| Director | Bong Man-dae |
|---|---|
| Genre | horror film |
| Runtime | 101 min |
| Country | South Korea |
| Box office | $3.1 million |
A figure carries a birthday cake into a room but drops it in shock as another figure commits suicide by hanging herself.
Su-kyoung is on an operating table, ready to undergo plastic surgery. She is nervous and is comforted by her friend Hyeon-su, whose parents are divorced, though she shares a good relationship with her mother Yoon-hee, a successful and talented plastic surgeon. Su-kyoung, alone, sees a frightening image of a girl in a dark blue dress. Yoon-hee begins the surgery, telling her it is time to become pretty.
Later, Hyeon-su is in her art class, making a sculpture of Su-kyoung's face. The class says that Su-kyoung looks more attractive than she did before. Hyeon-su accidentally cuts into the face of her sculpture and a large cut subsequently appears on Su-kyoung's cheek. She screams and flees in terror. A mysterious voice shrieks at her saying she wants her face back. Su-kyoung's cut and blood later vanish. Hye-won, another friend, decides to get an eye job from Yoon-hee.
Hyeon-su, Jae-hui and Su-kyoung wait at a bus stop while an old woman hands out fliers for her missing granddaughter. The bus arrives but Hyeon-su waits for her friend Sung-eon to come. Jae-hui shows instant dislike for Sung-eon, who is tomboyish and hasn't undergone plastic surgery. The girls attend Hyeon-su's birthday party and Su-kyoung gives her an expensive doll as a present. The same ghost girl that Su-kyoung saw appears next to Hyeon-su. When Su-kyoung goes to the bathroom, she sees her face shredded in the reflection. She screams and runs from Hyeon-su's house.
Later, the girls look through a photo album and laugh about what they used to look like. Hyeon-su tells Sung-eon that she has no childhood pictures, which her mother overhears. Meanwhile, Su-kyoung has locked herself inside her room for days and refuses to see anyone. Her mother calls Yoon-hee and Hyeon-su to help. The ghost girl appears to Su-kyoung and says "I'll make you pretty" before Su-kyoung's face begins to violently cut open. The women find the dead Su-kyoung with her face cut off on one side.
Hyeon-su goes into the basement where she was told never to go as a child. She finds a picture of a child with a severely-burnt face and the caption "Hyeon-su before surgery" on it. The ghost girl watches her but vanishes when Hyeon-su's mother comes down and scolds her. Hyeon-su becomes distant and refuses to speak to her mother before leaving to see her father. Yoon-hee follows.
As Hyeon-su talks to her father, Yoon-hee has a flashback from many years before. She had told Hyeon-su to wait in the car while she delivered a file to her husband. The car's engine began to smoke. Yoon-hee found her husband engaging in oral sex with another woman, hits him, and leaves. The engine exploded, horribly burning Hyeon-su and leaving her comatose. Yoon-hee wept over her disfigured daughter. She later visited a church, where a little orphaned girl grew attached to her, addressing her as mommy. The Orphaned Girl loved Yoon-hee and the two are shown to have a loving relationship. Yoon-hee's husband found Hyeon-su missing.
Back in present day, Yoon-hee confronts her ex-husband and tells him that he has no right to see Hyeon-su. Her ex-husband argues saying that the girl isn't Hyeon-su; it is the Orphaned Girl. As Yoon-hee leaves, Hyeon-su tearfully says "Mom" and hugs her. Yoon-hee takes her home. The doorbell rings and Yoon-hee is horrified to find it is Hyeon-su. The two get into an argument in which Hyeon-su tells her that she isn't her real mother and locks herself in her room. Yoon-hee notices the bath is overflowing. Hyeon-su has another terrifying encounter with the ghost girl, who is soaking wet.
The next day Hyeon-su shows the picture of the missing girl from the old woman to Sung-eon and then shows her a photo given to her by her father. Sung-eon notices that they look similar but have different eye colors. Meanwhile, Jae-hui and Hye-won appear to become possessed in art class, cutting each other's faces with scalpels, uttering "I'll make you pretty." Paramedics take their bodies away. Yoon-hee locks the real Hyeon-su in the basement when she returns home. She then puts who she believes to be Hyeon-su to bed.
In another flashback, it is shown that the real Hyeon-su, still with her face burned off, begins to show signs of improvement and Yoon-hee performs an operation. She removes the girl's oxygen mask but cannot bring herself to kill her and sobs for her "daughter"; the faceless girl lovingly strokes her hand. Later, the faceless girl watches the other girl play with a friend and comments on how pretty she is. Yoon-hee tells her that she is prettier but the Faceless Girl accuses her of liking the other girl better. Yoon-hee lovingly tells the Faceless Girl that she will make her a new face. Unfortunately Yoon-hee didn't fully keep her promise; she only made the girl very realistic masks of her daughter's face. The Faceless Girl, now in her late teens, sneaks out of the basement and witnesses Hyeon-su's birthday party with all of the friends who would later have surgery. Yoon-hee hastily locks her back in but the Faceless Girl screams, begging for a birthday party and a pretty face as Yoon-hee breaks into tears on the other side of the door. Later, Yoon-hee prepares a cake and takes it to her, finding out that she has hung herself (the first scene in the film).
Hyeon-su discovers the girl's room and finds a cupboard filled with the masks she wore over the years and a diary filled with sadness and hate towards Hyeon-su and her friends. Hyeon-su then discovers a fridge-like device which Yoon-hee kept the Faceless Girl's body in after her death. Sung-eon and Hyeon-su search for Yoon-hee. Sung-eon sees who she believes to be Hyeon-su but it is actually the Faceless Girl who pulls her own face off like a mask.