If Satoshi Tsumabuki is known to western audiences at all, it's for the word 'go' - the only thing he gets to say in last year's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which has been his only appearance so far in a Hollywood production. And a brief appearance it is, too. Sashaying through a fluorescent-lit Tokyo car park, he gestures to two scantily-clad young women in the crowd (who respond by saying 'ready' and 'set') before he says his line. Then two cars zoom past him in the first of the film's many illicit motor races.
A cameo it may be (the end credits have him playing the role of 'Exceedingly Hand- some Guy'), but Tsumabuki's appearance is a departure in more ways than one. Not only is it his first foray into non-Japanese filmmaking - the film, set in Tokyo, was made with US funding and crew - but it also marks a change of image. Wearing a swanky suit and a knowing leer, the actor looks miles away from his better known role as the embodiment of youthful cheer and wide- eyed earnestness.
Now working with director Akihito Shiota, Tsumabuki - who also sings and plays bass in the band Basking Lite - has expanded his repertoire by playing a grim, vengeful swordsman in Dororo. An adaptation of a manga story by Astro Boy animator Osamu Tezuka, the film follows Tsumabuki's character, Hyakkimaru, as he charges through a feudal landscape hunting 48 evil deities who received his body parts in a Faustian deal with his warlord father.
Although predominantly an effects-laden fable, Dororo (which also stars Kou Shibasaki as the titular character, an impish thief who accompanies Hyakkimaru on his travels) requires much more acting than merely looking sullen. And there are plenty of action scenes - a first for the 26-year-old, who, perhaps not surprisingly, has scant experience of fighting imaginary monsters while suspended high above the ground.
'As the action choreography team aren't from Japan I couldn't really try out the moves myself before shooting began,' says Tsumabuki during a visit to Hong Kong last week, referring to the film's action designer Ching Siu-tung.
'It's when I arrived in New Zealand that I got to train myself, which I did for a week, rehearsing three of four sets of movements. But it's only when I got on set that I could deal with the real thing.'
Tsumabuki raised eyebrows at the film's premiere on Sunday when he greeted several local guests in Putonghua - he stuck with the tried-and-tested ni hao ma ('How are you?'). He says he tried to learn a few phrases to build a rapport with his Chinese crew members.