Parasite Eve (film)

Toshiaki Nagashima is a researcher studying mitochondria and teaches how it is passed between generations from the mothers side of a family and its possible use for regenerative ability through the liver. His wife Kiyomi goes to visit Nagashima for their anniversary at his work where she finds out they forgot their anniversary. On travelling home, she gets in a car accident and is left in a coma with brain damage. A doctor, Takashi Yoshizumi meets with Nagashima the next day and tells him his wife was an organ donor, and a young girl named Mariko Anzai in the hospital was looking for a kidney donor. After thinking about signing on for the donation, he accepts to donate the liver with the doctor on the condition that he can have Kiyomi's liver. Nagashima takes the liver to his lab dismissing the scientists so he can perform experiments on the organ. At the hospital, Mariko's health shows a marked improvement but begins to scream in the night to remove something from her body, which her caretakers dismiss as her having nightmares. At his lab, Nagashima finds the liver samples growing at an exponential rate. One night, a gelatinous from the liver mixes with samples from a bottle labeled as "Eve" in the lab and possess the lab assistant Sachiko. Later that night, Nagashima enter the lab and finds a gelatinous form that morphs itself into the form of Kiyomi. Nagashima approaches her as they embrace and have sex on the lab floor. Afterwards, the being resembling Kiyomi deteriorates leaving Nagashima alone.

At home, Nagashima finds Kiyomi's journals that reveal she was losing control of herself as voices in her head made her attracted to Nagashima's work, and to manipulate her actions to get Nagashima to perform his experiments leading up to the previous night. A stilted Asakura approaches Nagashima and tells him to attend her presentation at a science conference. At the conference, Nagashima meets with Yoshizumi who says Mariko has grown stranger each day and that even her uterus was changing. Sachiko Asakura begins to present, revealing herself to be a mitochondria collective that will replace humans, and can control the mitochondria in peoples bodies. The creature explains they have found an ideal womb to continue their process. Nagashima asks if the creature is Eve, before it makes a person erupt in flames through the mitochondria in his body which leaves the audience in a panic. Nagashima and Yoshizumi rush to her, as Nagashima tells the doctor that the creature collected sperm and is looking for a proper womb to cultivate it, leading the two to rush to the hospital.

At the hospital, Mariko's stomach convulses wildly as staff try to help. When Nagashimai and Yoshizumi arrive, they find Mariko has fainted and the creature is attempting to escape with her. The creature slowly leaves while setting people on fire as she moves through the hallways. Nagashimai and Yoshizumi attempt to use security doors to prevent the creature from escaping, which leads it to move to the roof with Mariko. Nagashima pleas with the creature, calling her Kiyomi, to let Mariko go. The creature responds that their form is the new evolution and that Mariko will bear the real Mitochondria Eve and that the mitochondria controlled all events in Kiyomi's life that led to this point, including manipulating her to fall in love with Nagashima. Nagashima calls out to Kiyomi as the creature tells him to go away and sets his arms on fire. Nagashima continues forwards and embraces Kiyomi leading the two to erupt into flames. Takashi arrives on the roof and rescues Mariko as the creature and Nagashima continue to burn.

Cast sourced from the book The Toho Studios Story.[1]

Parasite Eve is based off the 1995 novel of the same name by Hideaki Sena.[4][5] Sena had a background in pharmacology and his day job consisted of testing mitochondria with various drugs their ability to convert fatty acids into energy.[4][6] A television documentary he viewed gave him the idea of the mitochondria having a will of its own and not feeling like continuing its symbiotic relationship.[6] This was the basis for his novel, which was very popular in Japan and was the first book given the Japan Horror Novel Award.[6] In 1997, Kadokawa Shoten decided to use its film production side of its business to develop a film version of Parasite Eve.[6] It was the company's first film in over three years after Haruki Kadokawa left in disgrace over a cocaine scandal that stopped the independent producer making films.[5] The film was co-produced by Kadokawa and Fuji TV's Motion Picture Division. The film cost 550 million yen to make and approximately the same to promote ($909,000 total).[5]

The group hired Masayuki Ochiai, who had experience in the early 1990s making television series Night Head for Fuji TV.[6] The screenplay for the film was written by Ryoichi Kimizuka[7] Kimizuka had to re-organize the non-linear approach of Sena's novel and handle the technical terms used within the novel to make it appropriate for a screenplay.[8] Director Masayuki Ochiai stated he was "not really happy with the circumstances I was under when I had to create [Parasite Eve]...First of all I was forced by the producers to make it a love story. There were so many compromises I had to make that it couldn't be a true horror movie."[8] Among the cast was Riona Hazuki who was most known for her appearances in Japanese television at this period.[9] Ochai stated he looked for someone "who could enact the sensitivity of the character. i found that quality within Hazuki."[9] Due to her popularity, Ochiai was concerned that fans of hers would just come to see her nude in the film.[9] To avoid this, he was inspired by a manga by Osamu Tezuka that involved men-hating women who were set to take over the world.[9] Tezuka drew these women without nipples, an idea Ochiai used for Hazuki in the film feeling it would make the her "sexual" while still "bizarre and horrific without being exploitative."[9] Parasite Eve took eight weeks to film.[10]

Parasite Eve was released theatrically in Japan on February 1, 1997 where it was distributed by Toho.[2][1] The film received a relatively limited theatrical release in Japan and was not widely distributed overseas.[3] Variety projected the film take in 100 million yen ($826, 446) during its five-week run in about 150 Japanese theaters.[5] The film grossed a total of The film grossed a total of 490 million yen domestically.[11] In comparison to other Japanese productions of the year, it was not amongst the highest grossing Japanese film productions of the year, with live-action films Lost Paradise grossing 2.3 billion yen and School Ghost Stories 3 grossing 1.15 billion yen.[12]

In 2001, Parasite Eve was shown at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre as part of the "Japanese Outlaw Masters 3: The New Generation" series.[13] It was screened alongside Uzumaki and Cat Soup.[13] Parasite Eve was released in the United States by A.D. Vision with English subtitles on August 31, 1998.[1] It was released on DVD and VHS by A.D. Vision on August 14, 2001.[14][15]

Academic Colette Balmain described the film as often being overlooked due its limited distribution in Japan and overseas in comparison to Hideo Nakata's Ring.[3] From contemporary reviews, Aaron Gerow reviewed the film in The Daily Yomiuri described the film as "mildly enjoyable at times" but found that it "whitewashes the novel" and that "creativity is lacking and all of it seems too much like an overblown TV drama."[16] An anonymous reviewer in Fangoria described Parasite Eve as a "flawed but fascinating" that was "held together by Ochiai's assured style and plenty of unsettling moments."[17] The review concluded that Ochiai "maintains a dead-serious tone in the face of rampant silliness" and that the film was "an accomplished debut, proving that Ochiai is one of the more original forces in new Japanese cinema."[17]

From retrospective reviews, Balmain declared it as a key film in the J-horror boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s with its similar plot threads to The Ring's sequel Spiral that contained similar themes of genetic disaster due to science running amok.[3] Balmain praised the "evocative score" by Joe Hisaishi and the acting of Hiroshi Mikami and concluded that the film succeeds better as a film "about mourning and melancholia" rather than a horror film where she critiqued a "relatively slow pace" and "not so special effects."[18]

• List of Japanese films of 1997
• List of science fiction films of the 1990s

• Parasite Eve on IMDb
• Parasite Eve at AllMovie