Ten years ago, John Maclean launched his directorial debut Slow West at the Sundance Film Festival, and in that 1860s Western film, the writer-director populated the story with immigrants from Ireland, Germany and Scotland who all mixed on the American frontier with Native Americans. For his second directorial effort Tornado, which opened the Glasgow Film Festival on Wednesday, the Scottish helmer applied a similar premise.
“Slow West was populated from people all over the world and I wanted to suggest the same thing in Britain,” Maclean tells Deadline of his newest film. “I had read and heard a few things about samurais turning up in Spain and, a bit later, turning up in Scotland. There was a bit of an exodus of samurais because they were changing position all the time in Japan and they were becoming less warriors and more guns for hire, or swords for hire, and they wandered. So, I just made them wander into 1790s Britain.”
Tornado stars Tim Roth, Jack Lowden and Japanese stars Kōki and Takehiro Hira (Shōgun). The film, set in the rugged landscape of 1790s Britain, follows Tornado (Kōki), a young and determined woman who finds herself caught in a perilous situation when she and her father’s (Hira) traveling puppet samurai show crosses paths with a gang of ruthless criminals led by Sugarman (Roth) and his ambitious son Little Sugar (Lowden). In an attempt to create a new life for herself, Tornado seizes the opportunity to take matters into her own hands and steal the gold from their most recent heist.
“This period in Britain was a turning point before the Industrial Revolution,” Maclean says. “There’s a strong tradition in Britain of period drama being very much about class and kings and queens but I just wanted to make something about outsiders of the time.”
It’s a project that has been a long time in the making with Maclean first writing the script for Tornado in 2017. He immersed himself in Japanese cinema, particularly the work of legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. “The thing I loved about samurai films was the build-up in the stories, and then any kind of violence is super quick and not that exploitative.”
With the script finished in 2018, the director admits getting the project off of the ground proved to be a huge challenge. “It took a long time to raise the finances,” he says. “And it took a long time to find the people that wanted to make it. I guess it was just something different, which is always trickier to make.”
Having a cast that included reputable actors such as Roth and Lowden helped, and Maclean credits their “generosity” in working on a film that predominantly hung on relative newcomer Kōki.
“They’re generous actors to say yes to this because it’s an ensemble and they all have to be under Kōki – it’s her film really,” he says. “So, to get people like Jack Lowden spending two or three days leaning against a tree in the background while I’m filming someone else, that’s extreme generosity and not every actor is interested in that.”
Tornado is produced by Leonora Darby, James Harris and Mark Lane for Tea Shop productions. Financing for the low-budget film (under $5M) was eventually secured through Ashland Hill and Screen Scotland, with Hanway Films preselling the title to Lionsgate in the UK and IFC Films and Shudder in the U.S.
“Tornado” (IFC Films, May 23)
John Macklean’s samurai-influenced survival thriller finds a young Japanese woman (Kôki), who gets caught up with criminals led by Tim Roth in 18th-century Britain. Shot on 35mm by cinematographer Robbie Ryan (“Poor Things”). +
1790 Britain before the industrial revolution started. That's interesting how it took awhile to raise the funds for the film, being more unique of a story/setting.
The trailer looks great. This is one of my most anticipated of the year. I’m a big fan of John McLean's first film Slow West (2015). I highly recommend it. I can’t believe it’s taken ten years for his second feature. IFC usually does very limited theatrical releases. I'm hoping I can see in a theater.
1790 Britain before the industrial revolution started. That's interesting how it took awhile to raise the funds for the film, being more unique of a story/setting.
1790 is around the point at which Britain, or Scotland at least, took the leap towards becoming the most modern society in the world. In some aspects. (Engineering, economics, science, medicine, philosophy, education)
There is significantly less action in this movie than I thought there'd be going into it, but it's a decent low-budget revenge western. I enjoyed it enough to probably get it for cheap if it's released on Blu-ray. I might watch Slow West now that I've seen this.
This is a slow moving film. Most of the time it just follows a gang of guys (Roth front and center) walking really fast after the girl. She stops periodically, we get a flashback scene to fill in the gaps and then it's back to the races again.
This is Not a typical samurai film if that's what you're expecting. It is a revenge film and honestly a lackluster one at that. For me it ran out of steam in the third act where it should have gone more gonzo but instead it barely manages to limp through it.
The acting was good and there were some really nicely framed shots that kept me invested. Unfortunately the payoff for the patience to get to the third act was a complete dud.
I highly doubt I could manage to watch this again.
2.5/5
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Tornado (2025)
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