Parasyte Part I

 

The buyers of 11 million or so Parasyte paperback showed up in large enough numbers to earn Parasyte Part 1 a solid $16.5 million following its November 29, 2014 release. This was the latest in Yamazaki long string of box office hits, including his controversial WW2 kamikaze pilot drama The Eternal Zero, whose $73 million take was the most of any live-action film released in 2014. 

 

Parasyte Part 1 hits the tough-to-find sweet spot between black comedy and apocalyptic sci-fi/horror, as well as echoing recent headlines about scary viruses. Pop entertainment it may be, but it uncannily reflects today’s queasy zeitgeist. True, the relationship between the nervous teenaged hero Shinichi (Sometani Shota) and the brainy parasite (voiced by Abe Sadao) that lodges in his right hand borders on the goofy. And the film’s premise of aliens using humans as their sock puppets/protein source has been used again and again, beginning with the 1956 Don Siegel cult classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 

 

But Yamazaki, a sci-fi genre veteran who debuted with the 2000 robot-from-the-future hit Juvenile, expertly surfs the edge between the cute and the creepy, while turning both his source material and standard genre tropes to his own creative advantage. He also adroitly manages the transition from the comic early scenes to the doom-laden latter ones, concluding with strong hooks (co-written by Yamazaki and Kosawa Ryota) that make waiting for Part 2 less a duty than an anticipated pleasure. 

 

Parasyte begins with a sequence showing a title creature, which looks like a cross between a snail and a centipede, making its squirmy way into a human brain via an unsuspecting ear and taking over its now zombie-like host. Our hero, the sleeping Shinichi, is spared this fate, though the critter makes its way into his right hand and assumes a semi-human form, with a mouth on his host’s palm and a single eye protruding from his forefinger. 

 

Calling itself Migi (“Righty”), Shinichi’s new companion turns out to be a pint-sized whiz, absorbing human knowledge as fast as he can click Web pages. He can also defend himself, transforming his finger/hands into sharp blades that can lash out like deadly whips. After his initial repulsion and disgust, Shinichi resigns himself to Migi’s presence (or rather attachment) and forms an uneasy partnership with him. 

 

Luckily for him, since Migi serves as an early warning system when other parasites, in dead-eyed human form, are coming dangerously near. Some are hunting nourishment in the form of human flesh, while others are seeking less violently obvious ways of adapting to – and eventually dominating – their new environment. One of the latter is Tamiya Ryoko (Fukatsu Eri), a new biology teacher at Shinichi’s school who regards Shinichi and Migi as interesting objects of study. Her fellow parasites, however, tend to see this pair as, if not a meal, untrustworthy freaks. That is, their fight for survival – the emotion-free parasite’s only concern – continues – and comes to involve Shinichi’s down-to-earth mom (Yo Kimiko), his well-meaning, clueless girlfriend Satomi (Hashimoto Ai) and other hapless humans around them. 

 

The producers have wisely cast real actors in the lead roles, instead of the usual idol types, beginning with Sometani Shota as Shinichi. A frequent presence in indie films since his breakout performance as a disturbed teen in Sono Sion’s 2011 drama Himizu, Sometani ranges convincingly from funny rubber-faced agony to chilling narrow-eyed rage. And Shinichi, he makes us believe, remains Shinichi even after he takes on certain of Migi’s characteristics. But how far can he go before he crosses the line to permanent alienation? 

 

Adding to this anxiety about his and humanity’s fate is Sato Naoki’s score, with its blaringly powerful, often-repeated chord reminiscent of the famous jagged and insinuating Godzilla theme. At the end, following titanic battles with various monsters, Godzilla would return to the sea. The parasites of Parasyte, however, have nowhere to go but us, to music that sounds like the trumpet of the Apocalypse. Be afraid.