Kim Tae-ri plays The Girl Who Shoots Thunder in 'Alienoid.'
Imagine building a world in which aliens trap their prisoners in human brains, but the aliens can also time travel back to a fictional era when sorcerers roamed the land. This is the world built by writer-director Choi Dong-hoon for his two-part film Alienoid, the first part of which will be released in the US this week.
Choi might be described as a box office wizard for the success of his hit Korean films The Thieves, Assassination, Tazza: The High Rollers, and Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard. Choi also featured time travel and sorcerers in his film Jeon Woo-chi, but with Alienoid he casts an even more elaborate spell.
Alienoid is a hard film to describe. The film doesn’t fit neatly into any genre. It’s wryly funny, but features slapstick humor. It’s an adventure story about aliens that has plenty of wire-fu, sword fights, and Goryeo-era gunplay. Alienoid is an action film, a historical magical fantasy, a campy comedy, maybe a romance and possibly presents a message about pollution (blame it on the aliens). Whatever genre—or creative mash-up of genres—you might apply, the film is definitely a lot of fun.
Kim Woo-bin plays Guard, a robot.
The varying storylines coalesce around the character of Yi-an or the Girl Who Shoots Thunder, played by Kim Tae-ri. She’s from the past, grew up in the present and is back in the past to solve the future’s problems. Her “dad” is a robot, played by Kim Woo-bin. Her “husband” is a Goryeo-era sorcerer, played by Ryu Jun-yeol.
However, as long as this character keeps fighting to find the one thing that can save the world—a glowing, magical, time-traveling blade—the plot stays interesting. Yi-an is resilient and resourceful, which is fitting for a girl who grew up eating food from a vending machine at home. What do robots know about feeding kids?
The 2 ½ hour film offers comic moments, lots of special effects and impressive action scenes, plus a cast of talented actors enjoying their on-screen adventures. The stellar cast is more than enough of a sell. Kim Tae-ri previously appeared in the sci-fi film Space Sweepers and the hit TV drama Twenty Five Twenty One. Kim Woo-bin was last seen in the Netflix NFLX drama Our Blues and Ryu Jun-yeol recently appeared in the drama Lost.
Ryu Jun-yeol plays Mu-ruk, an over-confident wizard.
The way the film meshes varying storylines is occasionally confusing, but somehow the creative chaos still manages to entertain. Also, all questions will hopefully be resolved in the second film. Can Yi-an save her robot dad and will she fall for her sorcerer husband? Will Muruk find the magical Divine Blade? Is So Ji-sub’s detective character permanently possessed? Hopefully, the wait for the second part won’t be too long.
Alienoid was released in South Korea on July 20 and, according to the Korean Film Council, took in over $3 million in its first two days. Alienoid will be released in the US on Aug. 26. The film is distributed in the US by Well Go USA.