DVD Movie Review | Parasyte the Movie: Part 2 (Lights, Camera, Action!)

Parasyte the Movie: Part 2 (UK Rating: 15)

Picking up immediately after the previous movie, this one introduces viewers to Uragami, a violent psychopath and murderer who has somehow developed a way to distinguish between humans and Parasytes on sight alone - a fitting introduction to the film and reintroduction to the hero, Shinichi. Uragami is working with the police task force to try and identify Parasytes and Shinichi is one of the people in line for him to check. Uragami cycles through each civilian brought in but on Shinichi he freezes. He's unsure. A flicker of something in Shinichi's eyes makes him question if Shinichi is human or Parasyte - a concern and theme throughout the film as Shinichi has developed into a very different person.

Shinichi's transformation and the nature of humanity within the Parasytes is a theme throughout the film. After the loss of his mother and some of his humanity, Shinichi is in training, going out and killing every Parasyte he can find to grow stronger until he can take on whom he believes to be "The Boss" of the Parasytes, a man called Hirokawa, who has managed to become mayor of his city. The Parasytes have formed a group in the government around Hirokawa with Ryoko Tamiya alongside them, not to mention one of her most terrifying experiments - a being known as Gotou.

The actors do a superb job of bringing their characters to life. Migi and Shinichi once again deliver on their performances but the stand out in this movie is Ryoko Tamiya. Ryoko's character arc throughout is spectacular - the culmination and climax of her story is fantastically adapted from the source. Award winning actress Eri Fukatsu truly did the role and character justice. Watching Ryoko grow and change thanks to her newfound motherhood is much more enthralling than Eri's performance.

Being an adaptation, some cuts and changes have to be expected, especially considering the size of the source material compared to the length of two films. There are some major cuts, such as no love triangle with Kana, and no Jaw and Mamoru, and then some changes to general story themes, such as exposition in place of showing the police investigating and learning the truth of the Parasytes. Some changes are forgivable, others not so much. The amount of knowledge of the Parasytes in the police and in society, in general, is very confusing as it's never fully explained how widespread knowledge of them actually is. Uragami is working with them to identify Parasytes, and then suddenly they know how to spot them and where the Parasyte group is based… It's an arc in the source material, and in the anime it makes sense as it progresses, whereas here those who haven't seen or read the original will end up very confused.

These changes may be considerable, but they aren't particularly detrimental to the final product, thankfully. Certainly, it would have been nice to see Jaw and Mamoru, just as would it have been good to see things like the Dog Parasyte, if only to explore more aspects of the Cronenbergian body horror and to see more of the special effects, but there are plenty of other places to enjoy the contorting and transforming during the film, with the final battle and its fallout looking particularly and pleasantly peculiar.

8/10

Great - Silver Award

With any adaptation, it's impossible to please every audience. Fans of the source material want a faithful adaptation, while casual viewers may not need everything included if it makes for a more succinct final product. In this instance, the adaptation hits the mark perfectly - faithful to the introspective tone of the original, looking at the nature of humanity, society and loss. Characters loyal to the original; the unique Cronenbergian horror transformed to live action; arguably a better ending than the original; a truly loyal and worthy adaptation of one of the most iconic horror mangas of all time. Parasyte the Movie: Part 2 definitely belongs in every collection.