Parasyte: Part 2

The second half of a Japanese science fiction film. Creatures settle into human bodies. They take over the brain and replace it, and they see people as food. Shinichi got through it halfway. The creature could not reach his brain, settled in his right hand, and the two have had to share one body. The right hand talks. It is called Migi; it has no feeling, works by logic, and calculates survival. The second film tells what follows the first. Shinichi's mother died and a creature took her place; the boy is no longer what he was. The creatures are organising. One called Reiko has got into the city administration and is planning a future for the species. From there the film runs two lines side by side. The state's operation and the split among the creatures themselves. Reiko's line is unexpected. The creature gives birth to a child and tries to work out what being a mother means. There is a killer on the human side as well. Someone who is not a creature commits murders by imitating their method. What the narrative is interested in is not monsters but species: the film positions the human as a predator too and takes the creatures' point of view seriously. Shinichi grows cold. His feelings diminish, he does not react to death, and those around him notice. The effects are done with computers. The transformation scenes are heavy and in some sections the image quality drops. The source is Hitoshi Iwaaki's comic; the adaptation was split into two films and this is the second. Shota Sometani, Ai Hashimoto, Eri Fukatsu and Sadao Abe are in the cast. Takashi Yamazaki directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes Japanese science fiction and comic adaptations. Who it is not for: anyone who has not seen the first film; the narrative recaps nothing and the bloody scenes are heavy.