12 days - Based on the graphic novel by June Kim

Juno meets Brokeback Mountain

When her best friend dies in a honeymoon car accident, Jackie decides the best way to honor her former lover is to is to drink her ashes in the next 12 days.

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“Noah died in a car accident on the way back from her honeymoon. That was a month ago…” - Jackie

What is the best way to honor a loved one who has died before their time? How does one ever get over such a loss? Everyone mourns differently, but would you ever think of drinking their ashes?

That is exactly what happens in the film 12 days…

JACKIE has lost the love of her life, a woman named NOAH, twice. The first time happens when Noah follows her father's wishes to marry a man. While Jackie is still trying to process the separation, she hears that Noah was killed in a freak car accident on her honeymoon.

In mourning, Jackie decides that the best and quickest way to get over the love of her life is to hold a personal ritual with Noah's ashes. Jackie decides to drink the ashes in the form of smoothies over the course of 12 days - hoping the pain will subside with each sip.

So Jackie has Noah’s brother, NICK, steal her ashes from her parents house.

“What are you going to do with them?” - Nick

With the help of Nick, Jackie is going to cleanse the memory of the departed from her system. She will do so by consuming Noah's ashes mixed into smoothies.

The real reason that Jackie chose this way of memorializing her former lover is only revealed in the end – and that is the way the entire story unfolds.

Based on the Tokyopop graphic novel, 12 days tells the story of Jackie and Noah’s failed relationship by shifting around in time, subtly at first – mainly through dream sequences - then making greater and more overt leaps back and forth as the narrative progresses. It also uses parallel actions - making one event trigger the recollection of another.

This non linear structure moves the film in and out of past and present with subtle transitions, sometimes purposely disorienting the viewer to cause the two timelines to blur together.

And it is packed with blink-and-you-miss-it moments that make the viewer reflect upon seemingly simple scenes from earlier in the film - adding a whole new level of complexity in retrospect.

Over the course of the 12 days, Jackie relives her time with Noah in dreams and by telling stories as her camaraderie with Nick develops.

Bonded by Nick’s adolescent crush on Jackie, Nick makes extraordinary efforts to console her. But as the story goes on, we learn that his attention has more to do with the secrets Noah has shared with him.

He was the only one that truly understood how much Noah cared for Jackie. Nick was the only person who Noah chose to burden with that secret. Nick has carried that secret by himself and uses it to help Jackie through this difficult time for them both.

Jackie and Noah’s mourning is heavy, willfully so on the part of the characters. They want out of it for sure, but they are going to squeeze every ounce of sadness out of each of" the 12 days they have allotted themselves.

"Ever try milk? It’s a much better way to get your calcium." - Nick

Not to say that the entire movie is dripping with tears. There are plenty of light moments, but even when Nick and Jackie tease one another, the jokes are a bit morbid.

Nick watches her take another sip
"Mmmmm… definitely her toes." – Jackie
Nick shakes his head as he disappears behind the refrigerator door.
"I can save you some if you want..." – Jackie

The movie focuses as much on the death of a relationship as Noah's actual death. While Jackie's loss is 'finalized' with Noah's death, Noah's death is not the primary reason Jackie's loss is tragic. Jackie's loss was made tragic by Noah's daily, repeated choices when Noah was alive.

12 days asks the question: When did the greater tragedy occur, when Noah chose freely to leave Jackie for a man, or when Noah died and truly lost the possibility of ever changing her mind?

"I made promise to Dad… Not to see you again." - Noah

12 days asks: If one person ever asks you to promise to never love another person, would you? 12 days explores how will that kind of decision effects everyone involved…

Though Noah's presence in the story emerges in flashbacks and memories, it is through her absence that we truly understand Jackie's anguish and regret.

"Maybe I should have said those things…" - Jackie

Through Nick, we learn about Noah’s relationship with her father - strict man who never truly understood his daughter. We see his pain as he realizes that his pressure may have lead to his daughter’s death.

"I know about the girl. That girl named Jackie." – Noah’s Father

Throughout the film, we will watch Nick learn to communicate with his father in a way he has never known. Somehow, this tragedy will bring them together.

And while the smoothies are being blended, Jackie spends her days thinking about and remembering her ex-lover:
The tender moments…

"I want to have your baby." - Noah

And the heartbreak...

"I’m getting married." - Noah

But as the jar of ashes empties, Nick becomes harder on Jackie. He begins to call her out and makes her face the reality of her failed relationship head on.

"It was Noah’s choice to leave you." - Nick

In the end, 12 days asks the question of whether or not soulmates actually exist. In a bittersweet finale, we realize that they do… Even if you are not honest enough with yourself to embrace them.

“You want to forget about her? In twelve days? I can't let you do that." – Nick

 

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Director's Statement

”Haven’t you ever met someone drinkable?”

I have to be honest… 12 days first caught my eye with its idea of someone drinking the ashes of their recently lost soulmate. But as I delved deeper into the story, I was captured in a different way – on an emotional level that was truly unexpected.

While it could be quickly defined as a lesbian film, a quirky tale about a girl drinking someone’s ashes, a story limited to its Asian roots… But 12 days is an intricate story full of universal themes common to any relationship as well as family issues that can be found throughout the world.

• 12 days is about a relationship doomed by the lack of honesty.
• 12 days is about losing a soulmate.
• 12 days is about how to best honor a friend.
• 12 days is about marrying the wrong person.
• 12 days is about losing a sister.
• 12 days about falling prey to the pressures of the world around you instead of following your heart.
• 12 days about a father and son struggling to communicate.
• 12 days is about things left unsaid.
• 12 days is about knowing someone in a way that no one else could.
• 12 days is about a parent forcing their ideals on a child.
• 12 days is about being true to one’s self.
• 12 days is about regret.

Beginning in fairly linear fashion, 12 days tells the story of a failed relationship by shifting around in time, subtly at first, then making greater and more overt leaps back and forth as the narrative progresses. Through this intentionally disorientating timeline structure, I was left with a puzzle to solve – in the end, a truly satisfying puzzle.

When I sat down to write the screenplay, I wanted to capture that same energy. I wanted the film audience to have that same sense of fulfillment that I had when I finished the novel: Finally seeing the entire picture.

Each scene in 12 days builds upon the last to create an emotional whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts. And through the use of small, blink and you miss it moments throughout the story, what were initially though of as simple scenes are brought to another level of complexity as the story progresses.

From the first time I saw the cover of the graphic novel, I was captured by the beauty of 12 days. Following in that visual style, I will to use my expertise as a longtime Director of Photography to infuse a lyrical visual style to the film. I like to describe it as a visual poem and it will certainly be striking. To live up to the graphic novel, it has to be.

When audiences leave the theater after watching 12 days, they will be asking themselves, ’Have I ever met someone drinkable?’ I’m sure that the answer for all of them will be a resounding – Yes! Everyone has at least one person on that list…

Who is yours?

-- Jack Messitt, Writer/Director--