Before Jack Lowden returns as River in Slow Horses season five, he's taking on a very different role in gripping new British movie Tornado, which received its world premiere as the opening movie of this year's Glasgow Film Festival.
The survival thriller is set on the British Isles in 1790 as young Japanese woman Tornado (Kōki) – who is travelling the country with her father Fujin's (Takehiro Hira) Samurai puppet show – finds herself in the crosshairs of a local gang, led by Sugarman (Tim Roth) and his son Little Sugar (Lowden).
Seeking an opportunity for a fresh start for both herself and her father, Tornado makes a fateful decision that leads to a race against time to avoid a violent demise – unless she can find a way to turn the tables on her pursuers.
Related: Best film and TV tours for 2025
Given that the movie opens with an attention-grabbing, near-wordless sequence as Tornado is already on the run from the gang, we don't want to go into too much about the how and the why.
But we can say you should expect a lean and nasty thriller that, like writer/director John Maclean's debut movie Slow West, morphs into a revival of a classic genre. Where Slow West revised the Western, Tornado does the same for the Samurai movie in its unexpected – and bloody – final act.
What to Read Next
For its first hour or so though, the movie is a lean survival thriller, punctuated with bursts of nasty violence. It's a bleak watch at times with Sugarman's gang killing anybody in their way, and Jed Kurzel's foreboding score keeps you on edge as though it's preparing you for a very unhappy ending for all involved.
Little Sugar might be the worst of the lot, a weak-willed man compensating for his daddy issues with violence. Lowden is terrific and his scenes with the always-watchable Tim Roth deepen their relationship and sell the tragedy of it, despite a streamlined script that doesn't offer depth to the supporting cast.
Related: Slow Horses star is never "too comfortable" after big character deaths
The movie instead, for the most part, favours the simple thrill of the chase and does so in a low-key fashion. Any hint of a major confrontation or dramatic fight is over before it's even started, and until the final act, the most action you get is in Fujin and Tornado's puppet show.
Kōki is a magnetic presence as Tornado though in one of her first movie roles, often with minimal dialogue. The drama comes from willing her to survive, rather than set pieces, which makes its final-act pivot into a faithful homage to classic samurai movies all the more surprising.
It's a welcome one though, as the action is superbly staged and the gory kills are cathartic after an intense build-up. You might not look at Jack Lowden the same way again, but you won't regret taking a trip to the past with Tornado.
Tornado premiered at Glasgow Film Festival and will be released in cinemas on May 23.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
