I did it! I watched Bridal Mask in under a week! Was it worth it? I’m not even sure. I have to be honest with you. I hated a lot of things about this drama. I also disliked a great many more things. I did so much eye-rolling I once gave myself a headache. So this is about "Bridal Mask" – Freedom Fighter! Or, revenge fighter. Heaping revenge upon revenge, avenging wrongs that in turn incite others to enact revenge, so they can go out and again avenge someone else who died during someone else’s revenge. Did I mention this is a revenge drama? It’s also got one of the most torturesome bromances I have ever had the misfortune to sit through… I think I sat through most of this drama wondering just how sucky can these characters’ fates actually get!?! Probably the most epic of epic dramas (that I have seen recently), this is also my first time with actor Joo Won, and though I can say I was pleased overall by his performance, I'm still not really his biggest fan. Park Ki Woong as Shunji was more to my taste. What I Liked: For all the plot-wasting time, I found Bridal Mask to be a genuinely good story with some pretty compelling characters, especially in the initial set-up period of the drama: Kang To before he became Bridal Mask and Shunji before circumstances forced him to side with his father against his friend. What I Didn’t Like: The romance – shockingly. I just didn't feel it, and it's mostly to do with the main female actress Jin Se Young as Oh Mok Dan. Her backstory is fine and dandy (for Kdrama standards), but as the pinnacle of our love triangle she’s almost too bland, and her acting while not horrid was not as compelling as others. I was mostly bored every time she came on screen, and only tolerated her because she was so vital to the story, and in the motivations behind our two main leads. Also, I hate to admit it, but there were so many torture scenes in this abominable show that I almost wanted to yawn through them. Just how many times need we depict people being whipped or burned or put in a box with metal stakes. I think it was the writers’ go-to solution. “Well, what should we do now? The story’s slowed a bit.” “Hey, I know! Let’s have them bring this person back in for questioning and torture, AGAIN!” Repeat, two episodes later. And two episodes after that. Tedious, anyone? Need more masked-man action, pppplease!! Unfortunately I think Bridal Mask suffers much from a combination of too many small things to count. Almost as if it couldn't decide what genre it really was (after the revenge drama part). Maybe the length has to do with most of these faults. I will say that the overall ending was good - the last 30 minutes were especially compelling. Shunji, you will always be in my heart, somewhere. Deeep down. Read my more detailed review + spoilery thoughts on the end at: http://shinealightrose.blogspot.com/2013/02/kdrama-review-bridal-mask-2012.html#more