A review of Parasite in Love (moderate spoilers)

In a dark room, crammed with computers and devices, Kengo Kosaka prepares his revenge against the world: a malware that will disrupt all communications on Christmas Eve. He remembers the suicide of his parents when he was 8 years old, the mockery at school, being rejected… Kengo washes and scrubs his hands frantically for his panic fear of dirt and germs (mysophobia) means he has no place in this world.

Somewhere else, lying in a park, Hijiri Sanagi reads a book. She meets children, she hates them and the way they stare at her. Hijiri simply cannot stand being looked at and observed (scopophobia), she has shunned herself from the outside world by wearing a headset all the time. Her memories are the inquisitive eyes of a grandfather, a scientist who told her as a child that she was sick, just like her mother, because a parasite lives inside her brain. Hijiri thinks she will die but does not panick, she lives with it.

How could these two young people possibly meet? Yet… Izumi, a mysterious man who seems to know a lot of things, contacts Kengo and forces him to not only meet Hijiri but to take care of her. After a difficult beginning that gives rise to scenes where tragic-comic dialogues and special effects are sometimes disturbing, the feeling of love emerges. Both of them aspire to do normal things, like everybody else… but is this mutual attraction the work of the human heart or the product of the influence of parasites living in their brains? Kengo is also infected.