Welcome to the Movie Club! This week’s movie is Edson Oda’s directorial debut, the fantasy drama Nine Days!
Nine Days features an ensemble cast led by Winston Duke, who plays Will, an arbiter of sorts who lives alone in a sort of desert purgatory, where he judges the souls of people who have yet to be born and determines if they should be allowed to continue on towards birth. Will has sunk into a depression of sorts, but while judging his current batch of souls an unexpected candidate named Emma (played by Zazie Beetz) shows up at his door and throws a bit of a wrench into his routine, eventually helping him learn to appreciate life once again.
Nine Days premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020, before getting a small release in the US on July 30, 2021, and a wider release the week after on August 6. Made on a relatively small budget of $10 million, it only earned about $1 million in the box office, although I wonder if it could have earned more had it not been released during the pandemic.1
- Edson Oda was inspired to write this film due to his uncle’s suicide, which happened when Oda was 12 years old and has stuck with him ever since.
- The crying effect during the POV shots was achieved by using a bag sealer to seal water in cellophane candy bags that were then squeezed in front of the lens.
- The spotlight seen when Will leaves the house early on was meant to have more of a symbolic meaning, but those moments and many more involving Kyo (played by Benedict Wong) had to be cut, as they did not have enough filming time. In the end, the script was shortened by about 15 pages. (The interview this tidbit is from actually has a lot of interesting behind the scenes detail if you’re curious about the filmmaking process!)
What did you think? Share your thoughts below!
Up Next: I gotta mention that I messed up a bit with the scheduling and accidentally scheduled 3 movies for January, so all the non-themed month movies have to get pushed back a couple weeks so I can fit that extra movie into March. Otherwise, we have a big pivot with the next movie as it’s going to be a video game adaptation! Our next movie is Hironobu Sakaguchi’s animated sci-fi Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within! We’ll meet to discuss it on January 24th at noon. Check out the trailer and where it’s playing below (unfortunately streaming options are seemingly nonexistent if you’re outside of the US!):
USA
- Stream: The Roku Channel.
- Rent or Buy: Amazon, Apple TV, Microsoft Store, Google Play, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Spectrum (Rental only)
Canada
- Stream: Nothing!
- Rent or Buy: Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon, YouTube, Cineplex Store
UK
- Stream: Nothing!
- Rent or Buy: Microsoft Store, Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon, YouTube, Sky Store, Rakuten TV