Item: Mask Girl
Rating: 8.1
Author: NextFlicks

Kim Mo-mi is a profoundly unhappy woman whose life takes a cruel and unexpected turn one night, the consequences of which will ripple through the lives of all those around her for years to come. A brilliantly insightful K-Drama/thriller.

There is absolutely no doubt that Netflix hit a gold mine when it first aired Squid Game. Not only was it a huge success for the streaming platform but it spawned a fandom for all things South Korean. And that includes Mask Girl.

In a dazzling amalgamation of talent and narrative, the 2023 Netflix series Mask Girl (Korean: 마스크걸) has emerged as a captivating addition to Netflix.

Directed by the adept Kim Yong-hoon and featuring a star-studded cast including Lee Han-byeol, Go Hyun-jung, Nana, Ahn Jae-hong, and Yeom Hye-ran, the series brings to life a riveting story that originally captivated audiences as a Naver webtoon.

Created by Mae-mi and Hee-se and published between 2015 and 2018, the webtoon has found a second wind through its adaptation, which premiered in August 2023.

With an intoxicating blend of drama, mystery, and emotional depth, Mask Girl is poised to become an essential binge-watch for fans of the genre.

What Is Mask Girl About?

In a world where beautiful people excel, and those less fortunate in the looks department are often overlooked and ignored, Kim Mo-mi (Lee Han-byeol) is considered ugly.

Despite her childhood ambitions of becoming a famous star still burning inside, Mo-mi knows that her dreams will never come through.

What she does have though is a great body. So, taking advantage of this, she turns to live streaming her raunchy performances as Mask Girl, a masked internet personality.

By day she works is a boring office worker but by night she entertains her legion of fans. That is until one night she gets drunk and goes too far, resulting in a suspension from the platform.

With her life in tatters, Mo-Mi becomes consumed with the idea of plastic surgery, truly believing that if she was beautiful her life would be better.

But when a fan recognises her in the street, ill-fated events change her entire life in one night.

I wish I could tell you more but to do so would ruin the entire plot of Mask Girl. Suffice it to say, it takes a very dark and intriguing turn as Mo-mi's life is irreversibly changed forever with the repercussions rippling out over the next 14 years.

Mask Girl Official Trailer

Is Mask Girl Worth Watching?

Before I delve into the details, here's what I would say about Mask Girl. You'll be forgiven for wondering, about two episodes in, where it's actually going.

With no obvious central plot, it's tricky to figure out what it's all about. Then, almost as if the creators flipped a switch, the whole story unfolds in the bloodiest of fashions.

Suddenly the whole picture becomes clear and you know you're in for one heck of a show. As mentioned above, I won't go into any details however, what I will say is that each episode of the story picks up from the perspective of another character in the story.

So once we learn about Mo-mi, we then move on to Joo Oh-nam, her work colleague, and so on as each person who is affected by the events of that ill-fated night picks up the narrative.

There's a lot to unpack with Mask Girl. While the main plot becomes clear, it's the subplots that are the most emotional.

This is, essentially, a story about loneliness, despair, grief, broken familial bonds and how a life spent on the sidelines can eventually lead profoundly unhappy and unloved people to do the unimaginable.

And yet, for all of that, you never dislike any of the characters. It's a testament to how well-written they are that no matter how crazy their actions may seem, they are also completely understandable.

Netflix's Mask Girl is one of those rare shows that will stay with you long after the credits role. It's as much a social criticism of the value we place on beauty as it is a cat-and-mouse thriller and it is definitely worth watching.