Review | Netflix K-drama review – Parasyte: The Grey, Train to Busan director’s adaptation of classic Japanese manga, a mixed bag

Parasyte: The Grey, directed by Train to Busan’s Yeon Sang-ho, lacks the humour of other adaptations of the Japanese alien invasion manga
The story follows Jung Soo-in (played by Jeon So-nee), who is infected by one of the invading ‘parasytes’, which develops a bond with her

Korean drama reviews

Pierce Conran

Published: 6:30pm, 5 Apr 2024

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3/5 stars

Lead cast: Jeon So-nee, Koo Kyo-hwan, Lee Jung-hyun, Kwon Hae-hyo

Parasyte: The Grey, the new Netflix event series from Train to Busan mastermind Yeon Sang-ho, is based on the iconic Japanese manga Parasyte by Hitoshi Iwaake.

Rather than being a direct adaptation, this six-part series takes place in the world created by Iwaake, with a story specific to South Korea.

Although ostensibly a new story, Yeon’s series is in many ways a retread of the original, starting from the same point – alien parasites raining down from the sky and infecting human hosts – and following a pair of lead characters who develop a similar bond: a “parasyte” and the human host it doesn’t fully take over, who must rely on each other to survive.

Beyond that, while Iwaake’s original and the previous Japanese screen adaptations of the material balance their violent images with humour, Yeon’s version is a far more serious affair. Most of the series takes place at night or in dark rooms – be sure to close the curtains if watching during daylight hours – and there’s nothing as light as the teen romance of the original in sight here.

Parasyte: The Grey – Yeon Sang-ho reimagines alien invasion manga

This reimagining is also more interested in exploring the thematic potential of the manga’s concept, rather than its fun factor.

However, Yeon’s message, while clearly about how humans organise themselves in society, is tricky to parse.

The main villain in Parasyte: The Grey is an alien parasite who leads a group of his fellow aliens that he forms out of self-preservation.

He has taken over the body of a pastor, so the alien group at first disguise themselves as the congregation of a church.

Yeon has long been fascinated by religious groups in Korea, generally portraying them in a very cynical light. In both his animated film The Fake and his Netflix series Hellbound, churches are led by men of dubious moral character who take advantage of their followers.

Koo Kyo-hwan as Seol Kang-woo in a still from Parasyte: The Grey. Photo: Cho Wonjin/Netflix

The reasons behind the creation of these churches, as with the many cult religions that run rampant in real Korean society, are generally financial, but they are also a way of amassing power.

Yeon makes the same point here, albeit metaphorically, with his alien church, which has nothing to do with religion.

The pastor’s alien congregants may be in on the deception but, just like in real life, they are soon deceived as well, as their leader fosters an ambition to ascend to power through leadership roles in increasingly large organisations.

But Yeon has already made this point very successfully in the past and doesn’t expand on it here.

The pastor makes the observation that humans can overcome the more physically powerful parasites through organisation, but the series engages with this interesting theme in a disappointingly superficial manner.

A still from Parasyte: The Grey. Photo: Netflix

Lacking the rich thematic tapestry of Train to Busan, Parasyte: The Grey is left with its storytelling and its set pieces, and on both these counts it is merely passable. The freakish visuals of head-splitting tentacle aliens gets old pretty quickly.

Once again, the series promises something more, hinting that each parasite has developed its own unique attributes to better assist the group, but aside from a parasyte that develops the ability to fly early in the series, it fails to deliver.

The aliens mostly stand in place, limbs akimbo, as they repeatedly thrash their head tentacles around.

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Whereas the human host protagonist of the original was a normal and hormonal teenager, the lead protagonist here, cashier Jung Soo-in (Jeon So-nee, Our Blooming Youth), is a tragic character with a dark backstory, which is typical of Yeon’s work.

Soo-in, who was abused by her father as a child, is helped by several characters throughout the show. First by Detective Cheol-min (Kwon Hae-hyo, Vigilante), then by the hoodlum Seol Gang-woo (Koo Kyo-hwan, D.P.), but also by the parasyte who enters her body and needs to protect it for its own survival.

There was potential in seeing how the damaged Soo-in would work through her trauma and learn to fend for herself, but this mostly boils down to an overly stylised series of scenes taking place in her mind, where the parasyte begins rationalising her behaviour to her as if it were a therapist.

Lee Jung-hyun as Choi Jun-kyung in a still from Parasyte: The Grey. Photo: Cho Wonjin/Netflix

Still, Parasyte: The Grey isn’t without its charms. Kwon is a suitably gruff-on-the- outside-but-soft-on-the-inside detective and the story moves along at a steady clip, with plenty of set pieces that benefit from Netflix’s ample resources.

But given the originality of the premise and the thematic strength of some of Yeon’s other work, one can’t help but feel that the series falls short of its promise.

Parasyte: The Grey is streaming on Netflix.