Alienoid is a South Korean action fantasy released in 2022 that runs two clocks at once: the closing years of the Goryeo Dynasty and the present day. Directed by Choi Dong-hoon, it folds sword-and-sorcery adventure into a science-fiction premise about alien prisoners held inside human bodies.
What is Alienoid about?
Two eras share one story. In late Goryeo, a swordsman sets out to seize a legendary divine blade said to carry extraordinary power, and he soon learns he is not the only party who wants it. Centuries later, in 2022, a very different group tracks something stranger: an alien convict confined within a human host, one of many such prisoners quietly kept on Earth. A door between the timelines opens, and what happens in one century begins to bend events in the other. Allegiances shift as each side works out what the other is really after, and the two hunts turn out to be one chase seen from opposite ends of history.
About the cast
The ensemble is led by Ryu Jun-yeol, Kim Woo-bin and Kim Tae-ri, with So Ji-sub, Yum Jung-ah, Jo Woo-jin, Kim Eui-sung and Lee Ha-nee completing a large cast spread across both timelines. Because the story is split between two periods, the performers work in two registers: historical costume drama on one side, contemporary action on the other.
Context & significance
The Goryeo Dynasty, in whose final years half the story takes place, was one of the long-running royal houses of the Korean peninsula, and the film uses that period as setting and texture rather than as a history lesson. At 142 minutes, Alienoid has room to build both timelines, their separate rule sets and a sizeable cast before bringing them together. It sits at the intersection of the three genres catalogued for it here, action, fantasy and science fiction.
Watching Alienoid on Ktime
Alienoid streams on K-Time with both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so you can watch it in Farsi audio or in the original Korean with Farsi text. This page is free to read; watching requires a K-Time account login. The interface is built in Farsi for viewers across the Iranian diaspora.