Inside Yamazaki Takashi’s Horror Hit “Parasyte”

Sometani Shōta (second from left), who plays protagonist Izumi Shinichi, is a gifted performer who won a Marcello Mastroianni Award for best new young actor at the Venice Film Festival in 2011. (© 2015 Parasyte Movie Production Committee)

Abe Sadao, wearing a performance capture suit, plays an organism called Righty that infests Shinichi's right hand. (© 2015 Parasyte Movie Production Committee)

The cast of Parasyte features an array of Japan's top film actors. In the first film, popular young star Higashide Masahiro (left) plays a possessed high school student. (© 2015 Parasyte Movie Production Committee)

Yamazaki directs a confrontation between a parasite-controlled antagonist and a special forces unit. (© 2015 Parasyte Movie Production Committee)

Yamazaki notes his fondness for 3D CG animation, also used in his hit Stand By Me Doraemon, co-directed with Yagi Ryūichi, which grossed over ¥10 billion internationally.