Tornado
Set at the end of the 18th Century in a mostly desolate stretch of wilderness, Kōki stars as our titular protagonist who chooses to help a young boy (Nathan Malone) foolish enough to rob a band of ruthless outlaws, temporarily distracted by the puppet show Tornado was putting on with her father (Takehiro Hira). The puppet show showcased a bloody battle between good and evil which Tornado's own story will soon mirror as her decisions to try and keep the gold will soon cost her everything.
Greed and its consequences are at the heart of writer/director John Maclean's script which begins with Tornado already on the run from Sugarman (Tim Roth) and his band of interchangeable minions having killed her father and now on the hunt for her and the young thief in search of the band's two bags of gold. The early scenes are shown through a flashback during a short respite for the young woman before her race begins again.
The first hour of the film is largely about Tornado's survival before eventually embracing her father's samurai teachings and going on the offensive in the last half-hour of the film knocking off Sugarman's men (those who haven't already been killed by their own infighting) one by one with the type of brutal efficiency John Rambo would admire. While the drama of Tornado on the run works well, and the film is able to build and suspend the tension, I do believe the flip from survival to vengeance could have happened a bit earlier in the film. Once unleashed, the daughter of a samurai is something to behold.
Our villains sadly aren't that notable other than Roth's head baddie and Jack Lowden as the duplicitous "Little Suga." This puts the weight to carry the film on Kōki's shoulders who does so without speaking much at all aside from the flashbacks (and it's not like she's overly talkative there, either). The samurai western is largely memorable for the ambiance and feel which Maclean cultivates while making use of Robbie Ryan's cinematography and the sound design capturing the look and feel of the rustic locale, complete with our hero disappearing into the sunset and including the strong winter winds you can almost feel ripping through the screen. It's not everything it could be, but there's certainly enough worth checking out for the right audience.
Watch the trailer- Title: Tornado
- IMDb: link
