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bokminthe

Europe

bokminthe

Europe
Mask Girl korean drama review
Completed
Mask Girl
12 people found this review helpful
by bokminthe
Aug 25, 2023
7 of 7 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 1.0
This review may contain spoilers

I got lost in what message this wanted to tell me

There is something about this series that bugged me a lot, and it's the fact that in trying to have a social commentary about "beauty standards" it ended up framing the "ugly" characters as the worst of society. By the end of the show I was wondering if the message was that if you're "ugly" you'll end up being a murderer or a rapist or something in those lines, or you'll be a perv with dolls in your house. "Beautiful" people don't have any weird likes and spend their lives doing the most normal things, apparently. *sarcasm*
I get the metaphors in this show, don't get me wrong, at the end of the day for example Joo Oh Nam was going to try and rape her without her looks coming into consideration and Chun Ae would have also suffered the same consequences she got if she didn't operate, or how Choi Bu Yeong got his life because of his looks despite being a bad person. But I couldn't get that feeling out of me, and so as the show went on I started to sigh more deeply.
The message that might be there is not clear and doesn't speak loud enough, it's weak and gets put to the side for the shock value and the grittiness (also when she learnt she was pregnant I thought we were going to get a debate about that but apparently it was immediately accepted without any issues).

I liked the start and the premise of the story in relation to her real persona versus the internet one, but as other users have pointed out, this idea gets quickly overshadowed by the murder drama and the constant trauma from that point on. I also found very annoying that at no point it's shown (and so I understand she didn't mention to the police or in trial) what happened during the incident and why she killed him. Either way, from that point on it's just trauma and a relentless psycho mother.
The plot then just becomes boring and predictable and I found myself wondering if 7 episodes were even needed, especially towards the end. I think honestly this could have been a movie.
About the mother Kyung Ja as a character, for better or for worse I've met in the past mothers that would completely ignore the evidence of their children doing wrong and would go completely ballistic at anyone that would dare say something wrong about them, so she worked well in my opinion as the ultimate "evil" in here, even though I do not personally find it interesting enough to be something I would like to dwell on or watch many episodes of like in this case, but as a concept it works for me.

If there was any morality to be learnt from this show I got none, maybe that you should operate your face as soon as you can so you can have a normal or privileged life before things get out of control? *sarcasm*

I give points for the acting, it was good as it was the general atmosphere and photography, as well as a good idea for the story that sadly becomes average thriller. Special mention to Ahn Jae Hong in both his performance and characterisation. Also special mention to Lee Han Byeol, I liked her as main character and I was sad when she didn't appear anymore, I think she's very pretty, and saying this (and having read some questions and comments the actress received), you know, the show could have actually dwelled on how beauty is completely subjective and "beauty standards" are a lie and shouldn't exist, that would have been a lot more interesting.

Rewatch value for me this has none and I would only recommend to those that like thrillers and are not triggered by rape, murder, trauma and overall grittiness, otherwise avoid completely as some scenes are not pleasant to watch.
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