Isn’t it funny how some actors somehow appear to have one role that really defines them in the eyes of their fans and then kind of fall off the edge of the world apparently? Brian Tochi didn’t exactly go anywhere but the one role that people might be enticed to remember in is Takashi from Revenge of the Nerds, which today stands as kind of a problematic movie for a lot of people since there is a lot of material and subject matter in the movie that people find controversial. Far be it from me to say that the old movies need to be forgotten however since they were absolutely hilarious and yes, believe it or not, it was a very different time when certain things could be done, said, and gotten away with even if they weren’t right. Takashi was perhaps what you might call a very stereotypical character, but he was also a great way to round out the Lambda’s since he was one of their founding members, even if he didn’t get to be in the sequel. He did end up continuing his career though and has a long, long list of acting and voice-acting credits to his name. If you can believe it, he was the guy voicing Leonardo in the early live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, which should be enough to make you go ‘whoa’.
On top of that Brian has had a lot of minor roles throughout the years and a few that people should be able to recognize since he went on to star in a couple of Police Academy movies as well. In a sense Brian became one of the many actor that can be depended on and relied on for bit work and a lot of voice acting but never really got big enough to have much more than a modest fan base since there are a few of his roles that are known and loved by the fans but otherwise a lot of it has gone under the radar so to speak. At this point it’s likely a lot easier to talk about his time on Revenge of the Nerds since it was one of the most popular and definitely talked about movies of his career. The fact that people have found so many things wrong with it over the years isn’t too surprising, but the idea that they’ve raised such a stink about it considering all that’s changed in society and in movies is a bit confusing really. Takashi was a fun character who admittedly was taken advantage of by a few people and was stereotyped quite a bit, but he was also a very fun addition to the movie that was useful and did manage to flesh out the whole Tri-Lambs angle in the story since it did show that the Tri-Lambs were far more inclusive in their membership since they were a group of primarily white, nerdy guys that belonged to an otherwise black fraternity that took them in. Plus, they had Lamar, who was a black homosexual man and obviously Takashi, a Japanese nerd who’s even called out by another Asian man when the group goes out searching for a house to call their own.
Other than stereotyping the movie dealt with a panty raid, what some are still calling rape since Betty believed that Lewis was her boyfriend Stan when taking him into the bouncy house, and a few other things that were problematic as well. It’s very tempting to tell people that it’s a movie, not reality, and that while they’re complaining about older movies there are plenty of new movies that get away with a wide number of missteps that would, in reality, get their hackles up just as much. But somehow the things that people don’t talk about become ‘artistic expression’ whereas satire becomes ‘racist’ and ‘misogynistic’. Funny old world we live in, right? In any case Tochi and the rest of the gang admit that the movie hasn’t aged well, particularly since some people call it a toned-down version of Animal House and others just call it a waste of time. It’s hard to say why some folks are willing to watch a movie titled Call Me By Your Name but somehow can’t stomach Revenge of the Nerds and its completely satirical humor. Oh well, that’s the difference between fans.
At the very least Tochi had a good run since his net worth isn’t as high as many others but it’s still enough to allow him to enjoy a very posh lifestyle. Brian retired from acting in 2014, but it’s easy to think that he hasn’t been able to stay away from conventions and various other projects all that easily since he’s been pretty involved in the business for a number of years now.
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