Mask Episode 1 and 2 First Impression

I like you. I like you very much. I had not expected to like this melodrama but the first episode zoomed by without me knowing. In the second hour I stuck around because I needed to know how that switcheroo happened. By the end of it, the setup was complete.

Mask feels like King Flower done right. Lol. After the fifth episode of that TWdrama, I was fairly certain the drama wasn’t going my way so I dropped it pretty soon. However, I really wanted to add King Flower to my completed list because after that drama finished its run, I did watch all the Terry scenes.  Haha. So, Terry becoming Korean and actually getting the girl without an open ending seems like a pretty good drama to me. I’m also looking forward to Byun Ji Sook/Seo Eun Ha’s addition into his family to fix up everyone. I think I’ll really like this drama if the quality of the plot stays fairly consistent. The mood of this drama is perfect for me: not too dark, not too light (I really do have an aversion to dark stuff).

I wasn’t expecting to like this drama let alone watch it. I was not a fan of Secret. I tried so hard to complete it. Really hard. I managed to but I skipped pretty much of everything. It took me ten minutes to watch each episode. That was my first time going on a skipping spree and hopefully it will be my last time. I could have just dropped the drama but I heard so many great reviews and plus I really wanted to watch something with Ji Sung in it! Anything! So I bore through that one. Currently, with so many (SO MANY) dramas premiering, I forgot about Mask and I completely forgot that it shared the same writer as Secret, otherwise I wouldn’t have given this drama a chance. But I’m so glad I did. This one had the best premiere among Warm and Cozy, Producer, Orange Marmalade, and Masked Prosecutor.

There’s nothing to complain about acting-wise. Producer's cast may have the star power but the acting between the two dramas is either squarely tied or Mask wins just because Producer got IU. Sorry IU, I do love you. This will be my first Su Ae and Yeon Jung Hoon drama that I hopefully will complete. No guarantees there because my drama dropping rates are like birds pooping: randomly and constantly. It will also be my first Yoo In Young drama. It took me such a long time to pinpoint where I saw her and her oh-so-familiar loveable character, and then bingo! I remembered her from the actress special in Running Man. RM needs a special to that special (things there have been so boring lately…). So far my favourite character is none other than Joo Ji Hoon's Choi Min Woo. I did not know this man can do funny. 

If there’s one thing I want to complain about is Kdramas and their obsession with mental health. I’m fine with dramas giving me all sorts of bad boys but I want them to stop using mental health as a reason for them being prickly. I won’t digress further on that. Choi Min Woo’s psychological trauma is something I dread. How many flashbacks are we going to get? If Byun Ji Sook is somehow involved in his trauma and indirectly (very indirectly) caused his mother’s death, I’ll roll my eyes until my pupils get stuck up there. I may have a pretty high tolerance to clichés but not when I recently just had to drop something with that storyline, so I beg you, Mask, please spare me.

This picture is from Dramabeans

On a side note, how great is it to be in those muscular arms of Joo Ji Hoon. Except maybe if she wasn’t squeezed right next to the toilet. Must have been fun for Su Ae to get in there.

♦ ♦ ♦ Summary ♦ ♦ ♦

I realized I haven’t talked about the actual plot, so here:

Byun Ji Sook is on the brink of death when a “Crazy Man” gives her a chance to live but she’ll need to die first. We zoom back to two days ago where she gets called to a school reunion only to get ridiculed for being poor. Poor but pretty. Out of pity, she gets a wad of cash thrown at her. Swallowing her pride, she takes the money because her dad has gotten her family into a ton of debt. That night she gets drunk and crosses path with Choi Min Woo. He mistaken her as his fiancée, Seo Eun Ha. How does a fiancé not recognize his fiancée, you ask? They’re in a political marriage and they’ve only met each other for a few days. Unwillingly, he’s forced to care for the drunken Byun Ji Sook (who’s not Seo Eun Ha). He brings her to a hotel, coincidentally drops his name cards, and ends up – as you can see in the above picture. He’s naked because he took a shower after she puked on him. He’s got a serious case of germophobia so you’ll see quite a bit of splash works going on while he showers. He also refuses to wear his soiled jacket so he settles on a bathrobe and wears it all the way back home. Joon Ji Hoon rocks in it (in my eyes).

The next day is doomsday. Byun Ji Sook wakes up alone in a hotel room and realizes her wad of cash is missing, which she later believes that it was stolen by Choi Min Woo. She also meets her doppelgänger, Seo Eun Ha. Unlike Byun Ji Sook, Seo Eun Ha is rich and bratty. She may be Choi Min Woo’s fiancée but she’s also Choi Min Woo’s brother-in-law’s mistress. Some complicated geometry going on there. Choi Min Woo’s also got a stepmom and a sister both of whom exude wickedness just by standing there. The men around Choi Min Woo aren’t much better: his dad is a domineering scoundrel, his brother-in-law (Min Seok Hoon) is scheming for his inheritance; his doctor is making him crazy (this is only my hypothesis though). Sucks to be Choi Min Woo. He’s also got a mother trauma because his mum died drowning while saving him, and now somehow Seo Eun Ha also ends up drowning and is in critical condition. The main suspect for her almost-certain-death is Choi Min Woo himself but he doesn’t recollect anything. While Min Seok Hoon is in deep waters because Seo Eun Ha wasn’t just his lover but also part of his ambitious ploy. And what better way is there to fix that problem than using Byun Ji Sook as a replacement? How we get to the opening scene of her on the brink of death at a cliff handcuffed to a car, you’ll have to watch on your own.

♦ ♦ ♦

I’m looking forward to the fun dynamics that come into play later on: there's the hate-hate relationship between Ji Sook and Seok Hoon and the love-hate relationship between Ji Sook and Min Woo. So much fun! I want Byun Ji Sook to cure Min Woo of his germophobia by being a slob. Lol. Choi Min Woo never loved anyone and seeing Joon Ji Hoon’s acting in here, I’m confident he can pull off the naïve-boy-in-love expressions. Our two protagonists also never formally met in the first two episodes: it’s either she’s drunk or he’s unconscious. I can’t wait until their first meeting next week; it might be fun if they got married right off the bat too.