After Shinji Ayoama's other release by ArtsmagicDVD, grim "EM-Embalming", it was truly a surprise finding Wild Life a crime comedy with full of warm-hearted characters and delightingly memorable scenes.

Famous Japanese veteran actor Mickey Curtis plays Kenzo Tsumura, a boss for lead character, ex-boxer Hiroki Sakai (Kosuke Toyohara). Tsumura's grown-up daughter has a big crush on Hiroki, but the main plot focuses on mystery behind Tsumura's other worker Mizuguchi (Ken Mitsuishi). Mizuguchi has disappeared after dealing with yakuza. One day the boss Tsumura disappears too and Hiroki has a difficult task to find him.

Ayoama's talent can be seen in scenes, where small gestures and expressions are in just right place, making the viewer (at least) smile. Even showing the middle finger in right way and in right time, makes Wild Life much better comedy than you could expect. Ayoama makes fun with yakuza characters, who are anything but cool. They sure know how to smash faces but otherwise are in lousy shape, when it comes to catching former boxer. Actors and actressed keep the straight face, and that's also the recipe here for a great humour. Particularly Jun Kunimura(Audition, Kill Bill vol 1., Ichi the Killer) as yakuza leader Ijima is absolutely great.

The overall feeling never gets too dark, even with some violent scenes. Shinji Ayoama has found the right mood for the script that tells the small story of ordinary people dealing with bad boys of yakuza. Wild Life is a perfect feel-good film, that leaves a good taste in your mouth.

Artsmagic DVD release contains the interview of director Shinji Ayoama, in the form of traditional Artsmagic style : the questions appear as white titles on black background and after that the interviewee answers. Simple and effective - but sometimes there can be dull moments, if the interviewee himself/herself speaks uninterestingly . Then there's Jasper Sharp's informative commentary and biographies/filmographies of cast and crew. The picture quality is not as great as most of Artsmagic releases. In fact, it is rather soft and the aspect ratio is something other than DVD case states (1.85:1). The sound quality is quite good, with reasonable DD 5.1 mix.