'Tornado' to Touch Down on Sundance Now in August

"Tornado Season" refers to the time of year when storms that can result in funnel clouds are most prevalent. Here in the contiguous 48 states of the U.S., that's typically from early March (see also: coming in like a lion) through to the end of June, when the heat reaches a point that the wilds tend to die down. However, in Europe, Tornado Season doesn't begin until August and runs through mid-autumn. Not that Europe or the U.K. get many tornadoes (hence why Dorothy was from Kansas, not Coventry). But when they do — more frequently now as climate change continues — they usually pack a punch. That makes Tornado's forthcoming streaming premiere in August right on time. 

Most people would naturally assume a story about a Japanese-born Samurai living in the U.K. and working as a traveling puppet master in the 1790s is completely fabricated. But, as period piece TV series have been recently reminded us, it was not. Although the first Japanese immigrants were not recorded as arriving in the country until the 1830s, the Japanese feudal system was in a constant state of flux, and older warriors often left their homeland to find work as mercenaries. 

Most of them stayed in and around the Asian continent, but a few traveled further west. Although there's no official record of Japanese arrivals in the U.K. during this era, it's possible that such arrivals occurred, and that was sufficient to introduce this samurai style to the West and set it on the roads to London.

Here's Sundance Now's version of the film's synopsis:

Set in the rugged landscape of 1790s Britain, Tornado is a young and determined Japanese woman who finds herself caught in a perilous situation when she and her father’s traveling puppet Samurai show crosses paths with a gang of ruthless criminals led by Sugarman and his ambitious son Little Sugar. 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. With her father murdered by the gang and her life in grave danger, Tornado races against time to escape a violent demise and avenge her father’s death.

Tim Roth (Last King of the Cross) stars as Sugarman, with Jack Lowden (The Gold) as his son, Little Sugar. The two co-star alongside Mitsuki Kimura, known as Kōki (Touch) as the titular Tornado, and Takehiro Hira (Shōgun) as her father, Fujin. 

The supporting cast includes several PBS fan favorites, including Joanne Whalley (Wolf Hall), Alex Macqueen (Funny Woman), Rory McCann (Game of Thrones), Douglas Russell (Lockerbie: A Search for Truth), Ian Hanmore (Mary & George), and Jamie Michie (Small Town, Big Story).

This is the sophomore feature from writer-director John Maclean, whose feature film debut, Slow West, arrived in 2015; the script was penned in collaboration with his Slow West partner, Kate Leys. Executive producers include Leonora Darby, James Harris & Mark Lane for Tea Shop Productions, Joe Simpson, Simon Williams, Andy Wang & Matthew Chausse for Screen Scotland/Ashland Hill, and Scott Shooman for IFC Films/Shudder.

Tornado will premiere on Sundance Now and AMC+ on Friday, August 22, 2025.