The crossover between the samurai and the western genres is one of the biggest and most important intersections in cinema history. Every movie buff knows that westerns influenced samurai movies, which inspired westerns, which influenced the samurai genre to evolve, with the back-and-forth repeating for several more cycles.Tornado, a new action thriller directed byJohn Maclean, is a love letter to both genres as it blends the tropes, conventions, and iconography of samurai and western movies to create a truly unique amalgamation. As you’d then expect, Maclean was inspired by some true classics, as well as some lesser-known gems of both genres.
John Maclean sat down with MovieWeb’sGeorge Edelmanto discuss his new feature,Tornado. The film held its world premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival in February of this year, and is set for a wider theatrical release on June 13.Tornadois far from Maclean’s first western — 2015’sSlow West, starring Michael Fassbender — but he had to do a deep dive into the samurai genre for his new movie. “My first samurai films that I got into were the bloodier ones and the sort of 70s ones likeLady Snowblood,” Maclean began, referencing the brutal 1973 revenge thriller directed by Toshiya Fujita.
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After that, Maclean went where every samurai genre fan had to venture to at some point: the works of Akira Kurosawa. “I started going back and discovering Kurosawa,” he continued. “And then, and then really going on a sort of deep dive with research forTornadoand watching everything from really, really early samurai films from the 30s and 40s right the way through to great, lesser-known ones, likeSword of Doom, which I loved.”
‘Tornado’ Blends Western & Samurai Movies Into An Epic Action Hybrid
Tornadowears its samurai and western influences on its sleeve. The film follows the titular young woman as she seeks revenge against a local gang that raided her father’s puppet show, by stealing their stash of gold. The movie features a star-studded cast, which includes Jack Lowden (Slow Horses), Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction), Rory McCan (Game of Thrones), Joanne Whalley (Willow), and Takehiro Hira (Shogun), with the eponymous samurai heroine being played by Kôki.
Just like how the samurai andwestern genrescreated a perpetual cycle of influence, John Maclean’s research into samurai movies inevitably led him to westerns, which led him back to samurai films. “Then, reading up about it all, and especially reading about Kurosawa, you realize that neither genre (Western or Samurai) came first,” he explained. “It was Kurosawa being influenced by John Ford, Sergio Leone being influenced by Kurosawa, you know, and this kind of back and forth.”
Tornadotakes the best of both genres and smashes them together into one action movie, akin to 1971’sRed Sun, starring Charles Bronson and Toshirō Mifune. Roth leads a band of savage cowboy outlaws who roam the plains on horseback, while Takehiro Hira’s puppet master is a nod to traditional Bunraku theater, not to mention the epic katana vs pistol showdowns that happen in the movie.
