‘The Art of Sarah’ series review: Shin Hye-sun and Lee Jun-hyuk lead a glossy tale of intrigue

What makes luxury worthy its terms tag? Is it the deliberate elusiveness with which a marque positions its handbag, oregon the longing that follows erstwhile you glimpse the shimmer of diamonds connected the reddish carpet? There is besides a relentless integer showcase to contend with, of decorator hauls, backstage jets and gateways successful what seems similar the astir opulent corners of paradise.

Netflix’s latest thriller, The Art of Sarah, positions itself successful the heavy of each the play this satellite has to offer. There are casual investments of billions being made, cipher cares to cheque if a marque has so served the ‘British Royals’ for a century, and adjacent amidst the precocious echelons of society, determination is simply a strict hierarchy to beryllium followed.

As radical queue up astatine a buying hub successful Seoul connected a acold wintertime morning, awaiting a brand’s latest drop, a assemblage is discovered successful a sewer. Detective Park Mu-gyeong (Lee Jun-hyuk) is soon enactment connected the case, and the assemblage is initially identified arsenic that of Sarah Kim (Shin Hye-sun), the determination caput of luxury marque Boudoir.

This is nary straightforward open-and-shut case, and arsenic detective Mu-gyeong soon discovers, Sarah’s shadowy beingness is acold from casual to decode. Sarah, arsenic it turns out, seemingly burst into the luxury marketplace country from obscurity and created an enviable scope of bags that soon became a prized asset. She has a sprawling storefront and a increasing database of enemies. Mu-gyeong pieces unneurotic what happened to Sarah done the accounts of a erstwhile employee, a person and concern partner, a imaginable emotion interest, and an ex-husband. Her communicative and individuality displacement with each caller perspective. With each recollection of her past, you are near wondering — who truly is Sarah Kim?

Peel backmost the layers, and erstwhile the gloss fades, we statesman to spot the different extremity of the spectrum wrong the thriving luxury industry. In The Art of Sarah, the manufacture is 1 successful which income representatives are routinely denied bath breaks and forced to wage retired of their pockets if shoplifting goes undetected. And the lone remainder areas are cramped corridors tucked distant astatine the backmost of a glittering store wherever they prevarication down with their feet up against a partition for a precious fewer minutes.

The societal commentary the amusement has to connection is wedged betwixt a whodunit and immoderate slow-burning thrills arsenic we navigate the galore identities of Sarah. Netflix’s binge-format works champion here: the penning remains adjacent from commencement to finish, and each occurrence ends connected a cliffhanger. We beryllium done repeated interrogations and testimonies erstwhile Mu-gyeong and Sarah statesman a cat-and-mouse crippled successful a contention against time, and yet, it does not consciousness monotonous. In a existent testament to bully penning (credit to Chu Song-yeon), the twists really onshore and are unpredictable for the astir part.

An impeccably styled Shin Hae-sun plays Sarah and her galore different personas with an unsettling ease, managing to onslaught a equilibrium betwixt obnoxiously assured and vulnerable. She finds a worthy hostile successful Lee Jun-hyuk’s earnest Mu-gyeong, who has to look disconnected against her galore machinations and an irritable brag who is retired to guarantee helium does not person it casual connected the case. We larn small astir Mu-gyeong beyond his engagement successful Sarah’s case, and that feels fitting. In this satellite of murky gloss, determination is small country for him but arsenic an outsider, compelled to wade into it each for the incorrect reasons.

The Art of Sarah is 1 of those uncommon K-dramas that manages to clasp your attraction good past the halfway mark. We person grown each excessively acquainted with plotlines (and logic) being thrown to the wind. Here, the satellite of haute couture, with its societal climbers and susceptible collateral, holds a ton of intrigue.

The Art of Sarah is presently streaming connected Netflix