The Korean Alien Invasion Series Climbing Up Netflix's Top Charts
We have seen time and time again how Netflix can be a place where movies and shows get rediscovered. It is also a place where shows and movies can become extremely popular through word of mouth — mostly because Netflix's own marketing efforts aren't enough to rival traditional Hollywood studios. This is how something like "Stranger Things" became a phenomenon, and how "Suits" got a new chance at life. Video stores might be dead, but that hasn't stopped audiences from discovering things they might have otherwise missed.
Such is the case with a new Korean thriller series making waves and climbing up the Netflix charts. "Parasyte: The Grey" is the new show from Yeon Sang-ho, director of "Train to Busan" and "Hellbound." It adapts Hitoshi Iwaaki's best-selling manga, which is about a high schooler facing an alien invasion after a parasite tries to take over his brain but instead manages only to infect his arm.
The new show moves the action to Korea and follows a new victim of a parasite attack. She finds herself in the middle of a war between a special task force seeking to eradicate the parasites, and a group of parasites trying to survive in this new home by taking over human hosts. It may sound wild, but it's one of the best Netflix releases of the month.
A masterclass in adapting a manga
The best thing that can be said about "Parasyte: The Grey" is that it is a rare adaptation that actually justifies its existence. This is a masterclass in how to adapt a piece of art to another medium, with Yeon and writer Ryu Yong-jae not doing a remake or even retelling the same story in a new setting with new characters. Instead, this is a completely original story in a new location, but still set in the same world.
This allows "Parasyte: The Grey" to explore the same themes as the source material — the symbiosis between humans and parasites — only in a darker and more somber way than the comparatively light and funny manga and anime, which are tonally more akin to something like "Venom."
The show also has some rather spectacular CGI, translating the wildly imaginative transformations the parasites go through and delivering effective body horror in the process. Heads morph into all sorts of shapes, from scythes to tentacle whips to wings. Even if you have no familiarity with the "Parasyte" manga or anime, the live-action adaptation has plenty of body horror thrills and well-staged action to be an effective standalone thriller worth your time — and well worth its ascension of the Netflix charts.