NINE DAYS: Beautiful & Heartbreaking, Edson Oda’s Brilliant Debut Stares From The Abyss

Written and directed by Edson Oda in his feature-length directorial debut, Nine Days is as thoughtful as it is beautiful, as heartbreaking as it is jovial, and is a bittersweet, caring way to look at life between the ebbs and flows of death.

In the world of Nine Days, there’s a person on some other plane of existence who watches your life through your Point Of View and records it, and the person who shares your POV is the same one who chose your essence, your soul to merge with your body in utero. One of them is Will, masterfully and beautifully played by Winston Duke (Us, Black Panther), a solemn and kind man who is diligent with his work though he seems to have a soft spot for one of his persons: Amanda, a musical prodigy who has a major concerto coming up.

A friend and neighbor named Kyo, played by a charming Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange, Annihilation), comes over to watch the concerto with Will and the two witness something that becomes an obsession with Will and the catalyst for the movie: instead of driving to her car to give a grand performance, Amanda drives into a structure and dies. Both men are stunned as her television’s signal cuts and we learn that Will must now choose a new subject – a new soul – to inhabit a life that will be welcomed soon into the world.

“Will, what’s it like to be alive?”

As the film unfolds and new subjects meet with Will in a type of job interview, the more we learn about Will. We learn that he himself used to be alive and that Kyo never was, though it’s left ambiguous how everything works exactly; all that’s given is a clever use of exposition at the beginning of the interview process when Will tells each candidate that he will choose one of them to continue on into life and that they only have nine days from the time he meets them. Will gives each candidate a name, a notebook, and various homework assignments. Some candidates of note are Maria (Arianna Oritz from Parenthood), Alex (Tony Hale from Veep), Mike (David Rysdahl from The Family), and Kane (Bill Skarsgård from It: Chapter Two). Their first assignment is a hypothetical scenario that includes a concentration camp and having to choose between killing your son or having the whole camp killed because he had tried to escape. The answers vary and each of the candidates has different reactions, most notably Alex who can’t help but laugh at the situation.

After everyone has gone and Will and Kyo are alone in Will’s house discussing things, one last candidate knocks on the door and is welcomed inside. Will gives her the name Emma and she’s already completely different from the other candidates, not only in her disposition but also in the way she answers the concentration camp question – what would she do? Would she kill her son or spare him and risk the lives of every other prisoner? Emma says that she can’t answer the question.

Emma is played by Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Deadpool 2) and if the role were given to any other actor, then her answer would seem like a cop-out like she’s trying to win Will’s favor by not giving a possible “wrong” answer. But, the way Beetz plays Emma strips the viewer of any apprehension towards her character’s intentions: Emma is clearly an inquisitive and emotionally provocative person and Beetz‘s take on her eradicates any feelings of some “manic pixie dream girl” cliché or generic quirky character. She feels real and she feels notable.

This is especially made clear when Will has each candidate write down notes as they watch the television sets and see different people go about their lives and actually see what it means to be alive. While just about everyone makes notes of the things they notice or the things they like, Emma instead describes sensations that she witnesses. This causes Will to re-adjust their homework, and as time goes on, re-adjust his tactics and, maybe, even his outlook.

Survival of the Fittest

Part of the process of choosing a candidate to become alive is eliminating those who aren’t up to Will’s standards, and Mike is the first one to get the chop. Like Emma, Mike stood out from the others because he chose to draw a beachside landscape but when Will asks him about it, Mike says that he hates what he’s made. A few days later, Will tells him that he will not be selected and it just about rips Mike apart. It’s in these moments, and once the candidates begin to cipher the things they don’t like, that we begin to see who they truly are, or who they could potentially be.

It’s between these sequences that Will becomes more and more obsessed with finding out what exactly could have caused Amanda’s death – was it an accident? Was it on purpose? What really happened? Despite getting to see people’s POV and hearing their voices when they speak, Will doesn’t know what’s going on in each person’s head – he may know everything about them but in the end, it’s all surface stuff.

As the movie continues, it becomes apparent that Amanda’s struggles parallel what Will went through when he was alive, and that’s where the film really twists the knife; as Will narrows down the pool of candidates, the audience learns of his passions, his wreckage, and his regrets. More is revealed when Will finally learns the truth about Amanda, and then everything comes to a head when another person on one of his screens – a teenager named Rick who’s had to deal with cruel bullies – finally fights back and the situation just gets worse.

The nine days are dwindling down and we finally see the core of Will: he is a good, kind man, who goes out of his way to create elaborate moments for the rejected candidates before they disappear (if one isn’t chosen to become alive then they become nothing) but Will is also someone who doesn’t believe that being good or kind are strong enough traits to be alive in the world. Alex the jokester, Emma the optimist, and Kane the rationalist are all who’s left of the candidates and there’s no telling who Will is going to choose. The only thing that gives his choice away is the line, “All I can do is send them to that shithole and say ‘survive it.'”

Conclusion: A Fighting Chance, A Way To Heal

One of the most intriguing things about sitting down to watch Nine Days was the feeling of déjà vu that washed over me. Not necessarily of melancholy and regret but the feeling of dissociation. Dissociation is an avenue the mind takes when it must cope with stress and, sometimes, trauma; where the person dissociating feels detached from their feelings, their thoughts, or even their own body, sometimes feeling as if they are looking at their own life through a television screen.

As Will and each of his candidates sit down in front of his wall of television sets, take their detailed notes, and the peoples’ lives are recorded to VHS tapes, I’m reminded of the times I’ve found myself watching my own life, as vividly as Amanda’s tireless practicing of her violin or the bullying Rick is forced to endure. Feeling like my own Will and taking mental notes of my own life, as if what I know of myself is just what I present to the world, only knowing the surface stuff. It’s tear-inducing, and one of the reasons this film is so effective and does such a good job at uniquely tackling grief and depression and trying to figure out what it really does mean to be alive.

The film rips and tears at the fabric of what we may feel and think as we make our way through a world that is simultaneously cruel and benevolent – is it better to think of #1, to do what will get yourself ahead of the game or is it better to, in a sense, be the change you wish to see in the world? Which of these traits will get you to help you survive the longest? Which of these traits can endure? Is regret the greatest burden we can bear? Expertly directed and perfectly acted in each and every performance, Nine Days breaks down your expectations and may even help you find peace and maybe even empowerment in your regrets, in your own melancholy. Even if you live on an existential plane or feel levitated away from yourself, or are just going through it down here on earth, you can find a way back to what keeps your heart beating and your gaze turned forward.

What was your takeaway from Nine Days? Let us know in the comments below.

Nine Days will be in select theaters July 30, 2021, and will be given a wide release on August 6, 2021