The crossover between the samurai and the western genres is among the greatest and most vital intersections in cinema historical past. Each film buff is aware of that westerns influenced samurai motion pictures, which impressed westerns, which influenced the samurai style to evolve, with the back-and-forth repeating for a number of extra cycles. Twister, a brand new motion thriller directed by John Maclean, is a love letter to each genres because it blends the tropes, conventions, and iconography of samurai and western motion pictures to create a really distinctive amalgamation. As you’d then anticipate, Maclean was impressed by some true classics, in addition to some lesser-known gems of each genres.
John Maclean sat down with MovieWeb’s George Edelman to debate his new characteristic, Twister. The movie held its world premiere on the Glasgow Movie Competition in February of this 12 months, and is about for a wider theatrical launch on June 13. Twister is much from Maclean’s first western — 2015’s Gradual West, starring Michael Fassbender — however he needed to do a deep dive into the samurai style for his new film. “My first samurai movies that I bought into had been the bloodier ones and the form of 70s ones like Woman Snowblood,” Maclean started, referencing the brutal 1973 revenge thriller directed by Toshiya Fujita.

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After that, Maclean went the place each samurai style fan needed to enterprise to in some unspecified time in the future: the works of Akira Kurosawa. “I began going again and discovering Kurosawa,” he continued. “After which, after which actually occurring a form of deep dive with analysis for Twister and watching every part from actually, actually early samurai movies from the 30s and 40s proper the best way by means of to nice, lesser-known ones, like Sword of Doom, which I cherished.”
‘Twister’ Blends Western & Samurai Motion pictures Into An Epic Motion Hybrid
Twister wears its samurai and western influences on its sleeve. The movie follows the titular younger lady as she seeks revenge in opposition to a neighborhood gang that raided her father’s puppet present, by stealing their stash of gold. The film encompasses a star-studded forged, which incorporates Jack Lowden (Gradual Horses), Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction), Rory McCan (Sport of Thrones), Joanne Whalley (Willow), and Takehiro Hira (Shogun), with the eponymous samurai heroine being performed by Kôki.
Similar to how the samurai and western genres created a perpetual cycle of affect, John Maclean’s analysis into samurai motion pictures inevitably led him to westerns, which led him again to samurai movies. “Then, studying up about all of it, and particularly studying about Kurosawa, you understand that neither style (Western or Samurai) got here first,” he defined. “It was Kurosawa being influenced by John Ford, Sergio Leone being influenced by Kurosawa, , and this sort of backwards and forwards.”
Twister takes the most effective of each genres and smashes them collectively into one motion film, akin to 1971’s Purple Solar, starring Charles Bronson and Toshirō Mifune. Roth leads a band of savage cowboy outlaws who roam the plains on horseback, whereas Takehiro Hira’s puppet grasp is a nod to conventional Bunraku theater, to not point out the epic katana vs pistol showdowns that occur within the film.
Twister
- Launch Date
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Might 30, 2025
- Runtime
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91 minutes
- Director
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John Maclean
- Writers
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John Maclean
- Producers
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James Harris, Mark Lane