A brilliant film that helped define a genre

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Good Idea Bad Execution , I didn't mean its a bad movie but it could be much better when a viewer felt bored during the film that means something went wrong that's what what I mean the movie is less than 2 hours but it feels like more than that with all the extra stories and scene that aren't necessary to be added , The film started so well then it began to go down. Despite the fact that this movie and director Dave Boyle which he was 32 years old when he directed that movie had a lot of wins and nominations but with all due respect but if it was directed by more experienced director it might have been much better !

Only read if you've seen the movie first! So there are plenty of reviews on this film, but no explanations, so mine will be the latter. Overall I thought this was a fantastic, yet confusing film that you need to watch twice. However, after my second time watching it makes clear sense.Spoiler starts here: Key to the movie is the guy in hotel at beginning kills people and steals their identity. I'll call him mystery man.Akira Suzuki was the man found dead in the Pond. He had the real turtles, him and his girlfriend, who got caught in customs, were trying to sell them. The Chauffeur driver (Hitoshi) - also called the running man, tried to buy the turtles from Akira Suzuki for the wheelchair man (Steven Luft), so he could use them to cure himself, but at the drop it was really the mystery man who had heard about the sale and wanted to make a quick buck, he had Suzuki's half of the turtles after killing him and then bought regular turtles to complete the other half. The Chauffeur was going to offer fake passports for turtles so turtle seller could get a new life (the real Akira Suzuki and his girlfriend in jail - she said this was their last job), but when the impostor showed up to the drop he wanted money, because passports were useless to him. So he roughed up the chauffeur driver and said he wanted $1 mil and that's when the sheriff found him. Mystery man Left ordinary turtles in room as a distraction so that they would go after Aki instead, while he got rid of other 5 turtles. Osamu is also a fake name of some guy who disappeared in Japan that mystery man pretended to be.At the end mystery man kills Aki and steals her identity And publishes her final book, which will have great sales now that she has gone rogue - and he is free to make the profit (hence the more interesting way to make profit that he mentioned to wheelchair man. After he told him that he let the turtles go in the river). When Aki pepper sprays the paparazzi guy he says the picture of the red boat house is home. At the end sheriff finds mystery man on the red boat because he killed the paparazzi guy when he came to Aki's room. Then he added that to his long list of fake lives. The Sheriff found his mystery man on accident because he was looking for paparazzi guy to ask if he knew where Aki went. At the end of the movie when mystery man meets the guy in a bar who just passed his bar exam he says his name is also Junya which is foreshadowing he's going to kill him and take his identity.

Viewed on DVD. Cinematography/lighting = eight (8) stars; other major production values = eight (8) stars; subtitles/credits = ten (10) stars. Director Dave Boyle's tale of four-legged contraband and deadly serial identity theft is a classic edge-of-your-seat thriller. Packed with red-herring subplots and many moving parts, it really requires multiple viewings to understand all that occurs and why as well as to tie up a multitude of what seem to be (but really are not) loose ends. There is no happy ending. It also lacks (thankfully!) the usual Pro Forma car chases up and down the very hilly streets of San Francisco. Acting/direction is very good with bilingual leading actress Ayako Fujitani delivering a scene-stealing, radiant, and intelligent performance (it's a pure pleasure to see her in action!). Cinematography (wide screen, color), scene lighting, and other productions values (such as choice of exterior/interior locations and set decoration) are all excellent. Score is a bit uneven with themes that range from creative use of one or a few instruments to an overriding (and irritating) scrapping-like buzz apparently meant to signal that danger lies ahead. Surround sound field is good when fully deployed. Subtitles (which can not be turned off) are excellent and almost mandatory due to the heavy use of Tokyo dialect/slang. Everyone and everything (even if only mentioned in the dialog) is given on-screen credit including the supplier of Kame (turtles). Since initial funding came from crowd sourcing, several hundred contributors are also listed. Highly recommended for multiple viewings! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Director Dave Boyle is largely known for two things: character-driven comedies and an interest in (and understanding of) Japanese culture. While work such as "Big Dreams Little Tokyo" and "White on Rice" used the former to good effect, his latest film "Man From Reno" capitalizes on the latter in the context of a modern-day noir. In two separate narratives that inform one another, veteran character actor Pepe Serna and Japanese actors Auako Fujitani and Kazuki Kitamura all give career-best performances in parts that afford them time and space to do more than what's usually asked of them. Serna grounds his small-town sheriff with a matter-of-factness and dedication that hints at a great understanding of the character; Fujitani crackles with intellect as a mystery novelist a little too eager to live out an adventure similar to those about which she writes, and Kazuki Kitamura is finally given a role that acknowledges and maximizes his mischievous charm. Set and shot in the Bay Area of California, "Man From Reno" is a clever, noirish mystery that plays as part procedural, part character drama. Director Dave Boyle takes a major step out of his comfort zone with the film and the payoff is immediate. If you're a fan of snappy, believable dialogue and plot twists, this one's for you.