Almost right from the start when Tim Roth’s character Sugarman walks up a hill with his gang and casually slits the throat of one on his gang without breaking stride, you know this is a man who lets nothing and no one get in the way of his objective. And that objective is locating the Japanese woman Tornado (Koki) who has run to hide from Sugarman and his gang in a large isolated mansion in the Scottish Highlands. Just why this is all happening is explained when the film rewinds to earlier that day.
Set in 1790 Scotland Tornado is a puppeteer with her father Fujin (Takehiro Hira) and young brother performing puppet shows for a handful of locals that barely breaks into double figures – and an enviable audience figure for a Meghan Markle podcast. Her father is a samurai sword wielding homespun words of wisdom quoting man – albeit it’s the sort of worldly advice found on a supermodel’s instagram, ‘Learn Patience’ or Know when to wait’ and ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. It doesn’t last long if your morbidly obese’ – alright we made that one up but you get the picture. But when the gang, who are walking through the woods after stealing two bags of gold, pause to watch the puppet show it’s her younger brother who steals their loot. It’s that which instigates Sugarman and his gang in murderous pursuit of Tornado and her sibling. Violence is perpetrated upon anyone who gets in the gangs way all of whom have bizarre names including Lazy legs, Little Sugar, Kitten, and Squid Lips making them sound like a hellishly disfigured boyband.
Co-written and directed by John Maclean this is his first film in ten years after 2015’s ‘Slow West’. Strikingly shot this is a Scottish set samurai western making this one of the most original genre mash ups we’ll see this year and to that end Tornado is a breath of fresh air.
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Here’s the Tornado trailer…..
