Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Throughout five seasons of Lost, Asian and Asian American characters abound: Korean couple Sun and Jin Kwon (played by Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim -- who probably boasts the sexiest male build on the Island), psychic ghost-whisperer Miles Straume (Ken Leung), Dr. Pierre Chang/Marvin Candle/Edgar Halliwax (Francois Chau), and several other minor characters.

If you caught last night's Season 6 premiere, you know Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada has joined the cast on the island, playing what appears to be the leader of a group of the Others.

Sanada is a major Japanese actor, who is perhaps best known for his role in the postmodern classic Twilight Samurai. He has recently crossed over into several major western films, including Danny Boyle's Sunshine, The Last Samurai, and Speed Racer.

While Sanada's character raises more questions in the Lost series (namely, who is he?), we know one thing already: he's a martial arts Asian! Every desert isle's gotta have one of those, eventually.