| Kato | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bruce Lee as Kato | |
| Publication information | |
| First appearance | The Green Hornet (1936) |
| Created by | Fran Striker |
| In-story information | |
| Partnerships | Green Hornet |
| Supporting character of | Mulan Kato (daughter) |
| Abilities | Master martial artist Automotive engineering expert Kung-fu[1] Jiujitsu[2] Judo[3] |
Kato[a] is a fictional character fromThe Green Hornet franchise. This character has appeared with theGreen Hornet in radio, film, television, book and comic book versions. Kato is the Green Hornet's crime-fighting sidekick, and Britt Reid's manservant in civilian life, and has been played by a number of actors. On radio, Kato was initially played by Raymond Hayashi, then Roland Parker who had the role for most of the run, and in the later years Mickey Tolan and Paul Carnegie.[4]Keye Luke took the role in the movie serials, and in thetelevision series, he was portrayed byBruce Lee.Jay Chou played Kato in the 2011Green Hornet film.
Kato isBritt Reid's valet, who doubles as The Green Hornet'smasked driver and partner to help him in his vigilante adventures, disguised as the activities of a racketeer and his chauffeur/bodyguard/enforcer. According to the storyline, years before the events depicted in the series, Britt Reid saved Kato's life while traveling in the Far East. Depending on the version of the story, this prompts Kato to become Reid's assistant or friend. In the anthology book,The Green Hornet Chronicles fromMoonstone Books, authorRichard Dean Starr's story "Nothing Gold Can Stay: An Origin Story of Kato" explores the character's background and how he ends up living in America, suggesting that Kato met Britt Reid on a later trip back to his homeland while in search of his mother.
George W. Trendle, the owner of radio station WXYZ in Michigan first created and produced "The Green Hornet" show in 1936, with the scripts being written byFran Striker. The show became so popular it ran for nearly two decades and spun off at least two films. This was Trendle and Striker's second big radio hit; their first was "TheLone Ranger".
In the 1936 premiere of the radio program, Kato was presented as being Japanese. By 1939, theinvasion of China by theEmpire of Japan made this bad for public relations, and from that year until 1945 "Britt Reid's Japanese valet" in the show's opening was then simply identified by the announcer as his "faithful valet".[citation needed] The first ofUniversal's two movie serials, produced in 1939 but not released to theaters until early 1940, referred in passing to Kato being "aKorean". By 1941, Kato had begun to be referred to asFilipino.[5] In the comics published by Harvey Comics, Kato was also described as Filipino. A long-standing, but false, urban legend maintained that the switch from one to the other occurred immediately after the 1941 bombing ofPearl Harbor. In serials, Kato was played by Chinese-bornAmerican actorKeye Luke.[6] In the 2011 film, Kato (played by TaiwaneseJay Chou) tells Britt Reid that he was born in the Chinese city ofShanghai; Reid replies by saying that he "love[s] Japan".
In several versions of the story, Kato is also amechanic,[2] with the creations of both the special automobile, the Black Beauty, and the Hornet's trademark sleeping gas and the gun that delivers it attributed to him. In the TV series, Kato (portrayed byBruce Lee) is not at all a mechanic but a professional servant, a highly skilled driver, and a master of the art of war. In the television series, he also becomes an expert in martial arts, which was implied in the first film serial with his use of a tranquilizing"chop" to the back of a thug's neck. InThe Green Hornet Strikes! of theBig Little Book series, published in 1940, it is said that Kato was a practitioner ofjiujitsu,[2]in the Helnit comics, Britt Reid said that she learned jiujitsu from Kato.[7] In the Harvey Comics, Kato shows knowledge ofjudo.[3] The comic book published byGold Key Comics says that the Kato in the TV series practicedkung fu.[8]
The televised series of "The Green Hornet" was created and produced by William Dozier, the owner of Greenway Productions, for ABC. It ran from September 1966 to March 1967 and was then canceled after that one season. Van Williams played the Green Hornet andBruce Lee played Kato. Dozier was also the creator of the more popular "Batman" television series. Even though he had the Green Hornet and Kato appear on "Batman" three times, they never acquired a large audience.
It was due in part toBruce Lee's portrayal of this character that the Green Hornet became more well-known, and that martial arts became more popular in the United States in the 1960s.[9] Indeed, Lee refused to follow the American director's expectation of fisticuff fights and insisted that he be allowed to use his martial arts skills.[10] They became so popular with the audience that Van Williams, who played the Green Hornet, asked to be taught some moves. In a crossover episode ofBatman from the same time and companies, Kato has a battle withRobin that ends in a draw (the same thing happens simultaneously with their senior partners). This was in part because Lee refused to participate in a fight that showed Asian-style martial arts being defeated; the original script had the Green Hornet and Kato being beaten by Batman and Robin. The popular impression Lee made at the time is demonstrated by one of the TV series tie-in coloring books produced by Watkins & Strathmore. It is titledKato's Revenge Featuring the Green Hornet.[11]The Green Hornet's success in Hong Kong, where it was popularly known asThe Kato Show, led to Lee starring in thefeature films that would make him a pop culture icon. This show launched Bruce Lee's adult television and film career.
AllGreen Hornet comic book adaptations have included Kato. These were produced byHelnit (laterHolyoke),Harvey,Dell and, tied into the television version,Gold Key. Beginning in1989 one, published byNOW Comics, established a continuity between the different versions of the story. In this comic, the TV/Bruce Lee version of Kato is the son of the Kato from the radio stories and has the given name Hayashi as an homage to the character's first radio actor.[12]
The comic also establishes a new Kato, a much younger half-sister of the television-based character, Mishi. This female Kato also insists on being treated as the Hornet's full partner rather than a sidekick. However, the Green Hornet, Inc., soon withdrew approval and this character was replaced with the 1960s version after Vol. 1, #10.[13] Her removal was explained by having the Kato family company, Nippon Today, needing her automotive designing services at its Zurich, Switzerland facility. Mishi returns in Volume 2, appearing sporadically in the new costumed identity of the Crimson Wasp, on a vendetta against the criminal, Johnny Dollar. She eventually reveals (inThe Green Hornet Vol. 2, #s 12 & 13, August & September 1992) that he had been an embezzling executive at the Swiss plant, whose actions she unwittingly began to expose. Consequently, he had murdered her fiancé and his daughter in an attack that also caused the unknowingly pregnant Mishi, the main target, to miscarry.
In #34, July 1994 issue of that run, she appears in her "Hornet's partner" guise one additional time, as the masked Paul Reid attends a gangland meeting; the rules stated that each "boss" is allowed two "boys". During this period, Hayashi becomes romantically involved with District Attorney Diana Reid, daughter of the original Hornet, who even thinks for a while that she conceived his child. In the final issue, Diana discusses their wedding plans with Mishi. In the last two issues, yet another Kato, a nephew to both of these named Kono, is brought in to allow the aging Hayashi to retire from crime-fighting, but the publisher's ceasing of operations prevents much of him being seen. The Bruce Lee-based Kato is also featured in two of his own spin-off miniseries, written byMike Baron. The first has him defending a Chinese temple, where he studiedkung fu, from the Communist government, while in the second he takes the job of bodyguarding a heroin-addicted rock star. A third solo adventure, also by Baron, was announced and promoted first as another miniseries, then as a graphic novel (now subtitled "Dragons in Eden"), but was left unpublished when NOW folded. The line featured one other version of the character.
The three-issue mini-seriesThe Green Hornet: Dark Tomorrow (June–August 1993) is set approximately one hundred years in the future, and has an Asian-American Green Hornet, real name Clayton Reid, who is corrupted by power and truly becomes the crime boss he is supposed to only pretend to be, fighting a Caucasian Kato. Beyond the reversal of ethnicities, the latter adds the claim that he and the future Hornet are cousins, and the art's depiction of this Hornet's unnamed paternal grandparents resembles Paul Reid and Mishi Kato. Although the future Kato is not further identified here, a later "Reid/Kato Family Trees" feature (inThe Green Hornet, Vol. 2, #26, October 1993) gives him the first name Luke.
This comic book incarnation gives a degree of official status to a long-standing error about the character, that in hismasked identity he is known as Kato. The name is restricted to his private persona in the original radio series, the two movie serials, and most of the television version (there are two slips in this last medium, one on theBatman appearance, the other in the last filmed episode of theHornet series itself, "Invasion from Outer Space, Part 2"; this story is well out of sync with the rest of the run, and the writer, director, and even the line producer are people with no other credits on the program). But the NOW comic version made a big point of having the masked assistants called Kato, with the woman at one early point telling the equally new Hornet during their first adventure, "While I'm in this funky get-up, call me Kato. It's part of the tradition".[14]
In theKevin Smith's 2010 revamp of the continuity, Kato is depicted, in modern times, as the elderly but still physically fit valet of the late Britt Reid, killed by a yakuza mobster going by theBlack Hornet sobriquet. The elder Kato, in this version a Japanese, forced to act Filipino to avoid the suspicions and the racist charges against his people during WWII, retires his identity along with Britt Reid, and both men decide to devote themselves to their families, respectively raising their offspring Britt Reid Jr. and Mulan Kato.
After Britt Reid's death, Kato returns in America with Mulan, now the second Kato, to act out theSecret Testament of Britt Reid Sr., who wished, in the event of his death, Kato to destroy every Green Hornet paraphernalia still in his possession and whisk Britt Reid Jr. to Japan, for his safety. However, both offspring refuse Reid's and Kato's will: Mulan Kato, now clad in a close variation of her father's original outfit, storms off to confront the Yakuza, and Britt Reid Jr. manages to steal a Green Hornet costume to help her, despite having little training on his own.[15]
As the new Kato, Mulan is a strong, physically fit, silent warrior woman, able to perform amazing feats with uncanny strength and precision.[16] Despite having been shown, in her late teens, as a peppy, lively, cheerysocial butterfly,[17] the adult Mulan Kato is a darker, brooding character who never speaks (despite physically able to do so, Mulan prefers speaking as little as she can to prevent the much talkative Britt Reid Jr., and seemingly everyone else, from talking back[18]) and shows little, if no interest at all, for any form of socialization, a thing that seems to distress the second Green Hornet, every bit the suave socialite his father was.
In addition, the limited seriesGreen Hornet: Parallel Lives by writer Jai Nitz, served as a prequel to the2011 Green Hornet film, exploring the backstory for the film's version of Kato.[19]
In 2013, an eight-issue miniseries calledMasks brought together famous heroes from the pulp era. It starsThe Shadow, the Green Hornet, Kato,The Spider andZorro, and was written byChris Roberson with art byAlex Ross andDennis Calero.[20]
In a 2018 series written byAmy Chu, Mulan Kato becomes the Green Hornet after Britt Reid Jr. mysteriously disappears.
The Green Hornet was adapted into twomovie serials, 1940'sThe Green Hornet and, in 1941,The Green Hornet Strikes Again![21] Disliking the treatmentRepublic gaveThe Lone Ranger intwo serials,George W. Trendle took his property toUniversal Pictures, and was much happier with the results. The first serial, titled simplyThe Green Hornet (1940), starsGordon Jones in the title role, albeit dubbed by original radio HornetAl Hodge whenever the hero's mask was in place, whileThe Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1941) starsWarren Hull.Keye Luke, who played the "Number One Son" in theCharlie Chan films, plays Kato in both. Also starring in both serials areAnne Nagel as Lenore Case, Britt Reid's secretary, andWade Boteler as Mike Axford, a reporter for theDaily Sentinel, the newspaper that Reid owns and publishes.Ford Beebe directed both serials, partnered byRay Taylor onThe Green Hornet andJohn Rawlins onThe Green Hornet Strikes Again!, withGeorge H. Plympton andBasil Dickey contributing to the screenplays for both serials.The Green Hornet runs for 13 chapters whileThe Green Hornet Strikes Again! has 15 installments, with the Hornet and Kato smashing a different racket in each chapter. In each serial, they are all linked to a single major crime syndicate which is itself put out of business in the finale, while the radio program had the various rackets completely independent of each other.
A 10-minute 2006 Frenchshort film titledLe frelon vert is based on the Green Hornet.[22]
Sony Pictures announced plans for a feature film of the superhero in 2008. Released on January 14, 2011,[23] the film starredSeth Rogen, who took on writing duties along withSuperbad co-writerEvan Goldberg.Stephen Chow had originally signed to play Kato,[24] but then dropped out.[25] Taiwanese actorJay Chou replaced Chow as Kato for the film.[26] In this version, Kato is Chinese and grew up as a poor runaway from his orphanage in Shanghai. He was originally employed by Britt Reid's father James as a car mechanic (also making his coffee with a specially designed machine he had created for the purpose) before joining Britt on the steps that lead to him becoming the Green Hornet as Britt concluded that they had both been wasting their potential. Kato's martial art skills in this version of the series are so exceptional that he claims that time literally slows down for him when he gets an adrenaline rush in a dangerous situation, as well as his traditional role as mechanic and driver. Although he and Britt have a temporary falling-out when they argue over their respective importance to the "Green Hornet" concept – Kato acting as the actual action man of the Hornet while Britt is the public face as Kato is too fast for any cameras to see him – they patch up their differences in time to destroy the gang of crime lord Chudnofsky.
In 2016,Paramount Pictures andChernin Entertainment acquired the rights to The Green Hornet and started preliminary work on developing a reboot withGavin O'Connor attached to produce and direct the film andSean O'Keefe as writer.[27] In 2020,Amasia Entertainment has gained the rights of the Green Hornet[28] and officially teamed withUniversal Pictures for the reboot titledGreen Hornet and Kato.[29]
Kato appears inThe Green Hornet: Wheels of Justice (2010) foriPhone, based on the film.[30]
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