Peanut-popping gangsters, dangerously attractive boss's daughters, and a hero blessed with the gift of repairing pachinko machines populate this energetic revisionist noir. Ex-boxer Hiroki lives a laconic, uneventful life, painstakingly working as an adjuster of pins in pachinko machines, until three visitors burn the haze out of his dull days: Mizuguchi, an ex-coworker who wants revenge on some sinister yakuzas; Ijima, a gangster who wants "the envelope" he believes Hiroki has; and Rie, the boss's daughter, who suddenly just wants Hiroki. Always maintaining both his cool and his politeness, Hiroki eventually springs into action, armed only with his bare fists and a surprisingly deadly full can of beer. Bouncing about like a pachinko ball, Wild Life giddily swings through a nonlinear blur of scenes and segments, mixing moods from kitsch action thriller to Sam Spade noir, love story to wild comedy, always reigned in by Aoyama's attentively concise control of editing, camerawork, and pace. This year Aoyama won the FIPRESCI (International Critics Prize) at Cannes for Eureka.-Jason Sanders