The British Isles are an unusual setting for a samurai-inclined western, yet that’s precisely where Scottish director John Maclean chose to stage his sophomore feature, Tornado, a decade after his idiosyncratic debut, Slow West. The misty weather rolling over the hills feels fittingly atmospheric, but the execution is messy, fabricating a world littered with tangential characters and motivations, none of which appears to matter much.
Tornado throws us into the middle of a chase scene with the titular character. Tornado, played by Kōki, is sprinting across a grassy field toward a treeline. Close behind her is a young boy (Nathan Malone). All in all, it’s enough to hook you. And if that shot doesn’t pull the audience in, the next one will—the film cuts to their pursuers, led by a ruthless, gray-bearded Tim Roth as the gang leader Sugarman.
This chase sequence is, by all means, drawn out. The first 20 minutes of the film follow Tornado evading Sugarman and his funnily named gang, which includes his son, Little Sugar (Jack Lowden), and his deputy, Kitten (Rory McCann). By the time Tornado finds refuge in the strong man’s quarters of a traveling circus, we are left with a bounty of questions.
Tornado jumps into a flashback at this point. Tornado and her father, played by Takehiro Hira, travel the countryside performing samurai-inspired puppet shows. At one show, the two performers cross paths with Sugarman’s gang. This is the impetus of the chase, and, spoilers aside, we end up where we started a tad faster than one might expect. Ultimately, the flashback leaves us wanting and wondering more than before.
For a 90-minute chase film, the loose ends needed trimming. Why Sugarman’s ties to the circus ringleaders matter, or the depth of Tornado and her father’s relationship, should be clear and tightly drawn. As Tornado sprints across the countryside, the world feels smaller rather than fleshed out; characters she encounters seem meant to connect, but the film never pulls the thread taut. Visually, Tornado grips hard, and its climactic confrontations deliver adrenaline in spades, a clear homage to Akira Kurosawa’s signature blood geysers again and again. Still, in no way does this climax feel earned. R, 91 min.
Limited release in theaters
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