Member-only story
‘Mask Girl’ and the Poison of Pretty
Examining the rot in the middle of this show’s beauty
Warning: This piece dips into some mild spoilers!
So much has been made about the lust for life and all the bounties it can bring. Love, adventure, friendship, good food and mirth. However, jealousy, rage, revenge, and desperation apply in equal measure. Lust can come in many forms and not all of them are pretty, despite it coming from a place of wanting to be. This feels like it’s the main thrust behind the new series Mask Girl. A decades-long tale that starts with a dance.
Kim Mo-mi is living a typical, office-drone life, except she has a secret. After hours in her apartment, she dons a flashy mask, and flamboyant clothes and logs in to a Twitch-style platform. This has garnered her small amounts of fame, money, and most of all sexual attention. Mo-mi is physically ugly and this story really wants the audience to know that, to feel it, and how it pains her. This will be a theme that carries across the entirety of the narrative.
In South Korea, where this takes place, a third of young women end up getting some kind of plastic surgery, some believe it’s even more than that. Beauty and its insanely high standard are coveted, championed, and excruciatingly drilled into the women of Mask Girl and that is a sad reflection…
