For fans of Kafka and X-Men, this genre-bending disaster sci-fi will come across as hyperrealistic social satire.

We didn't realize that the exam would never end. On the day of Seuneung, Korean college entrance exam, an unknown contagion hits the whole country. At Jin-woon High School, some people, including students who are taking the exam and teaches who are supervising them pass out. When they recovered their consciousness, they have gills and are able to breathe through gills and communicate through telepathy. Yes, they have become fish.

The government immediately dispatches the military to attack the schools and take out the “fish,” but these fish can live without

eating, and guns are useless against them. The pregnant teen Huijae comes running to rescue her boyfriend, who was taking the

exam, and exposes herself to danger. The mutation also happens outside schools. Soon, Korea is devastated by the conflict between

the mutated (fish) and the unmutated. The fish group stays in one of the schools and takes care of unmutated humans who have

requested to live inside. Hui-jae gives birth to a girl, Kang-han, in this hideout, and the baby is the first mutated human born from

unmutated parents. The armed force raid the school to abduct Kang-han, and the incident occurs, which makes this day “D-Day” to

future generations.

Against the backdrop of a school in the Covid-19 time, a microcosm of Korean society, Crimson Masks completes a rich tapestry with

hyperrealistic conversations between the main characters(students, (sub)teachers, a canteen cook, and a private-institute instructor),

stomach-churning governmental responses, and good old-fashioned hatred and discrimination.