“Parasyte” Part 1 and 2 are exciting film adaptations based on the popular manga series from Hitoshi Iwaaki. Violent and action-packed, if you are a fan of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s manga series or the anime series, then definitely enjoy these two films on Blu-ray/DVD.
TITLE: Parasyte: Parts 1 & 2
FILM RELEASE: 2014 & 2015
DURATION: 109 Minutes/117 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (2:35:1), Japanese and English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: Funimation
RATED: N/R
Release Date: May 8, 2018
Based on the Manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki
Directed by Takashi Yamazaki
Screenplay by Ryota Kosawa, Takashi Yamazaki
Produced by Genki Kawamura, Takahiro Sato
Executive Producer: Shuji Abe, Seiji Okuda, Akihiro Yamauchi
Chief Executive Producer: Yoshio Nakayama
Music by Naoki Sato
Cinematography by Shoichi Ato
Edited by Jun’nosuke Hogaki
Production Design by Yuji Hayashida, Eri Sakushima
Set Decoration: Yutaka Motegi
Starring:
Shota Sometani as Shin’ichi Izumi
Eri Fukatsu as Ryoko Tamiya
Ai Hashimoto as Satomi Murano
Kazuki Kitamura as Takeshi Hirokawa
Masahiro Higashide as Hideo Shimada
Tadanobu Asano as Goto
Miko Yoki as Nobuko Izumi
Jun Kunimura was Detective Hirama
Hirofumi Arai as Uragami
Pierre Taki as Miki
When a parasitic species suddenly invades, one of the creatures missed its mark. And in that moment, Shinichi Izumi’s life changed forever. While his brain was spared, his right arm was taken over by the parasite, Migi. Now, the two must learn to coexist while the rest of Migi’s kind attempt to take over the human race. Can Shinichi fight the invading species while maintaining his own humanity?
Back in 1988, Hitoshi Iwaaki created the manga series titled “Kisejiju” (Parasyte) for Kodansha’s “Afternoon” magazine which lasted from 1988-1995.
In 2014-2015, the manga series received film adaptation in two parts. And now the two films will be released on Blu-ray together courtesy of Funimation.
Both films are directed by Takashi Yamazaki (known for directing “Stand By Me Doraemon”, “The Eternal Zero”, “Always – Sunset on Third Street”) and features a screenplay by Ryota Kosawa (“Parasyte: The Maxim”) and Yamazaki.
The films star Shota Sometani (“Himizu”, “A Liar and a Broken Girl”), Eri Fukatsu (“Bayside Shakedown” films, “Villain”), Ai Hashimoto (“Confessions”, “The Kirishima Thing”), Kazuki Kimatura (“Kill Bill” films, “The Raid 2”, “Godzilla: Final Wars”), Masahiro Higashide (“The Kirishima Thing”, “Death Note: Light Up the New World”), Tadanobu Asaho (“Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan”, “Thor: Ragnarok”, “Battleship”), Jun Kunimura (“Kill Bill: Vol. 1”, “Ichi the Killer”, “Audition”), Hirofumi Arai (“Blue Spring”, “Confessions”, “100 Yen Love”), Pierre Taki (“Like Father Like Son”, “The Devil’s Path”, “Samurai Fiction”) and more.
The film begins with Parasytes infecting human hosts and those human hosts killing the people close to them. One of the parasites tries to infect a high-school student named Shin’ichi Izumi (portrayed by Shota Sometani), who slaps it away when it tries to go up his nose. The parasyte tries to go back up but instead slams into Shinichi’s right hand. As it tries to go up his arm, Shin’ichi puts a rope around his arm, preventing the parasite from traveling.
Shin’ichi is able to communicate with the parasyte who names himself “Migi” (which means “Right” because he’s in Shin’ichi’s right hand). Migi is thirsting for knowledge, so it reads many books to learn about human culture. Shin’ichi takes him around school trying to learn human behavior, fighting and weaponry.
While his mother and his best friend Satomi Murano (portrayed by Ai Hashimoto) thinks Shin’ichi is behaving weird, Shin’ichi tries to introduce Migi to the human world.
One day, Shin’ichi spots a sushi chef who is host to several parasytes and when the possessed chef tells Migi how he failed, why not let the human host die and join up with him and other parasites. But as the chef tries to kill Shin’ichi, Migi protects him by severing the chef’s head, thus killing the other parasytes.
When he goes to school the following day, at the school assembly announcing a new teacher, the new teacher is Ryoko Tamiya. Migi tries to alert Shin’ichi to look away because she’s a parasyte to no avail.
When he confronts Ryoko, he learns that Ryoko heads a network of parasytes who are learning how to co-exist with humans.  She introduces him to Mr. A (a police officer infected by a parasyte) and Hideo Shimada (a student that will enroll at Shin’ichi’s high school). She has been impregnated by Mr. A and is to give birth to a human baby. She goes even far to try to eat human food, so she doesn’t need to eat humans.
But can parasytes and humans co-exist?
For the second film, the film continues where the last film left off.
Shin’Ichi has made it a mission to kill all parysites. While Ryoko tries to prevent other Parasytes from hurting him as she wants to study him much more using a journalist named Kuramori (portrayed by Nao Ohmori) who is taking photos of Shin’ichi.
But without her knowing, Goto (portrayed by Tadanobu Asano) wants both Shin’ichi/Migi killed. But also for Ryoko to be eliminated as well.
As the police enlist the help of a crazed lunatic who can detect parasytes, the police create a special assault team to take out parasytes but are they enough to take on the powerful Goto?
VIDEO:
“Parasyte” Part 1 & 2 is presented in 1080p High Definition. Picture quality and visual effects are well-done for the film. The recreation of the parasytic species, especially in attack mode was well done.
I didn’t notice any banding issues or any artifact problems.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Parasyte” Part 1 & 2 is presented in Japanese and English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD.   Lossless audio features crystal clear dialogue with action sequences utilizing the surround channels effectively.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES
“Parasyte” comes with original Japanese trailers
EXTRAS
“Parasyte” comes with an UltraViolet HD and Funimation Digital Copy code.
It was back in the mid-to-late ’90s when I first read the “Parasyte” manga series. Because the manga where I read it from was flipped, instead of Shin’Ichi having Migi on his right hand, it was on his left and in the English version, he was called “Lefty”.
But it was an engrossing series despite it’s violence and it wouldn’t be until 2015 when I watched “Parasyte” Part 1 on the plane enroute to Tokyo.
With a second film released, I wasn’t sure if the two films would be released in the US and sure enough Funimation made the decision to release both films together on Blu-ray/DVD.
“Parasyte” is a fascinating story about a young man nam Shin’Ichi who prevents a parasytic worm from going up his nostril into his brain. The worm tries to jump back into his nose but Shin’Ichi was able to block it with his hand. While the worm tries to go up his arm into his brain, Shin’Ichi ties his arm up to prevent it from happening and sure enough the parasyte takes over his right hand.
Unfortunately, these parasytes are killing innocent people and then feeding on other humans. They harbor a hate towards Shin’Ichi and the parasyte Migi as both try to show they co-exist, a human and a parasyte.
Because the parasytes can detect each other, Shin’Ichi is constanty on alert.
In the first film, Shin’Ichi meets Ryoko Tamiya, a teacher at his school that is also a parasyte. But unlike others, she tries to find ways for parasytes and humans to co-exist and so with her human host body, she allows her body to become impregnated and wanting to learn how to raise a human child. As she wants to observe Shin’Ichi and Migi, the others in her network are not so accepting and want Shin’Ichi dead.
The first film pretty much plays up the bond that Shin’ichi develops with Migi but also the people close to him that are in danger.
While in Part 2, the head of the Parasytes, a powerful person named Goto wants all humans to be devoured and has his Parasytes going after Shin’ichi and Migi to kill them, including Ryoko Tamiya. Meanwhile, the police and a Special Assault Team are made aware of the parasytes try to eliminate them.
While I haven’t read the complete manga series, I am unable to explain how different the manga series is to the live film adaptation but for one, there is only so much you can contain from a 10-volume manga series in a two-part film and also, most live film adaptations tend to be different from the manga.
But I will say from these two films alone, I enjoyed both and feel they are among the better film adaptations of a manga series out there. Way too many films try to stray away from the original source but in this case, it helps that a live film was made after the manga series was completed.
Actor Shota Sometani does a great job of playing Shin’ichi Izumi and Eri Fukatsu as the parasyte teacher Ryoko Tamiya, is a well-known film and drama actress in Japan, that excels in every role she tends to play. And it was interesting to see Tadanobu Asano playing the main antagonist for the second film.
Both film looks great on Blu-ray and the lossless audio also works well with the action sequences of the film. While there are no special features but the Japanese trailers, I did like the fact that a Ultraviolet HD code was included, for those who like watching their films on the go.
Overall, “Parasyte” Part 1 and 2 are exciting film adaptations based on the popular manga series from Hitoshi Iwaaki. Violent and action-packed, if you are a fan of Hitoshi Iwaaki’s manga series or the anime series, then definitely enjoy these two films on Blu-ray/DVD.
