Takeshi Kaneshiro makes romantic self-pity funny by letting the embarrassment show. His restless work in Chungking Express remains our starting point: an appealing actor who is willing to make his characters look foolish.
Fi1m perspective
In Chungking Express (1994), Takeshi Kaneshiro lets a lonely policeman make rather too much of being lonely. As He Zhiwu, or Cop 223, he gives self-pity a restless, faintly absurd quality, with embarrassment visible beneath it. We laughed at him, then felt fond of him, because he never quite manages to make his unhappiness look dignified. That is where we rate Kaneshiro most highly: playing someone who wants to be taken seriously while giving us permission to find him funny.
Wong Kar-wai gives that performance a useful contrast in Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s Cop 663, whose loneliness seems more tiring. Kaneshiro’s restlessness helps keep the romantic wandering from becoming solemn. Yet Faye Wong’s playful energy makes the second story the more engaging one, and some passages coast on music and colour. We like Kaneshiro here without needing to pretend that everything around him works equally well.
Fallen Angels (1995) continued his collaboration with Wong, and those two films established a quirky screen presence that played against his pop-idol beginnings. His work expanded into historical and action parts alongside the romances, without settling into one character type. Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers (2004) gave him the part of Jin; Peter Chan’s The Warlords (2007) put him alongside Jet Li and Andy Lau. John Woo’s Red Cliff (2008–2009) gave him Zhuge Liang.
The effective singing sequences in Perhaps Love (2005) are another reason not to make the Wong films the whole story. Since Dragon (2011), Kaneshiro has worked more selectively, with later parts including This Is Not What I Expected (2017) and Sons of the Neon Night (2025). We would not mistake fewer appearances for better choices; a film still has to give him something worth doing. Start with Chungking Express, and allow Cop 223 a little time to get over himself.
Biography
Takeshi Kaneshiro is a Japanese actor and singer. Born on 11 October 1973 in Taipei, Taiwan, he began appearing in television commercials while at school and released his first music album in 1992 before moving into film roles.
He is known for his performances in Chungking Express (1994) as He Zhiwu / Cop 223 and Fallen Angels (1995), both directed by Wong Kar-wai. Other notable films include House of Flying Daggers (2004) as Jin, The Warlords (2007) as Jiang Wu-Yang, Red Cliff (2008) and Red Cliff II (2009) as Zhu Ge Liang, and Dragon (2011) as Xu Baijiu.
