A new teaser is out for Netflix’s upcoming comedy-thriller Mask Girl, and the juxtaposition of bright fluorescence with the mask’s unreadable placidity creates an even more spine-chilling atmosphere.
The story centers around our titular mask girl Kim Momi, who’s played by three different actors in the same role. First up is the inmate Go Hyun-jung (Reflection of You), who declares that she has to get out of prison. Kneeling in repentance, she admits that she’s a sinner with a long list of crimes to her name.
That’s why Momi doesn’t seek penance, but a fresh start. Wearing a derisive sneer on her face, Yeom Hye-ran (The Glory) accuses Momi of reinventing herself through plastic surgery and a new identity. Reborn as a glitzy starlet, Nana (Glitch) basks in the spotlight wherever she goes.
As for the third persona, the enigmatic Mask Girl — played by an unnamed rookie actress — is a vivacious internet streamer with a legion of adoring fans. One of them is Ahn Jae-hong (Be Melodramatic), who’s thrilled when she offers to meet up — but glimpses of violent struggles and bloody stabbings suggest his fairytale romance might be entirely in his own head.
Three names, three lives, three murders, with Momi at the center of it all. When a young child in a paper mache mask asks why she killed people, Mask Girl giggles that it was all just a coincidence — but the more we see of the girl behind the mask, the clearer it becomes that there’s a lot more complexity lurking beneath the surface.
With filmmaker Kim Yong-hoon (Beasts Clawing at Straws) taking charge of both directing and scriptwriting, the webtoon adaptation Mask Girl drops on August 18.