Kiyomi (Riona Hazuki), the wife of Toshiaki Nagashima (Hiroshi Mikami), is left brain dead after a traffic accident on the day of their first wedding anniversary.

Ochiai made his debut as a feature film director, having worked in Japanese television on horror series such as Night Head.

It received mixed reviews; The Daily Yomiuri found the film "mildly enjoyable at times"[5] and Fangoria called it "flawed but fascinating".

[6] Toshiaki Nagashima is a researcher studying mitochondria and teaches how they are passed between generations from the mother's side of a family and their possible use for tissue regeneration through the liver.

One night, a gelatin from the liver mixes with samples from a bottle labeled "Eve" and possesses the lab assistant Sachiko.

Nagashima tells the doctor the creature has collected sperm and is looking for a womb in which to cultivate it, and they both rush to the hospital.

The creature responds her form is a new evolution, that Mariko will bear the real Mitochondrial Eve, and that the mitochondria controlled all events in Kiyomi's life that led to this point, including manipulating her to fall in love with Nagashima.

[8] The group hired Masayuki Ochiai, who in the 1990s had made the television series Night Head for Fuji TV.

[4] Director Masayuki Ochiai stated he was "not really happy with the circumstances I was under when I had to create [Parasite Eve] ... First of all I was forced by the producers to make it a love story.

[11] To avoid this, he was inspired by a manga by Osamu Tezuka that involved men-hating women who were set to take over the world.

[11] Tezuka drew these women without nipples, an idea Ochiai used for Hazuki in the film, feeling it would make her "sexual" and "bizarre and horrific without being exploitative".

[14] In 2001, Parasite Eve was shown at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, California, as part of the "Japanese Outlaw Masters 3: The New Generation" series.

[16][17] Academic Colette Balmain said Parasite Eve is often being overlooked due its limited distribution in Japan and overseas in comparison to Hideo Nakata's Ring.

[18] Aaron Gerow reviewed the film in The Daily Yomiuri, describing it as "mildly enjoyable at times" but said it "whitewashes the novel" and that "creativity is lacking and all of it seems too much like an overblown TV drama".

[5] An anonymous reviewer in Fangoria described Parasite Eve as a "flawed but fascinating" film that is "held together by Ochiai's assured style and plenty of unsettling moments".