Alien is not a common subject to be the talk among Asian but the movie Alienoid is breaking the stereotype. The action-packed movie plays with a twisting back-and-forth timeline causing headaches to the fans but everything makes sense in the end. The plot is not the only thing the viewer needs to focus on, you need to use your brain to link all the things that happened in the movie. A personal outtake from everything that happens in the movie is Woo Bin Asian streetwear when the robot, Thunder takes on his human form. He manages to look fancy among other characters that basically fighting for their lives.
The sci-fi genre is still a questionable market in South Korea, so it is a huge challenge for Choi Dong Hoon, the director to take on. Alienoid might be too much for people who don’t like complicated plots, but as far as it is concerned, it is way more interesting than other alien movies. As in other Korean movies, the directors didn’t fail to introduce and highlight Korean culture and lifestyle. In Alienoid, they include a timeline in the Joseon era, where people are still wearing Hanbok, a Korean traditional cloth and practising Taoism belief. Mixing it naturally, these Taoism practise possess the ability to use the magic of their own. Yes, you read it right, the movie has use magic and aliens together in creating its plot.
Talking about each major character, let’s talk about Guard. He is the alien guard residing on Earth to take care of all the alien criminals that are being put inside humans as their prisons. Guard’s main job is to make sure these alien criminals stay “sleeping” while the humans are unaware there is another being inside their body. Guard is accompanied by a robot assistant, Thunder that helps him to give the data every time a new batch delivery of alien criminals will arrive. At some point in the movie, Thunder takes on Guard human form to talk to the little girl they took back in the past after killing her mother, Yi-An. Both Guard and Thunder human forms are played by Kim Woo Bin marking his first appearance in the industry after being on hiatus for so long.
Next up, let’s talk about another protagonist in the movie, Mureuk. He is one of the Taoism beliefs that now lives on as a clumsy bounty hunter. While Guard and Thunder are in the 2022 plot timeline, Mureuk here lives in 1381. So we can see him wearing the Hanbok flying around catching criminals and showing his magic off. After catching and prisons a criminal, Mureuk is set to find a new task that can give him a larger pay. He comes across a poster asking to find an odd-looking blade for a huge sum of money. Mureuk then starts his journey to find a blade and discovers that the blade is not an ordinary blade. His journey was also held up by a duo pair of mages wanting the same blade.
Here come the twisting and interesting part of the movie. Remember the little girl Yi-An? In the movie, she existed in every timeline. She was brought back from the past in 1380 to the year 2012 with the Guard. In 2022, when the new delivery batch of alien criminals takes place, Yi-an was stuck in the fight between the Guard and the alien criminal leader, the Collector. While Guard is having a difficult time beating the Collector, he decides that they should travel to time so that the Collector can be put to sleep. They travel to the year 1381 and continue to fight the Collector with the other two aliens. Yi-An shot the Collector’s human form and succeed in making him weak. 10 years passed, and Yi-An now a lady with a gun that in search of the blade and come across Mureuk.
Yi-An and Mureuk have an interesting history together. When 10 years old Yi-An arrives in the 1381 timeline, she was pushed by the aliens into the ocean causing her to pass out. Little boy Mureuk saved her from the ocean and tries to keep her stay alive. When he brings Yi-An into the forest, he bumped into the Collector’s human form. That when the movie reveals, Mureuk is possessed by the Collector and explained his ability to do magic. However, the Collector inside him is not awake and has yet to do chaos on Earth.
In conclusion, the movie is a timeline mess. In social media, people have been discussing whether they like the movie or not. Personally, I love it! It might cause you to rewind some scenes to understand the plot, however, it is still interesting to see magic and aliens work together in a scene. Also, this is only the first instalment of the two-pair movie so there is a lot more to anticipate in the sequel.