It’s always nice to stumble across a movie you’ve never seen before, especially if it’s something fun and uplifting. But now and again, you inadvertently discover a movie that’ll absolutely break your heart and leave you with a sense of existential dread… Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
In the past, you’d find these unheard gems in your local Blockbuster. More recently, you’d see them pop up on your Netflix library. Now, Gen Z gets all of its recommendations by scrolling through TikTok, obviously, and that’s where a bunch of folk have been introduced to the quirky 1986 animated movie When the Wind Blows.
It may look like a good old-fashioned, 2D animated treat, but this film goes to some incredibly dark places, and it’s left TikTok users absolutely destroyed emotionally.
What When the Wind Blows Is About (And Why It's SO Tragic)
The ‘80s film is based on a graphic novel from legendary British illustrator and storyteller, Raymond Briggs. You’ll know him for his iconic work on the likes of The Snowman, Father Christmas, and Fungus the Bogeyman.
However, this story is nothing like those loveable tales. When the Wind Blows focuses on Jim and Hilda Bloggs, an elderly couple who find themselves dealing with an impending nuclear attack. Sadly, the information they’re getting from the government and their own outdated methods of survival are not quite as effective as they might hope.
As the film goes on, it becomes clearer and clearer that something is seriously wrong with our adorable and unassuming protagonists. And let’s just say Jimmy T. Murakami’s tragic cartoon does not pull punches when it comes to depicting Jim and Hilda’s struggles.
If you’ve ever seen the truly terrifying Threads or Studio Ghibli movie Grave of the Fireflies, you’ll have a good idea of the devastating tone When the Wind Blows adopts. It’s a brilliant film, but my word, it’s unfathomably bleak.
Why When the Wind Blows Is Depressing TikTok Audiences
Aside from the obvious sombre tones of When the Wind Blows – seriously, you’d have to have a very cold heart not to be affected by this film – there is a reason this has resonated with younger audiences on social media in this modern geopolitical climate.
Young people today are living under increasingly intense and hostile conditions. Many of them perceive these to be created and upheld by older generations who appear to have very little understanding or care for the long-term impact of their decisions. Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha feel they have been forced to inherit what many would consider a broken world, thanks to Gen X and Boomers.
In many ways, though, it’s not entirely those older generations’ fault. Your average person from those eras has lived through terrifying, unprecedented times, and through it all, reliant on what their government tells them, and little else.
This is underpinned by what TikTok user @anotherbadsalad says about Jim: “He doesn’t think it’s going to be that bad, and that’s why neither of them takes it that seriously. That’s because both of them lived through World War II, but they were children at that time… they have an almost infantilised view of what the war was like… Jim doesn’t understand the gravity of what is going to happen; that mutually assured destruction is going to happen.”
It’s this naivety and blind adherence to ‘the rules’ that is Jim and Hilda’s undoing, and, arguably, that’s what strikes a chord with the more cynical minds of young people today.
As @anotherbadsalad adds, “[Jim and Hilda] believe that everything will go back to normal… someone will come and help… Jim says that tomorrow everything will get better.” They conclude their analysis by saying, “It’s a sad, cautionary tale about two normal people… who suffer the aftermath of what’s happening around them; something they have no control over.”
Users like them see this every day around the world: ordinary people impacted by external circumstances and decisions made by people they’ve never even met. In their view, it’s a world built by people still living in the past. How are future generations ever going to be able to move forward?
What’s really unsettling for modern viewers is that we are able to see how things went so drastically wrong for the characters in the film, and compare it to how little things have changed in the real world since the time of the film’s release.
Another TikTok user dissects the movie, saying: “Jim and Hilda do what they’ve always done: Follow instructions. Keep calm. And wait for the all clear. But this isn’t the 1940s… There’s this really strange horror in watching people calmly prepare for the end of the world, and doing it all wrong. The sad thing is, it’s not because they’re reckless; it’s because they have far too much trust.”
Right from the start, we know this is not going to end well for our protagonists. It’s inevitable and obvious from the outside, but isn’t that always the case? We have the benefit of hindsight, of knowing how this story can and has played out in the real world. Sadly, Jim and Hilda don’t have that luxury. All they can do is grin and bear it, and hope that the unthinkable remains just that: a frightening figment of the deepest, darkest corner of their imagination.
How to Watch When The Wind Blows
When the Wind Blows is not available on any streaming services, but you can rent it on Prime Video for £3.49, and you really should. It’s a harrowing watch, and not something you’ll revisit in a hurry, but it’s also essential viewing if you’re keen to better understand the fears of a generation who endured the constant threat of nuclear destruction.
