Min-woo seems like a nice guy living in a viper’s nest, populated by family members who are all operating under their own agendas: His father rules with an iron fist and won’t tolerate any mistakes his stepmother makes barbed comments about his absent mother his sister is in a loveless political marriage and his brother-in-law seems to be waiting for his chance to usurp everything. Yet despite his high rank and chaebol status, his position seems far from secure, with his exacting chairman father constantly barking warnings that he won’t pass the company to an undeserving successor. Her body is identified in the morgue, her distraught family mourns, and then we jump back to two days prior.ĬHOI MIN-WOO ( Joo Ji-hoon) is the successor to SJ Group, a chaebol corporation that owns department stores, for which he serves as executive director. The cables give way and the car plunges into the sea, with Ji-sook still handcuffed to it. Panicking and desperate, she agrees, only to have him declare that she must die.įacing imminent death, Ji-sook takes out her phone and records her last messages to her family-her wastrel of a father, always plunging the family into debt and trouble her long-suffering mother and her troublemaking younger brother. Ji-sook is handcuffed to the steering wheel, and manages to grab her phone to answer a call from a mysterious “Crazy Bastard,” who pressures her into accepting his deal. She’s saved momentarily by the cables that catch the vehicle, but only barely, and not for long. We’re thrown into the thick of action as BYUN JI-SOOK ( Su Ae) drives along a mountain road and swerves to avoid a collision, only to send her car crashing through the cable railing and down a rocky hillside.
The series opens on an immediate hook: Our heroine dies. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Jung Joon-young – “Take Off Mask” Īudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. It’s a fun kind of soap, the kind that moves quickly and keeps you engaged in the conflict without getting overwrought with pain.
Mask is just the right kind of melodrama for me, full of juicy conflict and entertainingly interesting characters, but low on cheesy camp factor. I’m not as drawn to melodramas as an overall genre as I am to other types of dramas, but whenever a show is executed well, I’m happy to give it a chance.
(Not to mention a second performance as the woman whose chaebol life she supplants.) There are a number of cliches in place, no doubt-swapped lives, chaebol takeover machinations, adulterous affairs, a poor heroine with a debt-ridden father, mistresses and illegitimate children-but presentation is everything, and Mask feels like a show that uses its cliches in an entertaining way, rather than as crutches to carry it through lazy writing. Could Ishak be next on the list, or is he the man responsible? Tracking down his more ‘unsavoury’ allies, Serena is shocked to encounter a familiar face: that of her grieving ex-partner, former Malaysian ICD officer Megat Jamil (Bront Palarae).SBS’s Mask is off to a strong start, with an assured sense of style, a brisk plot, and another top-notch performance from Su Ae as an ordinary woman who suddenly gets the chance to live a chaebol life. As Serena and Heri work together to catch the killer, their inquiries lead them to industrialist/kingpin Datuk Ishak Hassan (Wan Hanafi Su), whose prominent family and known associates all have some connection to the victims. Seeking answers, Heri finds a way to insert himself into the Malaysian investigation. Meanwhile, in Jakarta, for ICD Lieutenant Heriyanto Salim (Ario Bayu), the case turns personal when his brother is found murdered in similar circumstances. Called in to investigate, Singaporean International Crimes Division (ICD) officer Serena Teo (Rebecca Lim) takes charge of a case across the border where a family has been slaughtered aboard a luxury yacht in Johor. A series of brutal murders, each sharing a signature MO, takes place across Malaysia and Indonesia.