The first trailer for director Takashi Yamazaki’s live-action adaptation of Parasyte just hit, and boy is it a doozy.
Based on the 1990-1995 body horror manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki (Historie), Parasyte is the first of two films to bring the manga’s story to the screen (Parasyte Part 1 will be in Japanese theaters on November 14. Part 2 will be out sometime next year).
The book and film follow a stealth invasion by alien worms which fall from the sky and burrow into the bodies of their human hosts, taking them over. One of those unfortunates is Shinichi Izumi (Shota Sometani), who’s somehow able to resist his parasite which has taken over his right hand, and control it. Which is great, because after his infection, Shinichi will have to fight other territorial parasites who are out for blood.
It’s been a while since I read the manga from Tokyopop, but some of the scenes here appear ripped straight from the pages of the book (I believe the encounter between the man with the split face and his soon-to-be-dead wife is from the first volume).
Sometani (The Boy From Hell, Tokyo Tribe) is joined by Confession actress Ai Hashimoto. Director Takashi Yamazaki is the mind behind the fun but forgettable Returner (2002) and the terrible, just awful Space Battleship Yamato. Parasyte doesn’t appear to be plagued by that film’s relentless cheapness, but we’ll see, I guess.