Tornado

Tornado

30/5/2025 1h 31m 6.3/10

Overview

When her father's puppet samurai show gets ambushed by a notorious gang, Tornado vows to seek vengeance and forge her own destiny by stealing their ill-gotten gold.

Director

John Maclean

Top Billed Cast

Takehiro Hira

Takehiro Hira

Fujin

Tim Roth

Tim Roth

Sugarman

Jack Lowden

Jack Lowden

Little Sugar

Kōki

Kōki

Tornado

Rory McCann

Rory McCann

Kitten

Raphaël Thiéry

Raphaël Thiéry

Mint

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

2/28/2025

6/10

To be honest, I was really quite disappointed with this. It all centres around the search for some stolen gold that has been re-stolen and hidden by “Tornado”, the partner in a father/daughter Japanese puppetry show that is touring the shires of late 18th century Britain. The gold was originally acquired by “Sugar” (Tim Roth) and his gang but as they stopped to watch the show, it was re-acquired by an opportunist urchin (Nathan Malone) whilst he was being watched by “Tornado” (Kôki). When the gang discover it’s missing, all hell breaks loose and so she hides the loot and the boy in their wagon and off they go. It doesn’t take long for the men to put two and two together and they set after the slow-moving visitors and a rather dishonourable encounter ensues. Meantime, “Little Sugar” (Jack Lowden) is tired of taking orders from his old man and has plans of his own to secure the cash - and that’s bound to lead to a conflict with his no-nonsense father. So now we have a brute chasing his money, a son looking for change and a samurai-trained woman out for revenge. It has the ingredients of a good adventure. Sadly, though, she is just not a very convincing actor, there is far too much meandering around the countryside setting and re-setting the scenario and there is a real paucity of pace here. It can’t have had an huge budget, but that needn’t have mattered if the the story had taken a little longer to develop a little more depth to the characters. It’s all too episodic and though it does mix the timelines a little to break up the narrative, there are too many characters who appear then add little before we move on. It does create an overall sense of a fairly poverty-stricken and lawless rural life, but once we hit the home straight it all just takes a predictable path to it’s conclusion. Nobody is really used to full effect here and though the bleakness is conveyed well enough, the story doesn’t really deliver.

Similar Movies

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

8.5

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

1966

Live Free or Die Hard

6.6

Live Free or Die Hard

2007

Die Hard: With a Vengeance

7.3

Die Hard: With a Vengeance

1995

National Treasure

6.6

National Treasure

2004

The Man with the Golden Gun

6.5

The Man with the Golden Gun

1974

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

7.1

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

2004

My Own Private Idaho

7.1

My Own Private Idaho

1991

Bonnie and Clyde

7.5

Bonnie and Clyde

1967

Mr. Holland's Opus

7.0

Mr. Holland's Opus

1995

The Wild Child

7.0

The Wild Child

1970

My Blueberry Nights

6.4

My Blueberry Nights

2007

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

7.5

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

1972

Aces Go Places

6.7

Aces Go Places

1982

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

6.6

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

1997