"Tornado" - Review

In the year 1790, across the ribbon of cold moors known as "Scotland", a young Japanese woman named Tornado (Koki) performs in a travelling puppet show with her father Fujin (Takehiro Hira), rebellious and chafing against his authority. When they cross paths with a ruthless gang of bandits led by "Sugarman" (Tim Roth), Tornado's world becomes the namesake of her name and against a backdrop none-too-removed from her family's shows, and she is forced to become a whirlwind across the landscape just to survive.

(Photo Credit: The Upcoming. What a fucking poster, man!)
John Maclean did "Slow West" a few years ago: a delightfully droll, pleasant, picturesque little surprise of a Western, and I thought he'd done more films in the meantime, but no! Hollywood is a nightmare and it has taken him 10 years to get a 2nd film released. I don't believe that this is going to get the acclaim and adoration "Slow West" did, which is fair but also a shame as I really rather liked this.
It's a lean affair, began in media reas and clocking in at 91 minutes with a flashback in the middle and a bloody, fun finale. A hybrid of a chase movie and a Samurai film, dressed up in the beautiful scenescapes of Scotland with the visual flair, colours and oddities; it is reminiscent of the Coen Brothers with its quirky humour. It could do with being a bit longer, and some of the tonal shifts never land quite as fluidly as they should (fitting, considering the setting of a travelling circus troupe), but the tone as a whole is strong: the movie feels like a mournful lament, the dying gasps and whispered sorrows of a dying man. The central arc and foreshadowing/parallels of Tornado are well done, and the cinematography and colour grading make this look closer to a storybook or an oil painting than a traditional "gritty" Western, and I really enjoy this. The finale is fun too, very chanbara in the woods