The U.S. VHS release of Winds of Change squeezed a 1.66:1 aspect ratio into a 1.33:1 frame. A far cry from its original 2.35:1 presentation.
The Japanese home video release cropped the film to a 4x3 aspect ratio.
The French VHS releases featured a wider letterboxed image than the U.S. or Japanese versions, with a roughly 2:1 aspect ratio. While still cropped, more of the original image can be seen.
There were two separate releases in France, both with different cropping. The blurry portion at the top of the frame is frame a low-quality recording that'd been uploaded to Youtube.
The Swedish VHS release could potentially be the best - matching my French screenshot to a picture shared on Facebook, it looks as though most if not all of the original 2.35:1 image is squeezed into a 1.33:1 frame!
Weeks ago I'd learned that Winds of Change was also released on VHS in Sweden, so of course I had to get more information.
Yesterday I received some pictures and a video that lead me to believe it might be the most visually complete release yet!
But or course there's a catch...
#Metamorphoses