'Tornado's First Trailer Threatens to Take Shudder by Storm
Jack Lowden and Koki in 'Tornado'
Lionsgate UK
Most of the time, when we talk about Film Festivals and awards bait films that come out of them, we're talking about films from major indie producers like A24 and festivals that are part of the traditional "Big Five" (Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Toronto). However, an entire slew of smaller, more recent festivals have sprung up since the turn of the century, from the London BFI Festival in October to the Glasgow Festival in Scotland in February. The latter opened its 2025 edition with the period piece film titled Tornado, about a Japanese woman who finds herself traversing the English countryside with her Samurai father's traveling show, where the two dodge some of the most ruthless cutthroat gangs and pickpockets on the road.
Tornado is the sophomore feature from director John Maclean, whose feature film debut, Slow West, arrived a decade ago in 2015; set in the mid-1800s, that film stars Michael Fassbender as a Scottish lad who crisscrosses Colorado in search of the woman he believes himself to be in love with. Like his debut, Tornado is also a period piece (set slightly earlier, in the 1790s), this time about a young woman crisscrossing the English countryside. Here, she's not searching for love but security, choosing to get it by stealing the ill-gotten gains from the local gang harassing her family.
If a Samurai in 1790s England sounds far-fetched, it's not. Speaking to Deadline at the Glasgow Festival, Maclean said, “Slow West was populated by people all over the world, and I wanted to suggest the same thing in Britain. I had read and heard a few things about samurais turning up in Spain and, a bit later, turning up in Scotland. There was a bit of an exodus of samurais because they were constantly changing positions in Japan, becoming less warriors and more guns for hire or swords for hire, and they wandered. So, I just made them wander into 1790s Britain.”
Here's the film's synopsis:
Set in 1790s Britain, 'Torando' follows the eponymous lead, 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. 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.
Tim Roth (Tin Star) stars as Sugarman, with Jack Lowden (Slow Horses) 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 rest of the supporting cast includes Joanne Whalley (Wolf Hall), Alex Macqueen (Funny Woman), Rory McCann (Game of Thrones), Douglas Russell (Lockerbie: The Search for Truth), Ian Hanmore (Mary & George), and Jamie Michie (Small Town, Big Story).
Writer-director Maclean penned the script 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 get a theatrical release in the U.S. via IFC Films in 2025, with the film following on AMC+ and Shudder on streaming.
