Macabre…ish Horror Review: Parasite Part 1
Parasyte Part 1, 2014/ 109 min
Aliens invade humans by infecting their brains, usually, but Shinichi Izumi (Shota Sometani), because he was wearing headphones as the time a parasite was attempting to infect him, it failed. So the alien settled for invading his hand. And unlike other infected humans, Shinichi is conscious of his alien parasite, but after the shock and horror, he befriends the alien and names it, Migi (Right) (Sadao Abe).
The parasytes aren’t just using humans as hosts but for food. Shinichi has to not only live an existence where he knows people are infected but also defend himself against those who are disgusted that he has two consciousnesses.
When the aliens attack and their human vessel is mortally wounded, they simply transfer to another host, which is how Shinichi’s mother, Nobuko (Kimiko Yo), is infected. But the alien will keep up the fight in the new host, which is exactly what happened when Shinichi is almost killed by his own mother.
One parasyte that has infected Shinichi’s teacher, Ryoko Tamiya (Eri Fukatsu), is actually curious about humans and how they live. The alien decides to have a human baby with another human, infected by a parasyte known as Mr. A (Mansaku Ikeuchi).
Speaking of Mr. A, that is who has infected Shinichi’s mother and when he almost dies from the attack, Migi, his parasyte, saves him and they become more of a singular entity than a guy infected with alien.
Meanwhile, another parasyte, Takeshi Hirokawa (Kazuki Kitamura) runs for town mayor in order to secure the interests of the aliens. And humans are dealing with a serious increase in violence and outright slaughter and they have no idea why. The one person who does know is having identity crisis because of his relationship with his parasyte and his empathy with their plight.
This is the first in the installment of live action movies based on the Parasyte manga series. If you like the manga you may like this, otherwise it is an interesting twist on an alien invasion movie. The effects are really good and I really like the concept. It is also bloody, gory and graphic. Well done!