I admit to coming to this film with expectations
that did not pan out. That left me feeling a tad disappointed. A blurb I
read made me think this was going to be a Lady Snowblood type film set in
the West. A young Japanese girl in Scotland revenges her father with a samurai
sword. Well, yes eventually but it takes a very long time to get there and
much of the film is instead panoramic scenes of the wind-swept vistas of
the Scottish Lowlands. It is beautifully shot by Robbie Ryan making it look
desolate and gloomy. Forbidding. The setting as the film announces at the
beginning is 1790 in the British Isles. But little of the film feels very
authentic to that. John Maclean appears to be attempting to direct a homage
to Japanese wandering Chanbara films and I appreciate that but it sinks in
its own mood of torpor. Everyone looks lethargic and unexpressive as they
trudge through the endless landscape.
It begins with a group of unkempt men chasing
after a Japanese girl and a young white boy through the woods and fields.
They seem in no hurry as they walk after them. The boy and girl are not together
and are frantically running. Initially, I think this is one of those films
of men hunting people. But a flashback sets it. The girl is named Tornado
played by Japanese actress/singer/model Kôki. She and her father Fujin
(Takehiro Hira) perform a travelling puppet show of samurais. In the show,
when one puppet cuts off the head of the other, a fountain of blood spurts
out in true samurai movie fashion. It seems that he was once a Samurai but
why is he in Scotland doing a puppet show? And where did the crowd of onlookers
come from? There is no sign of habitation anywhere other than the large house
of the Laird. Fujin also teaches his daughter the way of the Samurai though
she complains that it is boring.
This gang of scruffy hooligans are armed
with one musket pistol, one bow and arrow and otherwise swords. They have
just robbed two heavy bags of gold from a church and are on the run. They
are headed by Sugarman (Tim Roth) and his son Little Sugar (Jack Lowden).
The rest have cute names like Kitten, Lazy Legs and Squid Lips. They set
the bags of gold down to watch the puppet show and the young boy snatches
it and runs. Tornado sees this and in turn steals the gold from the boy and
hides it. This act of greed sets up all the deaths that are to follow.
The main issue of the film is that Tornado
the supposed heroine is not very likable, is passive through most of the
film and is the cause of her father and other friend's deaths though this
realization never seems to come to her. She is also not at all what one might
expect from a Japanese daughter in 1790, but more like a modern smart-mouthed
truculent daughter. When she finally picks up the samurai sword to avenge
her father, it all happens too quickly and is not as satisfying as one had
hoped for. No great choreography is involved. I did like the ending though
as in true Wandering Samurai fashion she walks into the sunset ready for
a sequel. I credit the film for what it is trying to do by mixing East and
West. It just needed more verve and a better thought-out revenge scenario.
If you are going to do a tribute to Samurai films, go all the way.
