I’ve seen my share of female revenge thrillers in the past. Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2, Revenge and Promising Young Woman come to mind. Tornado is a bit different from most female revenge thrillers. It doesn’t start out as that kind of film but eventually transitions into that. That is what is so interesting about this film. It’s like it’s two movies in one. The main character is very engaging as well. Following her story made this film worthwhile in the end. The writer/ director John McClean mixed a couple of things together. 

Tornado (Koki) is a teenage Japanese girl who is on the run from a group of cutthroat men led by Sugarman (Tim Roth). They are after her because she stole something very valuable from them. If I were them, I’d chase her down through the British Isles as well. Like most teenage girls, even ones from 1790, she is a bit selfish until a tragedy happens that changes her whole outlook on life. She realizes she has a new mission, and that’s a bloody revenge scheme.

One thing I noticed about this film for that time in history there was only one horse being used, which was attached to a wagon that belonged to Tornado and her father Fugin (Takehiro Hira) who ran a puppet show out of that wagon. They also lived there as well. That’s not what I was getting at, though. The gang led by Roth’s character walked everywhere. They never had any means of transportation, which was pretty odd to me. And to add to that, they seemed to get everywhere very quickly. Who walks that fast white wearing heavy clothing like they had? That was a strange aspect of the story.

Koki is an actress I wast familiar with before her role in  this film. She was in a movie called  Touch that came out last year that i loved. I saw her in this movie and almost didn’t recognize her. She looks a bit different this time around. She has a more disheveled look about her.  She’s a bit scruffy looking. She didn’t look like much of a threat to this man and his crew until she was, but they didn’t realize she was going to be as much of a pain to deal with. She’s very advantageous when she has to be, but her cunning and quick reactions, which she got from her father, come back to help her in the end quite well. The martial arts skills learned from her father came in handy and provided a blend of different styles from the first half of the movie.

This movie has a distinct look about it. The fact that it took place in the late 1700s is part of that. The British Isles play a big part in that. They are a beautiful setting, but I’ve seen them look much better in other movies of this ilk. There’s a murky, dank foggy look to the movie. That’s probably because of the time of year and day it was filmed in. That aspect of the production gave it a depressing vibe. It felt dark in tone and feel. The ending was the result of that, but it’s a time and place I don’t think I’d like to live in.  This movie gave me a weird feeling from beginning to end. I don’t know if that’s what the filmmaker was intending, though.

Tornado was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The ending and third act was very rewarding for me as a film fan. The revenge aspect proved to be the best part of the story and, in the end, the film. The first two acts were a bit slower even though two key things happened in them. All the walking around felt like a drudgery to me. It made things drag quite a bit.  Koki was an engaging young character to follow along with for an hour and a half. Tim Roth proved to be a good villain, but not as much as many others I’ve seen in the past. The look of the movie wasn’t great either. Overall, this was a good movie, but not a great one. I wished it were the latter.

3 stars

Dan Skip Allen