An off-kilter male melodrama, Forbidden Paths allows Hayakawa to play a chivalrous hero caught up in the contradictions of love and loyalty. Imagine Hayakawa's art collector from The Cheat reborn as Sato, assistant to a wealthy San Francisco importer of Japanese art, and redeemed by a new sense of virtue. The accomplished Sato, whose “grateful devotion to his employer burns like a steady flame,” is charged with protecting the older man's daughter Mildred (Vivian Martin). When romantic complications involving a Mexican temptress threaten Mildred's happiness, in the hierarchy of race relations the restrained Japanese emerges as civilized hero, ennobled by an extreme sacrifice. As Daisuke Miyao documents in his book, an emphasis upon the refinement of Japanese culture was part of the Lasky Company's deliberate strategy in creating Hayakawa's star image. Hayakawa's sensitive performance as Sato shows how this alien actor won the hearts of American women, even as his role cheats him of that fulfillment on screen.