When the Wind Blows Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

When the Wind Blows Blu-ray Movie Review

. . .or how they learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 17, 2014

Perhaps the horrors visited upon the Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki that precipitated the end of World War II can at least partially explain the Japanese fascination with post-Apocalyptic drama, especially in the form of anime. There may be an almost genetic component to this seeming obsession, for expat Japanese-American Jimmy Murakami, who as a boy had along with his family been “relocated” to Tule Lake in Northern California at an interment camp set up for Japanese citizens and aliens alike in America’s post-Pearl Harbor hysteria, also visited this same subject in When the Wind Blows, a 1986 offering that combines traditional animation with stop motion effects. (If you’ve ever been to Tule Lake, you will know it is not exactly the most welcoming or scenic location in the United States.) In a documentary about Murakami included on this Blu-ray release, he’s quite vocal (even strident in his own low key way) about how traumatizing this event was and how it colored his future view of his native country, ultimately making him decide to live elsewhere (he moved to Ireland, where he married and raised a family). But also buried somewhere deep in his psyche was the horror of the devastation wrought by the dropping of the atom bomb(s), something that no doubt gestated in the ensuing madness of the Cold War when “mutually assured destruction” became a not very comforting watchword that supposedly was going to keep us all safe. Based on a comic (and/or graphic novel) by Raymond Briggs, When the Wind Blows is a film that exploits the mundaneness of everyday British life, even after the unthinkable happens and nuclear holocaust reaches out and touches the sylvan paradise of Sussex, where an elderly couple named James (voiced by John Mills) and Hilda (voiced by Peggy Ashcroft) attempt to deal with this debilitating situation in their own “keep calm and carry on” manner.

Films and television properties as disparate as On the Beach and The Day After have sought to portray the world in the days and weeks following nuclear holocaust, eschewing sensationalism (for the most part, anyway) in favor of a more restrained, supposedly realistic, approach. There’s something somewhat akin going on in When the Wind Blows, though that plays as an intentionally ironic counterpart to the film’s whimsical animation style. When the Wind Blows is almost like a children’s story about nuclear war, with bright, colorful and weirdly sanguine characters not letting a little thing like an atom bomb upset their daily routines.

The first part of the film details James’ obsession with the news, despite the fact that he doesn’t really understand what’s going on, as well as his attempts to get his house ready for what he sees may be the minor inconvenience of a nuclear attack. Hilda is completely clueless about world events, not even wanting to listen to the news on the radio, and still reveling in the idyllic splendor of her backyard. The humor in the film is alternately sweet and very, very black, and plays off things like James’ efforts to ferret out the differences in various safety brochures issued by competing government agencies. That there even is humor in a film built around this subject matter is a notable feat in any case.

The film takes a rather desperate and increasingly disturbing turn once the expected happens and nuclear devastation visits the bucolic English countryside. One of the reasons When the Wind Blows ends up being as disturbing as it is is because James and Hilda are children, more or less. They engage in meaningless blather quite a bit of the time, are sure things are going to get back to normal soon enough (having already weathered what they consider similar traumas during World War II), and are seemingly unaware that their increasingly worse health is due to radiation sickness.

Murakami weaves a rather odd but unexpectedly endearing fable in When the Wind Blows, combining a number of different animation styles along with some stop motion work that is rather subtle, so that “real” elements in any given frame interact with the purely animated fare. There’s also some usage of actual film and video footage, giving the film a rather patchwork quality that is nonetheless surprisingly cohesive and cogently handled. The story is deliberately at odds with at least some of the stylistic choices here, as if Murakami were making the case that considering the idiotic behavior of Mankind’s governments, it’s little wonder that individual men (and women) are little more than grown up kids themselves.

When the Wind Blows Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

When the Wind Blows is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. The basic animated fare here looks very nice, if somewhat soft, with clear, consistent line detail and some wonderfully varied and nicely suffused colors. Some of the other footage, including some fairly ragged looking news video that starts off the piece, as well as other archival footage, is considerably softer and in fairly rough condition. Because of the different techniques and source elements utilized, grain is a bit more variable than typical, occasionally tending to clump at times. There are no issues with compression artifacts or other digital anomalies.

When the Wind Blows Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

When the Wind Blows features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that offers full and at times rather robust support for the film's small scale dialogue moments, as well as its interesting and variegated score which offers underscore and tunes by the likes of David Bowie and Roger Waters. A glut of very well done sound effects helps to create both the sylvan wonderland of the film's early sequences as well as the barren, desolate destruction that James and Hilda experience after the bomb goes off.

When the Wind Blows Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Jimmy Murakami: Non-Alien (1080p; 1:17:39) is an extremely interesting documentary on the artist and filmmaker, getting into his obvious bitterness with regard to the United States and its treatment of Japanese citizens during World War II, but also dealing with his own catharses as an illustrator and director. Highly worthwhile and a perfect companion piece to the main feature.


• Audio Commentary with First Assistant Director Joe Fordham is hosted by Twilight Time's Nick Redman.


• The Wind and the Bomb - The Making of When the Wind Blows (480i; 24:19) is an interesting look at some of the multimedia elements in the animation, and also features quite a few interviews with various creative staff.


• An Interview with Raymond Briggs (480i; 13:49) is centered mostly on When the Wind Blows, but delves into other areas as well.


• Isolated Music and Effects Track is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.

When the Wind Blows Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When the Wind Blows is a deliberately weird combination of a very adult subject matter and an almost childlike presentation. The disconnect between James and Hilda's optimism and what's really going on will strike some as ridiculous, but it gives When the Wind Blows a kind of fable feeling that, again, plays deliberately in contrast to the stark subject matter. Murakami is a strangely underappreciated artist, but this film makes completely clear what an innovative and stylish creative force he is. Highly recommended.