Despite advocating for the harmonious co-existence between races (a theme that crops up in conversation too many times to be coincidence),Parasyte is a testament to human selfishness, with many characters pursuing their own desires, without thinking of other people, or the potential consequences.

Though friends of mine see me as an 'anime addict' my lacking knowledge of the anime this feature is based upon, did not infringe upon my experience. The beginning of the film sees multiple parasitic organisms finding their way into human society, though their origins remain unexplored. Invading the bodies of potential hosts, the parasites completely take over, and despite having an obscene appetite for human flesh, they also exhibit a dire craving for knowledge, with stereotypical plans for world domination. Imagine a combination of Slither and Supernatural Season Seven, and you're on the right track. Though infected humans like Ryoko (Eri Fukatsu) have an open mind, and attempt to find a way to coexist amongst the human populace, most of her kind do not share such peaceful agendas.

Shinichi (Shota Sometani) is a high-school student, with nerdy hobbies and few friends, though his character's life before the film is rarely touched upon. During the first scene in which we are introduced to his character, a parasitic organism invades his body, taking control of his arm. Later referred to as Migi (voiced by Sadao Abe),the creature quickly acquires great intellect, and knowledge of its surroundings, despite the predicament that it was meant to seize control of Shinichi's brain. Regardless of his situation, Shinichi is seldom seen as a sympathetic character, a certain degree of humor transpiring in regards to both his nightmarish experience, and the banter that takes place between him and Migi.

That being said, his mother (Nobuko Izumi),and love interest Satomi (Ai Hashimoto) are certainly depicted sympathetically, though neither of them is ever provided significant screen time to be truly memorable. Shota's mother is allocated some degree of backstory, and Ms. Izumi's talents heighten her character's motherly affections. Satomi on the other hand, is depicted as either the damsel in distress, or as an object of copulation, and is rarely treated as a mature, young woman.

Other characters, including Detectives Hirama (Jun Kunimura) and Tsuji (Takashi Yamanaka) provide the viewer with information necessary to the plot, though seldom is it explained how they themselves acquired such knowledge, while characters including Goto (Tadanobu Asano) and Yamagishi (Kosuke Toyohara) appear in cameo roles, presumably with the intent to have them portray larger roles in the sequel.

Much like The Thing, a film which would make any viewer paranoid about their surroundings, Parasyte is a film that will occasionally leave you wriggling in your chair at the sight of such violence. Although blood-thirsty, what is most disturbing is watching such disgusting creatures eating human flesh. This is accentuated by the effects, which are truly superb, the creatures looking incredibly imaginative, unique and realistic.

Upon discovery that those around him are being taken over, Shinichi and Migi form an unlikely alliance to combat the villainous creatures. Although Parasyte is unafraid to have characters experience great tragedy, at the same time, the film is very predictable, even for someone who hasn't seen the anime, and though the acting cannot be faulted, the melodrama did take away from some of the experience. This being said, Parasyte provides the viewer with an original experience, which is as tense as it is entertaining, though lacking information and an anti-climatic finish, may leave question marks bobbing above your head.

Alright, well aside from this being a Japanese movie and having a fairly interesting title, then I knew nothing about the movie, nor that it was based on a Manga. But my love for Asian cinema drove me to watch this 2014 movie when I was given the chance in 2019.

I must admit that I can't really claim to be much of a fan of "Parasyte - Part 1" (aka "Kiseijuu"),because I found the movie to have a rather mundane and slow-paced storyline, with director Takashi Yamazaki at the steering wheel and not really doing much of anything impressive.

Story-wise then "Parasyte - Part 1" was mundane, and I must admit that I actually dozed off twice along the process of the prolonged movie. Yeah, the story failed to really captivate me.

So why did I continue to watch it to the very end? Well, for two reasons. The first reason because because I also have "Parasyte - Part 2" lined up, so I manned up and stuck with the ordeal that was the first part of the movie series. But the second and most important reason for why I stuck with it was the special effects. Granted, the creature designs were ludicrous and quite far out there, but the CGI effects were quite dazzling. In fact, I will say that the CGI team made the movie watchable by the special effects alone.

"Parasyte - Part 1" is hardly a major milestone in Japanese cinema, and it was a movie that came without finding its way on my radar, and now that I have seen the first part, I doubt that I will ever be visiting a second time around. The movie just failed to bring much of anything worthwhile to the screen for me.

This was a difficult movie to suffer through, because the storyline was atrocious and it was quite slow paced. Essentially it was the CGI special effects that salvaged the movie for me and the majority of the reason why I am rating "Parasyte - Part 1" a gracious four out of ten stars, whereas without the CGI special effects the movie would have been given a lower rating from me.

A movie such as this might hold a greater appeal if you are a Japanese teenager with a life revolving around reading Mangas.

I've seen the anime a long time ago and, since an article recommended the movie, I've decided to watch it, too. Success! This is not only a good Japanese movie, it's a good movie in general. The actors are OK, the special effects are good, the story is cohesive and the underlying moral dilemma of categorizing humans as parasites or mere careless predators is preserved.

To me, the greatest character was Ryôko Tamiya, and the actress was also quite good. At first I thought that she was doing the stone faced alien thing too much, but after a while I realized that it was the right way to play it. I wish Shôta Sometani would have put in more of an effort as the lead character, but he was sufficient as it was. The Migi character was well done, maybe a little too nice.

Overall, the movie presents an interesting idea, which combines body horror sci-fi with a critique on current society. Well done, as direction and special effects go, acting, too. Also, they didn't go too Japanese, which would have made the movie less digestible for the rest of the world. I wonder why do few people watched it. With what I suppose was a tiny budget, they did great.