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Live-Action Parasyte Film Tops Brad Pitt's Fury in Japan
posted on by Egan Loo
The movie data firm Kōgyō Tsūshin reported that the first live-action film of Hitoshi Iwaaki's science-fiction manga Parasyte debuted at #1 (by tickets sold) at the Japanese box office this past weekend, despite mixed to negative reviews. It sold about 256,200 tickets for about 340 million yen (about US$2.85 million) on 418 screens.
The manga takes place in a world where alien beings called Parasites come to Earth and start taking over humans by entering in through their noses and ears and attaching themselves to their brains. One alien called Migi is only able to take over high school student Shinichi Izumi's right arm, and is unable to control Shinichi completely. Migi and Shinichi learn to co-exist, and the two battle other Parasites who see humans only as food.
This is the first of two live-action Parasyte films by director Takashi Yamazaki (live-action Space Battleship Yamato, Always: Sunset on Third Street). The second film is slated for April 25, 2015.
The trailer begins with the following narration:
If half of the human race would disappear, would the amount of forests burned also be halved? If the human race was decreased to one-hundredth, would the amount of trash produced do the same? Someone on the earth thought this for just a moment.
Fury, the World War II film starring Brad Pitt, ranked #2. It sold about 155,700 tickets for about 201 million yen (about US$1.68 million) on 332 screens. The film's Japanese campaign featured collaborations with the military anime Girls und Panzer, Kantai Collection -Kan Colle-, and Strike Witches: Operation Victory Arrow. In additon to clear file folders with these anime's characters, the campaign included a television commercial narrated by Girls und Panzer character Yukari Akiyama (voiced by Ikumi Nakagami)
Takashi Miike's live-action film of Akeji Fujimura and Muneyuki Kaneshiro's As the Gods Will (Kami-sama no Iu Toori) manga dropped from #3 to #4 in its third weekend. Shingeki no Kyojin Kōhen ~Jiyū no Tsubasa~, the first of two Attack on Titan compilation films, also dropped from #6 to #7 in its second weekend. The live-action film of Toriko Chiya's Clover manga stayed at #8 in its fifth weekend.
Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
