The Passage is a 2018 short film (22 minutes) by Kitao Sakurai.
It details the adventures of a man who is never named in the short but whom Word of God tells us is named Phil. Phil is playing drums for a Latino church service when two strange men enter the church service, chasing after him. Phil flees from the men, and winds up going on an odyssey which includes visiting a Korean steam bath, spending time with some African immigrants, and sailing on a Norwegian fishing boat. All the while, the two men, eventually joined by a third, are chasing him.
Last film released by Super Deluxe studios, which was closed down by AT&T after the AT&T/Time Warner merger.
Tropes:
- Black Comedy: Phil's presence on the Norwegian fishing boat causes the man who hauled him aboard to get into an argument with another sailor who finds Phil unwelcome. They kill each other in a knife fight. The third sailor, who is eating when he sees this, is shocked and winds up choking to death on his food and falling overboard. The whole sequence is played for absurdist comedy, as Phil goggles in astonishment, his bowl of soup still in his hands.
- Blithe Spirit: Moments of terror and shocking violence may temporarily scare Phil or cause him to take flight, but they never end his cheery attitude for long. He may have to jump into a taxi to avoid the two mysterious thugs chasing him, but soon enough he'll be sticking his head out of the sunroof like an excitable dog.
- Bloody Hilarious: Phil spattered with arterial spray from the two Norwegian fishermen who kill each other in a knife fight.
- Implacable Man: The two, eventually three, bad guys who chase Phil all over Los Angeles. They seem to have superhuman tracking skills—how did they find Phil on a fishing boat out in the open ocean?
- Left Hanging: In addition to the No Ending finale, there's the opening scene where Phil is riding on a propeller plane, only to watch all the other passengers and the pilot parachute out, leaving Phil on the plane alone. How the heck did he get out of that? Is he a pilot?
- No Ending: Ends with Phil aboard the now-abandoned fishing boat, the three bad guys chasing after him in a motorboat.
- Reality Has No Subtitles: No subtitles for the various foreign languages (Spanish, Korean, French, Norwegian) heard in the film.
- Silence Is Golden: It's essentially a silent film. There's some dialogue, but none of it is in English and no subtitles are provided.
- The Speechless: Phil never talks.
