In The Cheat (1915), Hishuru Tori (Sessue Hayakawa) is a sadistic Japanese sexual predator interested in Edith Hardy (Fannie Ward), an American housewife.

Although superficially Westernized, Tori's sexual sadism reflects his true identity as an Asian.  In being "brutal and cultivated, wealthy and base, cultured and barbaric, Tori embodies the contradictory qualities Americans associate with Japan".

The story initially presents Tori as an "asexual" man associating among the high society of Long Island. Once Edith is in his private study, decorated with Japanese art, Tori is a man of "brooding, implicitly sadistic sexuality".

Before Tori attempts his rape-seduction of Edith, the story implies she corresponds his sexual interest. The commercial success of The Cheat (1915) was ensured by Sessue Hayakawa, a male sex symbol of that time; a sexual threat to the WASP racial hierarchy in 1915.