The Red Mask
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2003
1
17
27
Trip End
Ongoing
Suji, Korea Rep.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
In the western world we have so many urban legends designed to scare us, guide us along some moralistic path, or make us believe that the bizarre can happen. Here in East-Asia a particular urban legend has sprung-up like wildfire. The story of the Red Mask had all the kids talking in the hagwan this week.
When I came to work on Monday, all the kids were discussing whether they thought that the "Bagan Maskeeh" or "Red Maskeeh" was real. Some of the children were legitimately scared, while others just thought it was a cool story... regardless, Red Mask fever has swept Korea. This urban legend began in Japan and made it's way to Korea over the Internet. The story goes like this:
A Korean woman has plastic surgery in Japan
Red Mask
. During the procedure, something goes horribly wrong and she is left with a grotesquely scarred face. The edges of her mouth are cut all the way up to her cheek bones making her face resemble a "psycho-smile." Horribly disfigured she's determined to take out her anger on children. If you live on the first floor of an apartment building or go into dark alleys she may find you. If she does she will ask you a question. "Am I pretty?"If you say that she is pretty, she'll call you a liar and cut your face to be just like hers. If you say she's ugly, she'll be insulted and cut the left side of your mouth... basically you should be scared because it's a lose/lose situation.
The Red Mask conversations lasted about 3 weeks. In that time the story began to evolve to include blue masks, white masks, yellow masks, ect...
Incidentally, I swear I've spotted the white mask in my neighborhood. I see her hiking around Suji in a track suit, wearing a perm, a visor, and a white mask resembling a duck bill to keep the sun off her face.
