Director: John Maclean 
Starring: Tim Roth, Jack Lowden, Takehiro Hira, Joanne Whalley, Rory McCann, Alex Macqueen, Kōki
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 91 mins

Tornado is the new film by Scottish director John Maclean, 10 years since he burst on the scene with his Michael Fassbender-starring Western masterpiece, Slow West. His hotly anticipated Western-inspired follow-up is a revenge thriller set in 1790s Scotland about a young Japanese woman called Tornado (Kōki), who’s rather handy with a samurai sword. The film opens with Tornado fleeing with a small boy from a gang of highwaymen, led by the merciless Sugarman (Tim Roth), who suspect her of stealing their gold. After a tense stakeout in a mansion, we head into a flashback and learn how these characters came to be in this cat-and-mouse situation, before said revenge is enacted. It’s a simple set-up but like Slow West, this is lean and mean and only clocks in at an economical 91 minutes. Was Tornado worth the 10 year wait?

The answer is a resounding yes, and Tornado has a near-perfect, hypnotic first half. Just like Slow West, Maclean transposes genre elements into a setting you wouldn’t expect and Robbie Ryan’s cinematography is beautiful, giving the lawless landscapes a mythic quality. The second half of Tornado doesn’t quite work quite as well because it starts to introduce a whole host of characters without much development, but it’s still a very entertaining time, especially once we reach the inevitable bloodshed.

There’s some brilliant performances here, with Kōki the standout in the lead role. You wouldn’t know she originated as a Japanese model and songwriter, and manages to really sell the protagonist through her body language – there isn’t masses of dialogue. This is also true of Tim Roth, who skilfully underplays the world-weary villain in another role that’s sparse of speech. There’s entertaining turns too from Jack Lowden as the wickedly evil Little Sugar, Sugarman’s son, and both Rory McCann and Alex Macqueen always elevate anything they star in. The film’s complimented by a brilliant Jed Kurzel score (his Slow West score was magnificent) that’s full of memorable themes that add tension or emotion to the events on-screen.

All in, while Tornado isn’t quite as assured a film as Slow West, this sophomore effort still wears Maclean’s fingerprints with his deconstructive, barebones yet atmospheric style – it’s very clear this is by the same filmmaker. That first half in particular shines and I’m very much looking forward to rewatching Tornado again.