'Mask Girl' review: Dark K-drama tale full of twists, focuses on societal beauty standards, trauma

The new series gets off to a promising start but becomes distracted by its own twists and turns. The gritty South Korean Netflix original series is a satire on social beauty standards, generational trauma, and the detrimental effects of unhealthful parenting beginning in early childhood.

Mask Girl is a riveting new Korean thriller series based on a webtoon of the same name that features murder, covert identities, and several tales of plastic surgery. It stands out from the other K-dramas available on Netflix (NFLX), making daring decisions (with daring social criticism), similar to Squid Game. With the sheer volume of turns and twists the programme offers, it swings for the fences and gets off to a great start. Mask Girl eventually breaks under the weight of its own brilliance, though.Mask Girl is a sombre remark on how society beauty standards can influence people and drive them to the point where it destroys more than just their lives. Additionally, it discusses the effects of generational trauma and how poor parenting during early childhood and beyond can harm a person. The seven-episode limited series follows the story of a different character who is flawed because of their own troubled pasts that they are unable to move past. The mental damage that each character has caused links them together even though they are all very different from one another.

Some of the most interesting and insightful two hours of television that Netflix has produced this year may be found in the first two episodes. In "Kim Mo-Mi" and "Ju Oh-nam," the programme performs at its best, fusing genres like romance, horror, and animation to create something totally unique. The show is extremely astute when it comes to gender dynamics, as Oh-nam personifies sleazy, sweaty incel society while Mo-mi's vulnerabilities cause her to want male attention. In these episodes, which take place in 2009, the importance of a rising online culture is underlined, complete with all the modern-day beauty standards and softcore sex work. 

The programme uses one of its more knowingly stupid tropes, where characters are performed by numerous actors thanks to miraculous cosmetic surgery treatments, as a result of this disconnected drive. In the series, Mo-mi is portrayed by three different actresses: K-pop star Nana takes over as Mo-mi's new face, but she wears her ugly past well; and Korean TV veteran Go Hyun-jung steps in for the final episode, after a significant jump in time. Newcomer Lee Han-byeol is given the challenging role of being the "ugly" version, which she pulls off with poignant pathos.

All that Kim Mo-mi (Go Hyun-jung/Im Jin/Lee Han-byul) wanted was to be well-liked and adored by everyone. But after her mother and the rest of the world convince her that she is not attractive, she settles for a life as an ordinary office worker. The show ultimately falls into the same trap as many soapy series, favouring unexpected plot twists above believable character development. Mask Girl's second half attempts to elicit stunned and amazed gasps, but because its revelations are so contrived, it is more likely to result in irritated sighs.