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1st Parasyte Film Reviewed in Digest Video
posted on by Sarah Nelkin
Film distributor TOHO began streaming a digest video of the first film adapting Hitoshi Iwaaki's science-fiction manga Parasyte on Monday. The film originally premiered in Japan last November.
The first of two films by director Takashi Yamazaki (live-action Space Battleship Yamato, Always: Sunset on Third Street) opened in Japan on November 29. The movie data firm Kōgyō Tsūshin reported that the film debuted at #1 (by tickets sold) at the Japanese box office, despite mixed to negative reviews. The second film, Kiseijū Kanketsu-hen, will premiere in Japan on April 25.
Shōta Sometani (live-action xxxHOLiC, All Esper Dayo!) stars in the films as Shinichi Izumi, Eri Fukatsu (Onnanoko Monogatari) plays Ryōko Tamiya, Shinichi's teacher who has a parasite take over her body, and Ai Hashimoto (Blood-C: The Last Dark, live-action Another, Sadako 3D) plays Satomi Murano, Shinichi's classmate and childhood friend. Ryūta Kosawa (Always: Sunset on Third Street, Shōnen H) is writing the films' scripts.
These films adapt Iwaaki's original manga serialized in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from 1990-1995. The 10-volume series (later reprinted in an eight-volume version) has more than 11 million copies in print.
The manga takes place in a world where alien beings called Parasites come to Earth and start taking over humans by entering in through their noses and ears and attaching themselves to their brains. One alien called Migi is only able to take over high school student Shinichi Izumi's right arm, and is unable to control Shinichi completely. Migi and Shinichi learn to co-exist, and the two battle other Parasites who see humans only as food.
