MovieChat Forums > Man from Reno (2015) Discussion > Questions on Story (Spoiler!!)

Questions on Story (Spoiler!!)

posted 9 years ago by Gtoddwilliams
9 replies | jump to latest

I liked the movie so much that it took an hour before I realized I missed some points. I went back and watched some key sections. I realized the plot was very thin.

Akira/Osamu got a call from his smuggler friend and then killed him so he could keep all the money. So I guess he beat up the "running man" (Hitoshi) and took the money. Right?

So Osamu gets tracked down by Hitoshi. That's thin. Osamu had already killed the real Akira. Why not kill Hitoshi too?

Are we supposed to believe that after Osamu killed Akira AND took the expensive turtles AND the cash from Hitoshi then goes back to his hotel bar to pick up a gal (Aki) at a bar?

Even worse, are we supposed to believe he targeted her because a Japanese blog said she was in the Bay area? Explain that.

We're supposed to think he did this to plant the turtles in her room so that this would get Hitoshi off his trail? ("I had to shake some guys"). So he left her room to go get the turtles and she just happened to be out shopping when he planted the turtles? How would Hitoshi finding pet turtles in her room help Osamu?

How did Hitoshi know to go to her hotel room and not Osamu's?

And Osamu knew she would call the 408 # on the matchbook and they would come looking for her and find the cheap turtles in her room. But why? He already had stolen the money.

It's unbelievable that the real Akira (smuggler) would have a relationship with Hitoshi. At least strong enough to say he wanted fake passports and not cash.

Did you notice how they found out where Hitoshi lived? Basically magic.

Who printed Hitoshi's suicide note?

So Osamu just dumped the $500k of pets in the bay because "he found a better way to make money." i.e. selling the new manuscript. Very thin.

So Osamu sells the book to a publisher and it gets published in Aki's name? How did Osamu get paid for that?

Was the manuscript about the turtle case?

Amazingly, the movie kept my attention even with these gaping plot holes. That says how good of acting and directing there was.

[–] currion 9 years ago

Don't think Hitoshi was ever going to turn over any money for the turtles. Akira and his girlfriend just wanted new passports.

The impostor would have killed Hitoshi but the Sheriff stumbled onto the scene and actually 'saved' Hitoshi by hitting him with the car. Maybe the impostor assumed Hitoshi was killed at that point and took off.

The impostor was on the run from Luft's guys (Hitoshi was Luft's driver) and happened to see Aki in the hotel and decided to use her to hide from Luft's guys. He says in the movie that he did something impulsive. That's what he is talking about when he says he had to shake some guys.

The whole thing with the matchbox was so the impostor could buy time to shake Luft's guys.

There was a BOLO out on Hitoshi and Oakland PD got a hit. Maybe a bit farfetched but not impossible.

The impostor killed Hitoshi. The impostor printed the suicide note.

The impostor is a serial killer. He kills and assumes other peoples identities. We know he did it with Akira and Osamu. I think he had Aki's manuscript published so it would appear that she is still alive. He's making money by selling the pictures of her after he assumed the identity of the photographer. Her own agent said she probably wouldn't hear from Aki for another ten years once the book is published so it is left up in the air whether the imposter could access her finances.

At the end of the movie, we see all the passports of other victims of the impostor and we see him targeting his next victim.

[–] BenRiver 8 years ago

that's exactly it. You filled in all the question marks.

So the imposter didn't know that Hitoshi was compensating Akira with passports. When Hitoshi gets hit by the car is when the imposter realizes that there's no money, just passports.

So the imposter calls the rich dude and doubles the price. Rich dude says "no way" but then calls him back and that's when the imposter has found his next mark, Aki.

But this is what I don't understand: no way the imposter could assume Aki's identity because she is so famous or maybe get the book published under a new name, him as the author.

OR

Photographer and imposter were working together, but photographer had no clue of imposter's intentions, only to take photographs of Aki. So maybe that was imposter's plan was to assume the photographer's identity all along with the intention of killing Aki, while he dodged the rich's dude's men by having them focus in the girl until they found nothing on her and let her go. She was writing a book during that time anyway.

But that doesn't make sense because the photographer was informed by the old Asian dude from dinner that Aki was in town. Still somehow the imposter found her and devised something with the photographer, I think.....

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Woman: "Can we watch something else?"
Man: "No, I want to see how this ends."

[–] remembervhs 9 years ago

the plot wasn't thin at all.

you're confusing plot holes/thin plot with a lot of events that occurred offscreen. we don't know the details of what happened in the background. we can surmise some murders and disappearances but can only speculate about what exactly occurred.

this is fine. it's a perfectly valid way to tell a story. it does confuse people who haven't watched noir before and mainly stick to mainstream stuff that shows everything on the screen or in voiceovers or through various blunt exposition techniques.

edit- a lot of what you posted about the plot is just wrong

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] ematerso 9 years ago

Yeah, he looks at the suitcase and says "room for two" That is illogical unless he cut bodies up and that would leave a mess in hotel room. Also he had prepared bed with plastic sheeting (lamp next to door covered too) but when he shot the photographer, what about blood he shed?

Also who would leave valuable assets (pass ports) lying in the most accessible drawer?

I missed a lot of this, atmospheric, age and darkness of film itself. But usually I understand all plots, this one to me had gaps. I thought the "turtles were in SFO Bay" so no one got money for them, right?

[–] Gittes74 8 years ago

At the end of the day, Man From Reno is far too complicated for its own good and then last 15 minutes throw the film completely off the tracks. No reason for the Japanese writer to die. None. Zilch.

She's staying at this upscale Hotel Majestic where killers just come and go and break in and out of rooms, cover them in plastic, haul away bodies and nobody catches on? We have a grizzled sheriff so stupid that he goes to the houseboat at the end ALONE? Doesn't even take his daughter?

How much do we sacrifice for storyline, folks.

I want my happy ending, damn it!

[–] doublethink03 7 years ago

How on earth did he manage to haul that trunk with two bodies in it out of the hotel??

[–] BenRiver 8 years ago

you don't have to be a jerk about it. There's always an a-zzole who feels compelled to belittle someone's honest questions

what are you, a professional film noir viewer accepting of all vague storylines?

Plus, you don't clarify or add clarity to anything. There's plenty of background info

but you can't seem to explain only accept. that's what lazy people do, accept without questioning...
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Woman: "Can we watch something else?"
Man: "No, I want to see how this ends."

[–] 8 years ago

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