In several of the early sequences of Nine days, available on Apple TV+, the camera crosses what seems like an endless desert. In the center stands an old log cabin. There is nothing else that indicates the human presence or its possibility.
Gradually, history will make it clear that this ageless place, which could belong to any age and culture, represents all things. The future that is decided within, the past that is carefully considered. The present, suspended between the two. Dao shows death as a silent space in which what happens once the physical world is left behind will be resolved.
This is a rare approach to death. The director does not want to amaze, nor does he want to terrify. He only relates that the country of the deceased is a memory in formation. A place that transcends the known and where the only real thing is memory. An abstract concept that Nine days baste gently until it is clear. One of the most surprising elements of the feature film is its ability to move with little. The supernatural, detached as it is from the human, is linked to a sense of infinite good that excites.
Nine days
Nine days, by Edson Oda, is an unusual approach to death. The filmmaker does not want to amaze, nor does he want to terrify. He wants to make it clear that the country of the deceased is a memory in the making. An abstract concept that is delicately threaded together until it is clear. One of the most surprising points of the feature film is its ability to move with little. The supernatural, detached as it is from the human, is linked to a sense of infinite good that excites. Will (Winston Duke) and Kyo (Benedict Wong) must make an unquestionable decision, which will mark the fate of a human life. Between them, and for completely subjective reasons, they will determine who can return to the world and live again.
Death as a search for personal history
But, at the same time, with the perception of the individual —the one who existed and died— as an entity tied to its history. It is then that Will (Winston Duke) and Kyo (Benedict Wong) must make an unquestionable decision that will mark an uncertain destiny. Between them, and for completely subjective reasons, they will determine who can return to the world and live again.
For an event of such magnitude, both resort to an ancient method: listen and watch, and then reflect. The premise of Nine days It might seem simple, even naive. At best, deeply spiritual. But is not. As she progresses, she demonstrates that she does, in fact, have a singular complexity.
Nine days and the decision to live again
The argument of Nine days places much more emphasis on the practical idea that each event that is lived leads to a goal. A fated one? Nothing is very clear in this feature film that finds its best moments in the contemplative scenes. What happens after death is not unknown. It deepens like a journey through the lessons learned from those who left the world. One last test about the motivations, reflections and pains that built a complete human experience.
Candidates must cross the desert and knock on the door to ask to be heard. The metaphor is clear and Dao uses it with a good sense of intimacy. One by one, the characters played by Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, Arianna Ortiz, David Rysdahl and Zazie Beetz must state their motives. Going fully into why coming back to life is so essential for each one of them. A speech —the last of all— that links each experience with an emotion.
Dao employs exploration of the newcomers’ personalities and questions Will and Kyo as well. How did they get there? Who appointed them for such work? The answers are almost as interesting as the central theme of Nine days. They are the successors of other guardians, who chose them for a task of millennia. They will too, sooner or later. “Is it God, then, who allows these things?” Zazie Beetz’s character asks. “We are all this experiment,” Will replies. Which means that even in the great conversation of life and death, there are also mysteries to solve.
The beauty of life
As it progresses, the script of Nine days it becomes more elaborate and leaves behind its almost nihilistic air. What motivates someone to want to return to earth after death? It is the question that is repeated from different points of view and at dissimilar moments in the film. But the answer is not the same, rather it is layered in multiple reflections that explore the desire to understand identity.
like the animated Soul, by Pete Docter, Dao’s script delves into what it means to live. Is it about achieving goals? To crystallize big dreams? Aspire to love, to fulfill ambitions, to assume losses, to the fruition of talent? The questions follow each other for nine days, a very mundane period of time for an otherworldly premise. But it is the period available to the spirits of the deceased as they try to convince Kyo and Will that there is a good reason to return.
“What we are is just a small fold between infinitely many simultaneous events,” Will explains quietly. Dao endows Nine days of an air of portent about to be consummated, as if dying or living were extremes of the same thing. In fact, they are and transience raises a very clear idea about appreciate the small everyday wonders. “From the sound of the wind to the last blink, existence is all we possess,” Kyo explains.
The answers that he leaves us Nine days
In Nine days, death and the desire to transcend are, in essence, the same. But precisely the subtle acts give importance to the determination to return to the flesh and the body. As in hundreds of mythological tales, in the world of Dao the weight of the heart is important. With all its associated symbolism, the idea is directly related to the desire to follow a long journey of learning.
Unlike many other narratives that choose dreamlike or terrifying landscapes, Nine days shows what happens when you die as a neutral space. There are no great revelations in the vast desert that surrounds the cabin where those in charge of deciding the fate of a disembodied spirit await. An elegant way of suggesting how irrelevant what we imagine about the supernatural is.
For the director, the other world transcends human religious or philosophical experience. By pointing it out, he creates a realm of pure spiritual knowledge. For his last scenes, in which death and life are confused, it is evident that returning to the world of the living is not a feat. It is an act of love. Also brave. A very harsh premise that Nine days displayed in all its power to move and disconcert.