Mo-mi is a woman who dreams of being admired as a stage performer but who, because she lacks fashion-model looks, becomes a masked adult webcaster. A series of unfortunate events prompt her to go under the knife and then on the run, with the whole country chasing after her.
Mask Girl: Netflix’s deliciously dark saga of desire and revenge
Mask Girl: Netflix’s deliciously dark saga of desire and revenge
Through her story, the series explores the universal themes of gender roles and beauty standards, in a country where the problems they pose are starker than in most other developed nations.
But are these issues satisfactorily explored, or is their treatment only skin-deep?
Mo-mi changes completely, both in appearance and personality, as the story unfolds – so much so that she is portrayed by no less than 11 performers: Lee Han-byeol, in a revelatory debut role, and four child actors before Mo-mi’s transformation, established names Go Hyun-jung and Nana following it, and four different stand-ins.
However, just like those Russian stacking dolls, each layer has revealed itself to be hollow, which we discover when we reach the solid layer at the show’s climax – the one with the most crudely drawn lines.
The climactic episode of Mask Girl finds the middle-aged Mo-mi, played by Go Hyun-jung, executing a daring and inspired escape from prison to save her daughter Kim Mi-mo (Shin Ye-seo) from the clutches of the deranged Kim Kyung-ja (Yeom Hye-ran), who is about to conclude a 15-year-long vendetta following the murder of her son Ju Oh-nam (Ahn Jae-hong).
Filled with action and purpose, it is an entertaining conclusion to the series but also, for once, a predictable one. The villain is put down, the damsel in distress is saved – and the intriguing and meaningful issues broached by Mask Girl at its outset are forgotten.
Given its complex sexual politics and topical use of online media early on, this is a disappointing way to close out what is otherwise a compulsively watchable show.
A generous reading may propose that the story’s hollowness mirrors our fascination with beauty and online celebrity, but that seems more by chance than by design.
On the other hand, some of the show’s more risqué elements seem as though they are there to grab our attention rather than to make a point.
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Mo-mi’s schlubby office admirer Oh-nam is an engrossing screen presence – thanks in part to Ahn’s great performance – but his characterisation is a confusing one.
He is a pathetic incel who masturbates while surrounded by sex toys in one scene and then a sympathetic stalker saving Mo-mi from a more dangerous predator in the next.
His death, which sets in motion an epic tale of revenge, also combines these two sides. He forces himself on Mo-mi, who suddenly takes charge and instigates intercourse, fulfilling his fantasy.
That fantasy is short-lived when Mo-mi channels her inner Sharon Stone and brutally murders him, Basic Instinct-style.
Although not minor quibbles, these issues are still handily outweighed by the show’s bountiful strengths.
Channelling many of the greats of modern Korean cinema, from Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil to Bong Joon-ho’s Mother to anything by Park Chan-wook, Mask Girl is a masterclass in the kind of devilish thrills that put Korean cinema on the map in the first place.
Mask Girl is streaming on Netflix.