American cinema has long been influenced by Japanese filmmakers, and particularly films about the samurai. It’s no secret that George Lucas was influence by the films of Akira Kurosawa when he created the legend of the Jedi Knights in Star Wars. And without Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai, we wouldn’t have the classic Western The Magnificent Seven.

Fans of samurai films and Westerns alike will enjoy Tornado, now playing at Robinson Film Center. It is The Seven Samurai mixed with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Unforgiven and some other Clint Eastwood classics, all set in the British Isles in 1790.

Tornado is a Japanese girl traveling the countryside with her father as they perform a samurai puppet show about good versus evil. But Tornado is trapped in her own good vs. evil story, as bandits are after her for taking their stolen treasure.

When the bandits kill Tornado’s father and everyone else she knows, for that matter, she sets her sights on revenge. And when it is complete, she sets off on her own samurai journey.

But Tornado is by no means derivative of the films that seem to have inspired it. It is its own story, expertly told. Tornado is a unique tale that is action-packed without being too intense, violent without being gory, and suspenseful without being scary.

- Scott “Scooter” Anderson, Scooter Anderson Communications