Japanese-American actor, film producer and martial artist Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa began his acting career in the latter half of the 1980s and appeared in films like ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ (uncredited) and ‘Armed Response’ as well as tv series ‘The Wizard’ (all 1986). This was followed by brief appearances in tv series ‘MacGyver’, ‘The Colbys’ and ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ (all 1987) and ‘Miami Vice’ (1987-1989). His big break came with the 1987 epic biographical drama film ‘The Last Emperor’ which was about the life of the final emperor of China. In the movie, he played the character of Eunuch Chang. A couple of years later, he became a part of the action-adventure thriller film ‘Licence to Kill’ (1989), the 16th film in the James Bond film series, and played the role of an undercover agent of the Hong Kong Narcotics Board. His other work up till 1990 include films ‘Spellbinder’, ‘Twins’ (both 1988) and ‘The Last Warrior’ (1989) as well as television movies ‘L.A. Takedown’ (1989) ‘Murder in Paradise’, ‘The Bakery’ and ‘Vestige of Honor’ (all 1990).
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa continued to work in both films and television in the 1990s. In films, he played the role of Yakuza boss Funekei Yoshida in buddy cop action movie 'Showdown in Little Tokyo' (1991); the Korean mafia families aid, Kai, in the martial arts action film ‘The Perfect Weapon’ (1991); an heir to Japanese industrialist, Eddie Sakamura, in the crime thriller 'Rising Sun' (1993), the imposing and sinister sorcerer Shang Tsung in the action-adventure fantasy ‘Mortal Kombat’ (1995) and the ruthless pirate leader Kabai Sengh in the action-adventure comedy 'The Phantom' (1996).
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa’s other films of the decade include ‘Kickboxer 2: The Road Back’ (1991), ‘American Me’, ‘Nemesis’ (both 1992), ‘Natural Causes’, ‘Picture Bride’ (both 1994), ‘Soldier Boyz’, ‘The Dangerous’ (both 1995), ‘White Tiger’, ‘Danger Zone’ (both 1996), ‘Top of the World’ (1997), ‘Provocateur’, ‘Vampires’, ‘American Dragons’ (all 1998), ‘Bridge of Dragons’, ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’ ‘Fixations’ (all 1999) and ‘The Art of War’ (2000). On television, he appeared in numerous television movies like ‘Not of This World’, ‘Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis’ (both 1991), ‘Raven: Return of the Black Dragons’ (1992), ‘Day of Reckoning’ (1994), ‘NetForce’ and ‘Johnny Tsunami’ (both 1999). Additionally, he acted in 6 episodes of sci-fi action-adventure series ‘Space Rangers’ (1993–94) and 15 episodes of action crime drama ‘Nash Bridges’ (1996–97) as well.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa next played the Japanese Commander Minoru Genda in the war drama ‘Pearl Harbor’ (2001), gorilla Attar’s mentor Krull in the sci-fi action-adventure ‘Planet of the Apes’ (also 2001), the baron in the epic period drama ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ (2005), Tekken Corporation's chairman Heihachi Mishima in the action crime drama ‘Tekken’ (2009) and Ken Fujiyoshi, the Japanese professor and the lead character’s friend in the family drama ‘Hachi: A Dog's Tale’ (2009).
His other movies that released from 2001 to 2010 were ‘The Ghost’ (2001), ‘Fallacy’ (2004), ‘Elektra’ (2005), ‘Balls of Fury’ (2007), ‘Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter’ (2007), ‘Bodyguard: A New Beginning’ (2008), ‘By the Will of Chingis Khan’ (2009) and The Tomb (2009). On television Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa played the role of Captain Terry Harada in the crime action series ‘Hawaii’ (2004, 8 episodes) and acted in a number of television movies like ‘Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding’ (2003), ‘Faith of My Fathers’ (2005), ‘Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board’ (2007) and ‘Ghost Voyage’ (2008).
In 2012-2013, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa portrayed the character of Satoshi Takeda, the influential CEO of the Takeda Industries in Japan and former mentor to the main protagonist, in the ABC’s series ‘Revenge’. He took over the recurring role from actor Hiroyuki Sanada who played it in the first season. In 2013 again, he reprised his role of Shang Tsung in the web series ‘Mortal Kombat: Legacy’. Between 2015 and 2018, he played one of the lead roles – Nobusuke Tagomi – in the sci-fi thriller drama series ‘The Man in the High Castle’ and in 2018 was seen as Hiroki Watanabe in 5 episodes of the sci-fi adventure series ‘Lost in Space’. In films, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa played the role of Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi in the fantasy action drama '47 Ronin' (2013), reprised his role of Heihachi Mishima in 'Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge' (2014), played the role of the Japanese man Hashimoto in the WWII war drama 'Little Boy' (2015) and lent his voice to the character of Hashi in the animated action fantasy film 'Kubo and the Two Strings' (2016). His other film credits of the period include ‘Hype Nation 3D’, ‘Ninja Apocalypse’ (2014), ‘Skin Trade’ (all 2014), ‘Diamond Cartel’ (2015), ‘Showdown in Manila’ (2016), ‘Beyond the Game’ (2016), ‘Looking in the Mirror’, ‘Girl Games’ (both 2019), ‘My love is Aisulu’ and ‘Sky Sharks’ (both 2020).
In his career, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has worked in an episode or two of several tv series. Amongst these are ‘Hotel’ (1988), ‘Mission: Impossible’ (1989), ‘Jake and the Fatman’(1990), ‘Baywatch’ (1992), ‘Renegade’ (1993), ‘Babylon 5’ (1995), ‘Cybill’ (1996), ‘Stargate SG-1’ (1997), ‘Poltergeist: The Legacy’ (1998), ‘Seven Days’ (1999) ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ (2000), ‘Heroes’ (2007), ‘Hawaii Five-0’ (2011), ‘Teen Wolf’ (2014), ‘The Librarians’ (2014) ‘Grimm’ (2016) and ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ (2021).
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has also lent his voice in a number of projects. These include films like ‘Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo’ (2006) and ‘Junction’ (2015); short films like ‘Overwatch: Dragons’ (2016); tv series like ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ (2016), ‘Star Wars Rebels’ (2017) and ‘Star Wars: Visions’ (2021); as well as video games like ‘Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu’ (2003), ‘World of Warcraft: Legion’ (2016) and ‘Mortal Kombat 11’ (2019-2020).
