercover” – years before he was the insurance investigator in “Life of Pi”, and before fielding roles ranging from ‘police sergeant’ to ‘police captain’ – was James Saito, as Detective Chang. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/204 "2015-09-06T06:19:50Z")
As per IMDB, _ **also** _ appearing on “New York Undercover” was Takeo Matsushita, who reveals he’s an undercover US Marshal and gets his man up on the big screen in… …“The Spanish Prisoner”. Of course, we don’t really get to see it coming, because we pretty much see things from the protagonist’s perspective – and as far as _he_ can tell, the swindler who’s been conning him and framing him has been a step ahead of him for, like, the length of the movie – but the big twist-ending reveal is that (a) well, yes, that’s _true_; but (b) the innocuous dude who’s been standing _right there_ is on the job and one step ahead of the real criminal. And that movie was _ **awesome** _. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/205 "2015-09-07T17:13:27Z")
NEW YORK UNDERCOVER also featured Lee Wong in dozens of episodes, but as the Medical Examiner – also named Wong! – which I’m still not sure counts. But it _also_ also featured Sandrine Holt, who (a) was born to a Cantonese father and a French mother, and who (b) is currently up on the big screen as Detective Cheung of the San Francisco police department in TERMINATOR GENISYS – long after she © held down the recurring role of Detective Jenny Cho on LAS VEGAS. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/206 "2015-09-09T02:07:29Z")
Holt also got work on THE LISTENER – just like Hiro Kanagawa, who got mentioned back in July; what _didn’t_ get mentioned back in July is that Kanagawa played Detective Miyashiro in BEST FRIENDS, with Megan Gallagher – sure as he played a detective on MILLENNIUM, with Megan Gallagher – sure as Megan Gallagher was also in FIRST TO DIE, because that’s who you cast if “friends in San Francisco investigate a serial killer targeting newlyweds”; and, since Gallagher’s in it, _so is Kanagawa_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/207 "2015-09-10T01:31:54Z")
Also – after playing Agent Kurosaka in that _A Child Is Missing_ TV movie back when with Henry Winkler – Kanagawa was a detective in a TV movie with Corbin Bernsen, as well as a detective in a big-screen movie with Bill Pullman, as well as a detective in _Little Brother Of War_, as well as a detective in _The Entrance_. (Hey, remember _The Company You Keep_, with Redford as the Weather Underground radical who’s been low-key on the run since that guard died back when, and now the FBI is back on his trail and closing in? Kanagawa was, well, Agent Kanagawa.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2015, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/208 "2015-09-11T00:22:04Z")
Kanagawa also had a recurring role as Principal Kwan on SMALLVILLE, and even _then_ they couldn’t resist always having him find a dead body in the school parking lot, or discover that the football coach was helping players cheat on their tests, and so on, because to even _look_ at that guy is to think “clues at the scene of the crime”. Anyhow, I’d gladly six-degrees-of-separation over to that show’s Lana Lang – the equally alliterative Kristin Kreuk, who as I write this is top-billed in tonight’s season finale of her _latest_ series, where she plays an NYPD homicide detective – but, of course, she already got mentioned back on Page One. And so I’ll instead go with Françoise Yip – who, in between putting in appearances as Constable Kelly Mah on BEACHCOMBERS, held down the recurring role of Dr. Lia Teng: the molecular biologist who’s forever doing interesting stuff with Kryptonian blood for one Luthor or another – and I mention her because she’s of Chinese ancestry via her father, and French-Canadian ancestry via her mother, and following SMALLVILLE got plenty of work playing Detective Kate Lam on BLOOD TIES. (You maybe remember her from SANCTUARY, as UN security inspector Lillian Lee?) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/209 "2015-09-12T03:00:57Z")
Yip also got work on FLATLAND – as did Kee Chan, who played Detective Derek Li on WATER RATS after playing a big-screen detective in FRAUDS. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/210 "2015-09-13T00:25:53Z")
Chan was also in SINGAPORE SLING, with Tony Yeow as Inspector Lao. ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/211 "2015-09-13T03:18:00Z")
I don’t think it has been mentioned yet - but I nominate _ **The Mystery Files Of Shelby Woo** _. 41 TV episodes in the 90s. Detective of Asian descent - check (the underrated Irene Ng with Pat Morita as her grandfather). She’s the man character - heck even the Title Character. The only thing that may discount it is that it is a children’s show. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/212 "2015-09-14T00:41:05Z")
> [@Reloy3](#): > > I don’t think it has been mentioned yet - but I nominate _ **The Mystery Files Of Shelby Woo** _. 41 TV episodes in the 90s. Detective of Asian descent - check (the underrated Irene Ng with Pat Morita as her grandfather). She’s the man character - heck even the Title Character. Came up back on page three. > [@](#): > > The only thing that may discount it is that it is a children’s show. I don’t see why that should discount it. But in that spirit, lemme mention TIMECOP 2: Jason Scott Lee is the title character, and is so worthy an adversary to the crook he’s hunting that said crook aims to off him by offing our hero’s ancestors – including Kenneth Choi, who’s never _not_ good, as his dad, who apparently loved him some disco dancing and embarrassingly timely outfits back in the day – and our hero’s journey takes him from back when there were Chinese laborers in the Old West to back when Hitler could’ve been stopped before it was too late, _but at what price?_ – and various reviews say it’s better than the original. But what may discount it is that, y’know, it’s TIMECOP 2. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/213 "2015-09-14T22:49:47Z")
And since Jason Scott Lee is maybe most famous for having played _Bruce_ Lee in that biopic back when, I’m reminded that _Brandon_ Lee probably deserves quick mention for playing Jake Lo in RAPID FIRE. (It didn’t have to be that way; the whole point is that he accidentally witnesses a killing, so mob enforcers keep trying to kill him while cops keep trying to keep him alive to testify, so he keeps having to use his kung-fu skills in self-defense – and that’s, like, pretty much a whole action movie _right there,_ once you’ve thrown in some quips and given the guy a love-interest subplot. But instead of stopping there, they decided, _hey, wait; how about the star of our show eventually decides to go on the offense against the bad guys, taking the good guys up on the offer to take an active role in the investigation instead of just waiting around for the next attack? And so it’ll turn out that he’s, like, way better at going undercover than any of the gun-and-badge types – and, upon discovering the requisite evidence for them, it’ll turn out that his law-enforcement backup will have gotten captured, and he’ll have to rescue them!_) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/214 "2015-09-16T00:45:54Z")
At that, Hoon Lee – no relation – played Detective Lee on NYC 22 not long after playing Detective Tuan on BLUE BLOODS; you maybe know him from BANSHEE as the computer expert who knows all about forged documents, excels at tracking down crooks, and is otherwise a danged useful ally to the small-town sheriff who isn’t actually qualified to do the job he never actually got appointed to. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/215 "2015-09-16T23:17:00Z")
There’s also Karen Tsen Lee – who’s set to portray Yoko Ono in _The Lennon Report_ later this year, after she’d busily put in appearances in 2014 and 2013 and 2012 and 2011 as DNA Tech Susan Chung on _Law & Order: Special Victims Unit_, which maybe doesn’t count, so just to make sure I’ll add quick mention of Tony Lee, who played Detective Lee on episode after episode of _Dragnet_ before landing the recurring role of Lieutenant Charles Yi on _JAG_. (I ask you: was Yi a scuba-diving explosives expert? Maybe a hotshot fighter pilot, or a hardworking member of the medical corps, or the long-suffering XO on a destroyer? Don’t be ridiculous; he was an investigator for the Office of Naval Intelligence.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/216 "2015-09-18T00:13:46Z")
And for a Chinese-and-Japanese-and-Korean-ancestry trifecta, there’s Byron Lawson, who got the recurring role of Detective Lee on KILLER INSTINCT after he was Lee Chen, the head-of-security-who-investigates-stuff-and-is-also-a-secret-agent on JEREMIAH – after he was Amos Lee on THESE ARMS OF MINE, which doesn’t count, but, _dang,_ that’s a lot of guys named “Lee”. (Granted, in SNAKES ON A PLANE he was Eddie Kim, so it’s not like he can’t _not_ play a guy named Lee, but still.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/217 "2015-09-19T00:28:41Z")
I guess I kinda lost the six-degrees-of-separation thing and went off on a weird “Lee” tangent there, huh? Anyhow, may as well switch gears entirely with mention of Detective Joseph Song from STRANGE BLOOD, who was played by James Adam Lim. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/218 "2015-09-20T00:49:11Z")
Hey, remember how THOR: THE DARK WORLD cleared a hundred million dollars _after_ passing the half-a-billion-dollar mark? And how many hundreds of millions of dollars AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON made after passing the billion-dollar mark? And remember how – in between – Michael Mann wrote and directed and produced BLACKHAT, which despite the star power of Chris Hemsworth somehow failed to break even? Or even get halfway there? Or even get close to a _third_ of the way there? Maybe that’s because everybody believes the towering-and-broad-shouldered guy as the strongest man on the planet, but ain’t _nobody_ believes him as the brainiest hacker around. For, y’know, pretty much _any_ value of ‘around’. Still, that was the conclusion relayed in said movie by Leehom Wang as Captain Chen Dawai – who gets tasked with tracking down the folks who’ve been hacking computers all over the globe, and soon (a) recognizes the code used in one of the hacks, and (b) realizes it was written back when by the tall blond prisoner who’d now sure be a big help to my investigation, so how about the FBI cooperates by letting him out to tag along when I leave here to start looking for evidence in Hong Kong? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/219 "2015-09-21T01:11:24Z")
(And, of course, once they get to Hong Kong, Andy On is go as Inspector Alex Trang.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2015, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/220 "2015-09-21T10:45:57Z")
I see the TV-show version of MINORITY REPORT is set to debut tonight – complete with Li Jun Li (who was Maggie Huang, on DAMAGES) as a crime scene technician, because, hey, even in a world where precognitive murder-predictors are a thing, _somebody_ still has to go out there and do actual old-timey detective work, right? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348.md?page=12)