Parasyte The Movie: Part 1

4 stars for this intensely bizarre yet compelling sci-fi film.

Parasyte The Movie: Part 1 is a live action adaptation of the best selling Manga and hit anime series, Parasyte: The Maxim, written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki. This version is directed by Takashi Yamazaki.

“If the human population was halved, would that halve the number of forests that get burned?”

Shinichi Izumi (Shôta Sometani – Wolf Children, Themis) is a perfectly normal school boy. One night however, while lying on his bed listening to music through his headphones, a strange small parasyte tries to climb in through his ear. Unable to gain access it tries his nose, until eventually settling for his right hand. He ties a tourniquet, stops it getting any further and gets up in the morning thinking it was all a dream.

However he was wrong. He is in for a very nasty shock when his right hand suddenly grows arms, an eye and a mouth and starts talking to him. The little parasite gives himself the name “Migi” meaning right and explains to Shinichi that his intention was to enter his brain and take control, but he couldn’t get there and is now trapped in his hand.

All the rest of the parasites have been much more successful and very shortly, reports begin to flood in from all over about gruesome murders and cannibalism. As soon as they encounter a human who has been taken over, it becomes clear than Shinichi and Migi are going to be a target, as the others are not happy that the human is still in control.

When a new chemistry teacher, Ryoko Tamiya (Eri Fukatsu – Journey To The Shore) starts at the school, they are approached by a network of parasites looking for a way to co-exist with the humans, but even they seem suspicious.

Unable to trust anyone and fearing that his mother Nobuko (Kimiko Yo – Departures) and girlfriend Satomi (Ai Hashimoto – The Kirishima Thing) may be in danger, Shinichi must form an uneasy alliance with Migi and search for a way to stop the invasion.

Parasyte The Movie: Part 1 is a thoroughly enjoyable film. The special effects are brilliant and look pretty expensive and it is a great story-line which works very well as a live action feature. There is none of the Hollywood messing about spending far too long getting to know everyone, it’s straight in there with the action and much better for it.

The parasites in full attack mode are genuinely disturbing and scary and there is also plenty of black humour as well as lots of emotional moments. All in all, the whole thing is quite an experience and something which is most certainly worth adding to your collection.

“How to recognize a parasite? Pull out a hair and it wriggles apparently. It’s all over the Internet.”

Parasyte The Movie: Part 1 is available to buy now on DVD and Blu-ray