Nine Days in Review: A Valuable Lesson in Life Through Death

In several of the early sequences of nine daysavailable on Apple TV+, the camera pans across what appears to be an endless desert. In the center is an old log cabin. There is nothing else to indicate a human presence or the possibility of such a presence.

Little by little, history will show that this ageless place, which could belong to any era and culture, is everything. The future which is decided there, the past which is carefully thought out there. The present, suspended between the two. Dao watch death as silent space in which will be resolved what happens once the physical world is left behind.

It’s an unusual approach to death. The director seeks neither to astonish nor to terrify. Just to tell that the land of the dead is a memory in the making. A place that transcends the known and where the only real thing is memory. An abstract concept that nine days gently string them until it becomes clear. One of the most striking elements of the film is its ability to move around with little. The supernatural, detached as it is from the human, is linked to a sense of infinite good that is in motion.

Nine days, poster

nine days

nine daysby Edson Oda, is an unusual approach to death. The filmmaker does not seek to astonish, nor to terrify. He wants to make people understand that the land of the dead is a memory in the making. An abstract concept that delicately flows together until it becomes clear. One of the film’s most striking points is its ability to move around with little. The supernatural, as detached as it is from the human, is imbued with a sense of infinite good that touches. Will (Winston Duke) and Kyo (Benedict Wong) must make an indisputable decision that will mark the destiny of a human life. Among themselves, and for entirely subjective reasons, they will determine who can return to the world and live again.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Score: 4 out of 5.

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 linked to his history. It is then that Will (Winston Duke) and Kyo (Benedict Wong) must make an indisputable decision that will mark an uncertain fate. Among themselves, and for entirely subjective reasons, they will determine who can return to the world and live again.

For an event of such magnitude, both resort to an old method: listen and watch, then reflect. The premise of nine days may seem simple, even naive. At best, deeply spiritual. But this is not the case. As it progresses, it shows that it is, in fact, uniquely complex.

nine days and the decision to live again

The argument of nine days places much more emphasis on the practical idea than every event experienced leads to a goalA predestined? Nothing is very clear in this feature film, which finds its best moments in the contemplative scenes. What happens after death is not an unknown. It is a journey through the lessons learned from those who have left the world. A final test of the motivations, thoughts 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 make their case. To fully internalize the reasons why coming back to life is so essential for each of them. A speech – the last of all – that connects each experience to an emotion.

By exploring the personality of the new arrivals, Dao also questions Will and Kyo: how did they get there, who appointed them for such a task? The answers are almost as interesting as the central theme of the article. nine days. They are the successors of other guardians, who chose them for a millennial task. They will too, sooner or later. “Is it then God who allows these things? asks the character of Zazie Beetz. “We are all that experience,” 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 storyline of nine days becomes more elaborate and leaves behind its almost nihilistic air. What motivates a person to want to come back to earth after death? This is the question that is repeated from different points of view and at different times in the film. But the answer is not the same, it comes in multiple reflections that explore the burning desire to understand identity.

Like the anime SoulThe screenplay by Pete Docter, signed Dao, questions the meaning of life: is it about achieving goals, crystallizing big dreams, aspiring to love, achieving ambitions, to accept a loss, to exploit one’s talent? The questions follow one another for nine days, a very banal period of time for an ultraterrestrial premise. But this is the period the spirits of the deceased have in their attempt to convince Kyo and Will that there is a good reason to return.

“What we are is just a tiny fold between an infinity of simultaneous events,” Will explains quietly. Dao endows nine days presciently about to be consummated, as if dying and living were extremes of the same thing. In fact, they are, and the fleetingness of the moment brings out the following points very clearly appreciate the little wonders of everyday life. “From the sound of the wind to the last blink of an eye, existence is all we have,” Kyo explains.

The answers he leaves us nine days

On nine daysDeath and the desire to transcend are essentially the same thing. But it is precisely the subtle acts that give importance to the determination to return to the flesh and the body. As in hundreds of mythological stories, in the world of Dao, the weight of the heart is important. With all the symbolism that accompanies it, this idea is directly linked to the aspiration to follow a long journey of learning.

Unlike so many other stories that choose dreamlike or terrifying landscapes, nine days shows what happens at death as a neutral space.. There are no great revelations in the vast wilderness that surrounds the cabin where those charged with deciding the fate of a fleshless spirit await. A fancy way of suggesting how irrelevant what we imagine supernatural is.

nine daysnine days

For the director, the other world transcends human religious or philosophical experience. By punctuating it, he creates a realm of pure spiritual knowledge. For his last scenes, in which death and life are confused, it is clear that the return to the world of the living is not a feat. It is an act of love. It is also an act of courage. A very difficult premise nine days shows in all its power to move and disconcert.

Nine Days in Review: A Valuable Lesson in Life Through Death