Directed By John Maclean

Starring – Koki, Tim Roth, Jack Lowden

The Plot – In the rugged terrain of 1790s Britain, Tornado (Kôki), a fierce young Japanese woman, faces the ultimate test of survival when her father’s puppet samurai show is ambushed by a notorious gang led by the ruthless Sugarman (Roth) and his cunning son, Little Sugar (Lowden). After witnessing her father’s brutal murder, Tornado vows to reclaim her life and seek vengeance by stealing the gang’s ill-gotten gold. With her father’s samurai training as her weapon, she embarks on a heart-pounding quest filled with intense action, cunning strategy, and relentless pursuit. As she navigates the treacherous landscape, Tornado must outsmart the criminals hunting her down while leaving a trail of revenge in her wake.

Rated R for strong violence, and adult language.

Tornado – Official Trailer

POSITIVES

Without wasting a single solitary second of the movie’s tight 90-minute runtime, the storytelling thrusts us directly in the path of devastation, with our titular protagonist evading her overwhelming opposition, setting a precedent for the exploration to follow, which beats to a consistency of this film developing quickly and persistently to the interpretation of its audience. This urgency to narrative brings with it some unavoidable problems in character development and conflict that eventually surmise towards its second half, but in the immediate seems to trim all of the excessive fat and slowburn sentiments to Westerns that typically alienate half of their audience, all the while fleshing out the lawlessness and ferocity of the distinct setting, which immerses the audience within the elements of production that breed an isolation factor and helplessness to Tornado’s plight. In particular, the volume and editing of the movie’s sound design are especially enthralling here, articulating not only a chilling unforgiveness in overhanging wind that seems to echo the sentiments of those characters involved in such a conflict, but also a razor sharp conveyance of detail in the slashes and gashes that come with Tornado’s unrelenting vengeance, and considering the visuals stand gravely in the shadow of the movie’s audible sensibilities, it’s really one of those films that you can close your eyes and picture effectively, as a result of its detailed definition, allowing us to feel every crushing blow as if they were penetrating our flesh. As for Maclean’s direction, this is his much anticipated follow-up to 2015’s “Slow West”, and while his guiding hand seems to duplicate the urgencies and overwhelming vulnerabilities of his fleshing out of the intended environmental impulses, his sophomore effort here unearths a far more satisfying artistic merit to the presentation that mirrors the iconography of Samurai movies, with immaculate framing in the correspondence to natural lighting that were constantly a pleasure to interpret. As the movie’s second half allows Tornado to come more into the warrior that she was destined to be, with tangible confidence to her continuous persistence, it allows Maclean the freedom to pit the camera towards the mystique of the ominousness she brings to anyone sent to stop her, and between hillside sunsets beckoning auburn coloring, and versatility in the way Maclean commands the capture to how Tornado weaves supernaturally in and out of focus, the director imbeds some artistic flare to the air of his presentation, and it’s the one aspect of the movie’s production that doesn’t feel limited by its minimal 5 million dollar budget. There’s also plenty to commend in terms of performances, as Koki and Tim Roth cement no shortage of personality or angst to their respective portrayals, in turn attaining so much screen presence to characters who are written so unfortunately thin. This is especially the case for Koki, who not only effortlessly conjures the duality of her portrayal, before and after this devastating tragedy, but also has awareness and connection to the camera in ways that transcend her inexperience as an actress, allowing her boldly cold and piercing eyes during close-ups the ability to stab soul-crushing trauma to the audience’s empathy, in turn enacting a thunderously immense step forward for her single biggest role to date. As the movie’s antagonist, Roth revels in the savagery and crudeness of his character’s lack of candor, but also provides a versatility in conscience that periodically halts his character’s onslaught to convey the fear and regret rode thoroughly by the character, and while this is ultimately Koki’s showcase for the taking, any compelling protagonist is only as good as the menace of their opposition, a gameplan that Roth cements in spades by putting this titular character through the ringer or resistance.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, “Tornado” is a film that deserves better, but one that is ultimately hindered by the air of its inconsistent execution that seems to repeatedly convey the limitations of both its surface level script and budget, which come to constantly define it. Revenge films are typically easy sells to me, especially in western structure, but Maclean’s failure to implement a compelling personality or commanding deviations in the expansion of the characters, really kept me from investing to the proceedings on an emotional level, especially considering the story moves at such an abrupt pace that keeps stakes or circumstances from ever properly registering. Flatly underdeveloped characters are one thing, but a lack of time to live and experience their various dilemmas is unforgiveable, and while Tornado eventually becomes this force to be reckoned with, I never felt like I got a grasp on who she was before the tragedy that transformed her, and it makes some of her actions during the film’s first half to fall flat with logic, on account of knowing and connecting so thoroughly with her. The script also makes the strange decision to start in the present before deviating for twenty-five minutes to the past, and as to where this would normally summon meaning in the depths of the established conflict, the pursuit here could be easily interpreted in a matter of minutes alongside it, with the flashback adding very little value or meaning for why the film was structured this way, which feels undeniably that it would work better in playing to real time developments. As for budgetary woes, the film’s violence is never impactful or expressive enough to capitalize on the limitless impulses of Tornado’s vengeance, with some cutting away with intrusive editing, while others are enacted from such a grave distance that leaves more to be desired from the depiction. The problem here is that the filmmaking creates barriers so that the production doesn’t have to go overboard with squirting blood or overwhelming macabre, and it undercuts the dramatics and magnitude of these sequences so apparently, as a result, especially in comparison to the one sequence near the movie’s end that sees Tornado tangle with five different assassins. This is the time when the production actually does showcase some brief-but-mesmerizing effects work, and the results convey meaningful momentum amid the payoffs that give us a glimpse into the movie we ultimately could’ve gotten if this one wasn’t so creatively hindered by off-screen intrusions that often get the better of it. The blows to the movie’s integrity doesn’t stop there, however, as Maclean’s direction also doesn’t take enough chances with the stylish identity of his filmmaking, ideally within the confines of the movements of the lens, which stay surprisingly grounded during conflicts calling for velocity. This depiction not only undercuts the momentum of the aforementioned pocketed conflicts, but also keeps “Tornado” from finding a uniqueness of its own to deviate away from the Kurosawa or Leone films that it borrows so frequently from, leaving this film thirsty for signature style to carry its surface level substance. Finally, while the third act is easily the highlight of the movie for me, the ending left slightly more to be desired, particularly with the resolution to the movie’s major conflict, which is executed as such an afterthought of unmemorable. While I understand the winning character’s intention in their movements, it doesn’t exactly do anything rewarding in the prolonged patience of the audience, and for my money more definition and punctuated emphasis on the impact of the resolution was needed to summon one final blow to take this film to passable territory.

OVERALL
“Tornado” effectively registers the blistering brutality of 18th-century Britain, with Maclean’s tale of vengeance concocting a pervasive savagery that compellingly never relents, however its thinly written characters, dry executions, and underwhelming ending ultimately come to seal its unfortunate fate as a mediocre western defined by off-screen limitations. While Koki’s breakthrough turn conjures all of the annoyances and growth of coming-of-age adolescence, the film surrounding her immense efforts collapse directly on top of her, leaving a visually stunning but superficial path of devastation that levels nearly everything constructive in its wake

My Grade: 5.7 or D