Tornado (15)

In 1790s Britain, 16-year-old Tornado travels around the country in a caravan with her samurai father Fujin, performing bloodthirsty puppet shows to impoverished communities for a few coins in a hat. After one windswept performance, Tornado steals two bags of gold from an opportunistic rapscallion, who has, in turn, pilfered the booty from small-time criminal Little Sugar and his distracted underlings. Little Sugar's venomous, Fagin-esque father Sugarman controls the gang and gives chase.

LondonNet Film Review

Tornado (15) Film Review from LondonNet

A storm rages in 1790s Britain in a genre-bending, multicultural period romp written and directed by John Maclean, which binds a revenge western to a sword-wielding samurai action thriller against a backdrop of stunning Scottish locations including Arniston House, Newhall Estate and North Esk Reservoir. Japanese fashion model and songwriter Koki confidently inhabits the title role of a wilfully rebellious teenager, who is determined to wriggle free from her overly protective father. “I’m not little anymore,” she insists. “Well, you’ll always be little to me,” he tenderly responds, silently hoping his daughter with cling onto her childhood innocence a little longer…

Tornado regrets a decision to pursue her own destiny in Maclean’s relentlessly downbeat picture, which treats windswept landscapes as a supporting character to betrayal and bloodshed. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who worked with Maclean on the 2015 film Slow West, allows us to feel every squelch of sodden ground and icy blast of wind across these unforgiving highlands. Another returning collaborator, composer Jed Kurzel, strikes ominous chords that trot between east and west. Joanne Whalley materialises in an increasingly vicious second act with one logical outcome, but for extended periods, the eponymous heroine is the only female character on screen, buttressed by men of dishonour who fatally underestimate her tender years and slight stature.

Sixteen-year-old Tornado (Koki) travels around the country in a caravan with her samurai father Fujin (Takehiro Hira), performing bloodthirsty puppet shows to impoverished communities for a few coins in a hat. After one windswept performance, Tornado steals two bags of gold from an opportunistic rapscallion (Nathan Malone), who has, in turn, pilfered the booty from small-time criminal Little Sugar (Jack Lowden) and his distracted underlings. Little Sugar’s venomous, Fagin-esque father Sugarman (Tim Roth) controls the gang and he dispatches henchmen Archer (Jamie Michie), Kitten (Rory McCann), Lazy Legs (Douglass Russell) and Squid Lips (Jack Morris) to retrieve the gold from Tornado using lethal force, if necessary.

Armed with a samurai sword and her wits, the plucky teenager evades capture by seeking sanctuary in the country house of a pompous Laird (Alex Macqueen). Meanwhile, Little Sugar senses an opportunity to double-cross his father and line his pockets, presuming he can apprehend the teenage fugitive before other gang members and prevent her from exposing his betrayal.

Tornado promises violent displacement and the second act of Maclean’s picture delivers on that front with blades and snarling brutality. Roth and Lowden compete for audible boos as Koki embraces her protagonist’s petulance in the eye of a storm that she summoned. Production design and costumes share an earthy colour palette to reflect law and disorder in a grimy, untamed wilderness where only the brave and audacious survive.

– Kim Hu