Any Detectives of Asian ancestry PLAYED by actors of Asian ancestry?

Cafe Society
241

And, y’know, just to expand on what I was just saying…

[QUOTE=me]
Archie Panjabi has only won a supporting-actress Emmy for her role as sleuth Kalinda Sharma on THE GOOD WIFE – which she’s been on for plenty longer than Jack Soo was doing his thing on BARNEY MILLER – but isn’t the important thing that she’s the best damn detective on the show?
[/QUOTE]

…okay, granted, she’s a supporting-role detective and not the lead-actress lawyer. But while I can name movies and television shows that currently fit your bill with a leading role for a detective of Asian ancestry, I can’t think of any where the lead is a lawyer of Asian ancestry. Or a Marine of Asian ancestry. Or a schoolteacher of Asian ancestry. Or a journalist of Asian ancestry. Or a psychiatrist of Asian ancestry.

And et cetera.

And I can likewise come back around to name plenty of supporting-role detectives of Asian ancestry on TV right now – the aforementioned HAWAII FIVE-O regulars, the aforementioned crime-solving castmembers on SCORPION and ELEMENTARY and BONES and MINORITY REPORT and iZOMBIE and GRIMM and the sole remaining CSI and probably some I haven’t gotten to yet – which leaves me wondering: wait; are they, like, overrepresented as detectives?

(Oh, and to ensure I’m bumping this with something new and relevant, let me add that while I’d already mentioned the sharp-eyed Lieutenant Suzuki on iZOMBIE, I’ve not yet mentioned Rahul Kohli as Ravi Chakrabarti, the brainy guy from the Medical Examiner’s office; one episode opens with him doing the basics – “Based on the stiffness of the jaw and neck, I’d put the time between six and seven … no defense wounds, no physical signs of struggle; it’s a straight shot from the orbital cavity to the carotid artery, so death was likely instantaneous” – and ends when he cracks the case when he sees a short woman talking down to someone and shouts “STOP! Hold that position! The angle … it had to be swung from above Javier by someone taller? But if Javier was on the bottom step? He stumbles backwards four or five paces, and the blood splatter hits these steps? THE KILLER COULD’VE BEEN LIV’S SIZE!”)

(Same episode where he gets asked, “You’re a detective, right?” – and starts to reply, with a “Well, technically; I do work for the Seattle Police Department…”)

242

It’s not a matter of “second billed” – I never defined it that way. And Les Miserables is about a slew of people, with none of them really getting “top billing”. I think what I was saying is pretty clear. I’m not slighting folks who aren’t obviously the leads, but actually commenting upon how few of them – even after all the things said in this thread – really are .

243

I’m not sure I follow you.

Lucy Liu got mentioned upthread; she’s obviously not the lead on ELEMENTARY, but I figure that, were she nominated for an Emmy, it’d be for Outstanding Lead Actress for her role as the show’s second-billed crime-solver. So while she’s not up there with Kristin Kreuk and Priyanka Chopra as top-billed lead actresses playing detectives on their respective shows, she’s in a higher tier than Jadyn Wong as an ensemble-cast crime-solver on SCORPION, and a higher tier than Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park and Masi Oka on HAWAII FIVE-O, and a higher tier than Reggie Lee on GRIMM, and a higher tier than Rahul Kohli on iZOMBIE, and a higher tier than Michaela Conlin on BONES, and so on, and so on, and I’d meant what I’d said:

Are they, if anything, overrepresented as detectives?

If, at present, there’s three leading roles and bunches of supporting roles built around being detectives – and, again, that’s with a definition that rules out stuff like Ming-Na’s undercover work and deductive skills on AGENTS OF SHIELD, because otherwise it’s way too easy to keep coming up with examples – then how much more would there need to be before you figure it’s gone from “how few” to “just right”? Or from “just right” to “disproportionately high”?

(Especially since, with a quick look at the other shows out there – what, there’s GRINDER, with the lead role is an actor who played an attorney and is now a wannabe attorney? I’m not aware of any shows right now where the lead role is an actor or an attorney portrayed by someone of Asian ancestry; I’m blanking on any where a supporting role like that gets so fielded either; CHICAGO FIRE? I’m not aware of any shows right now involving a firefighter of Asian ancestry; NASHVILLE? No shows I know of featuring a professional singer of Asian ancestry; SCANDAL? Fixer who handles crisis management; NEW GIRL is a teacher; MOM is a waitress; MADAM SECRETARY is, well, a Cabinet Secretary; and so on; apparently we won’t cast someone of Asian ancestry in any of those roles. But solving crimes as a detective? Yeah, sure, fine, whatever: top-billed as the lead, second-billed as a co-lead, supporting role, ensemble cast, ain’t no thing; you apparently picked one of the few professions that actors of Asian ancestry can routinely nail with no problem at all.)

(Oh, and since I couldn’t bear to bump the thread without something new, figure I’ll mention Richard Narita – who, in the bad old days, was playing a number one son to Peter Sellers aping Charlie Chan in MURDER BY DEATH; what’s Narita been doing since? Well, after playing a fellow IFF agent on SCARECROW AND MRS KING, he got small-screen work as Detective Narita on SHADES OF LA the year before he got big-screen work as Detective Nobu in UNLAWFUL ENTRY, and then he played an FBI Agent then – yeah, you’re right; he doesn’t get leading-man work as a detective, but (a) he doesn’t get leading-man work as anything, and (b) it’s not like he’s getting supporting work as a famous author or the owner of a coffee shop or whatever; people look at the guy and think, yeah, he’s plausible as a detective.)

244

(And as long as I’m kicking off that post there with quick mention of Lucy Liu, let me add that she played “a criminal psychologist working for the FBI” in DOMINO. Now, granted, Liu wasn’t the lead in that, because Domino Harvey was white and grew up in London and so for the biopic they understandably went with Keira Knightley – but it opens with Knightley explaining that “what I say over the next several hours will determine whether or not I spend the rest of my life in prison” – because the whole movie is Knightley getting interrogated by, and trying to mess with, Liu, who ain’t having none of that, and gets the full story from that arrested bounty hunter, and ultimately delivers the film’s leave-it-to-the-professionals conclusion with a crisp “Miss Harvey, I suggest you retire.”)

245

Liu also wound up winning a Critics Choice Award for her recurring SOUTHLAND role as ultra-ambitious cop Jessica Tang – which maybe wouldn’t count, except her story was built around doing whatever it took to get promoted, and, by heaven, she made it. “My name is Jessica Tang, and I’m your new Watch Commander. I’m sure you’ve heard other nicknames for me – ‘Pootie Tang’, ‘Wu-Tang’, ‘Joy Luck’, ‘Hollywood’. From now on, I’m going to be ‘Sergeant Tang’.”

(Granted, she first spends most of her time doing Unscrupulous Patrolwoman stuff: shooting a kid before removing the orange tip from his toy gun, for example. But we also get to see her investigating crime scenes and talking to witnesses and otherwise proving she’s got what it takes to go up in rank.)

246

Una Damon was born Una Kim in South Korea before coming here and landing small roles in big movies: that’s her delivering exposition while showing Tobey Maguire and his classmates around the spider experiments at that lab in SPIDER-MAN; and that’s her playing assistant to Ed Harris playing Christof in THE TRUMAN SHOW; and that’s her in GATTACA, and that’s her in DEEP IMPACT…

…and while she’ll never be the lead in a blockbuster, she was cast on LOIS & CLARK as a government operative tasked with recovering the MacGuffin Du Jour for her boss at, well, a Certain Intelligence Agency. So she examines the dead body of the guy last known to have it, and fires questions at the last person who saw him alive – and then follows up by conducting electronic surveillance before ultimately delivering with a smug “never doubt me,” sparking a quick “you were always my favorite.”

(About that: the investigation got yanked away from her partway through, because Jimmy Olsen’s dad is one of her fellow agents and so had an in for getting together with Lois Lane and Clark Kent for dinner and so on. But she soon realized there’s a notable drawback wrapped in that advantage – he downplays Jimmy’s involvement in Daily-Planet-related activities, even though it could of course be him who got it instead of a star reporter – and that’s why she gets the job done and Jack Olsen doesn’t; and she was one lucky break away from learning Clark’s secret identity without even trying, since she was watching his bugged place too, y’know?)

Where was I? Oh, right: she played an INS Agent on GOOD VS EVIL, because that’s, like, her skillset: sounding knowledgeable, with a no-nonsense demeanor; as per IMDB, she’s been the doctor and the campaign manager and the network executive; why wouldn’t she be the government investigator?

247

As we all know, the suits passed over Bruce Lee for KUNG FU because they wanted to go with David Carradine, and that’s regrettable. Of course, Lee promptly (a) spent his time making ENTER THE DRAGON for the big screen, and also (b) died – after which the television series not only continued on for years in its own right, but eventually begat KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, which ran for four years.

And on LEGEND CONTINUES, the recurring role of Detective Roger Chin was played by Oscar Hsu – which means the philosophical kung-fu master was played by the white guy, and the all-American detective was played by the actor of Asian ancestry.

I don’t even know what that means.

248

And, looking at Hsu’s other IMDB credits, I see he later played an FBI Agent – no, not as the star, but, as far as I can tell, he’s never the star in anything – because it’s not like they’re going to give him a small part as a racecar driver or a stage magician; he’s just entirely plausible as a crime-solver with police training, is all.

(I see his next project is BLOOD AND WATER. No, not as the star; he’s never the star. The star, see, is Steph Song: an actress of Asian ancestry, playing a character who “has just been assigned her first big case as Lead Detective … Born in China and abandoned by a family she never knew, Jo was adopted as a toddler and relocated to Vancouver. Raised by a single mother, a Professor of Sinology, Jo wanted for nothing growing up. But, much to her mother’s chagrin, Jo chose policing as a career…”)

249

…and, as per IMDB, Steph Song previously did DRAGON BOYS, playing a Cambodian immigrant forced into a life of prostitution in Vancouver – which doesn’t count, but doesn’t need to, since Byron Mann was top-billed as RCMP Detective Tommy Jiang.

250

Also as per IMDB, I see Mann went from being top-billed as a detective there to being second-billed in JASMINE – where Jason Tobin, who’s also an actor of Asian ancestry, is top-billed as Leonard To: “a determined man who continues looking for his wife’s murderer long after the police have given up … the main mystery is always what’s going on inside his head. His one-track focus turns him into a resourceful hero for whom barred and gated security is no problem, and he’s as agile as a cat burglar when he wants to break into an apartment.”

(Sure, the Hollywood Reporter reviewer I’m quoting “would have liked to see more of Byron Mann, captured in distant long shots while Leonard trails him to sultry bars and soaring apartment buildings” – but the point isn’t how little Mann gets to do as the prime suspect; it’s how much Tobin gets to do as the amateur-sleuth protagonist.)

251

And since I was just mentioning Byron Mann in a decidedly un-detective-y role, lemme make quick mention of ABSOLUTION, the movie he did with Steven Seagal earlier this year; Seagal’s now so old and out of shape that it of course falls to Mann to handle the cinematic-spin-kicks duties along with the interrogating-the-crooks duties as the big guy’s everything-you’d-expect-from-a-classic-buddy-cop partner.

But he’s not technically a cop in that one, so I only mention it to set the stage for INTO THE SUN, a Steven Seagal movie from ten years ago – back when Seagal was plausible as a protagonist, and Sokyu Fujita was playing Investigator Maeda.

252

Kelly Hu’s TV work – as Detective Chen and Detective Maka and et cetera – already got mentioned, but not her playing Detective Pei and Detective Hanover in movies. (What brought her to mind is that she’s in a little independent film that came out today; I’m not sure, but from the trailer it looks like she’s playing a detective.)

253

At that, I mentioned Ken Leung as Detective Sing in SAW a while back, but I didn’t mention Mike Realba, who played Detective Fisk in two of the sequels – before he was Yoji in GANGSTER EXCHANGE, but after he was Wayne Lu on BLUE MURDER.

254

Rae Dawn Chong is of Asian ancestry (the first clue: her name is Rae Dawn Chong), and has played a detective in a number of movies – both as someone with the actual rank of detective, in SHIVER and CRYING FREEMAN, and second-billed as a private eye working with a reluctant Michael Keaton in THE SQUEEZE – but like Keanu Reeves and Dean Cain and et cetera, I don’t think she qualifies, since as far as I can tell she plays a detective without necessarily playing a detective of Asian ancestry.

And so I’ll instead mention Peter Tuiasosopo: an actor of Asian ancestry (first clue: his name is Peter Tuiasosopo) who held down the recurring role of Detective Al Hamoki (second clue: that’s Detective Al Hamoki) on DANGER THEATRE.

255

Chief Detective Jagkrit, in Brokedown Palace, was played by Kay Tong Lim – the year after he was in that Bright Shining Lie TV movie with Bill Paxton.

256

Benedict Wong is currently up on the big screen in The Martian – as Bruce Ng, the overworked Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory – but last year he was on the small screen as Detective Sergeant Ashley Chan on Prey. (And in between, you maybe saw him playing Kublai Khan on Netflix’s Marco Polo.)

257

Incidentally, before all of that he was Detective Sergeant David Chiu on a bunch of episodes of THE BILL – right after he was in DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, with the great Chiwetel Ejiofor. (That one got Wong a supporting-actor nomination, and Ejiofor a leading-actor win, at the British Independent Film Awards; so it goes, y’know?)

258

Just watched NO CODE OF CONDUCT, which opened with an uptight undercover cop explicitly adhering to his code of conduct in front of a crime boss; since said crime boss grew up with a cop for a dad, that giveaway gets this cop dead.

And cut to police captain Martin Sheen, unrelatedly but cheerfully chewing out his son Charlie Sheen in front of Charlie’s by-the-book partner Mark Dacascos: Mark is wearing his bulletproof vest; Charlie ain’t. Mark suggested calling for backup; Charlie disregarded him. Mark phoned to let his girl know he was okay when an undercover cop was reported shot; Charlie didn’t. One thinks like a cop, acts like a cop; the other is the Goofus to his Gallant, a loose cannon who – oh, I get it; he can go undercover the way a stick-up-his-butt cop can’t, passing as a freewheeling crook, right?

Actually, no; the movie doesn’t go there; Charlie and Mark just take turns conducting surveillance as best they can, and work together to search an abandoned getaway car for evidence, and Mark holds a crook at gunpoint while Charlie interrogates, and Charlie walks in as an apparently-helpless hostage while Mark stealths in and chokes out a guard and spies on the Big Bad who of course incriminates himself with a gloating monologue to Charlie as planned, and – look, the point is that, before Mark was playing Wo Fat on HAWAII FIVE-O, and before Charlie was playing guys named Charlie on SPIN CITY and TWO AND A HALF MEN, they were ace investigators.

(The other point is, the movie’s awful, but it counts.)

259

I see that WICKED CITY is premiering tonight, and from the commercials it’s about a pair of serial killers running amok – and maybe there’s going to be a bartender who saw the latest victim leave with a couple he didn’t get a good look at, and maybe he’ll be black. And maybe there’s going to be a jogger who sees something she shouldn’t and gets murdered, and maybe she’ll be white.

But there can’t not be a Medical Examiner in the pilot episode; and he can’t not be of Asian ancestry, played as he is by Clyde Yasuhara; because, seriously, what the heck other role would you expect an actor of Asian ancestry to field?

(But, as always, I’m not sure if “Medical Examiner” is a strong enough credit to justify bumping the thread; and so, as usual, I’ll mention one that’s less nebulous. Take, say, DA VINCI’S INQUEST, where, sure, the titular coroner was as white as you’d expect from a guy named “Dominic Da Vinci” – but Detective Joe Tang was, as you’d expect from a “Detective Joe Tang,” of Asian ancestry, played as he was by Yee Jee Tso.)

260

At that, I won’t lean too hard on whether Suleka Mathew counts for her six seasons on DA VINCI’S INQUEST as tart-tongued forensic pathologist Sunita Ramen – even though, as a regular, she was more instrumental in solving more cases than Richard Yee ever was in his recurring role as Detective Tony Lee. So maybe I’m being unfair?