Shin Hye-sun fabricates The Art of Sarah against Lee Jun-hyuk
by solstices
At the end of the day, what does an identity boil down to? Netflix’s upcoming mystery thriller The Art of Sarah explores this question in an extended trailer, following the disparate fragments of our titular heroine. Enigmatic and endlessly intriguing, Sarah has her sights fixed solely on her goal of becoming a name brand – even if getting there takes countless crimes, conspiracies, and concealed truths.
“Like beautiful sunsets, lies have a way of making everything appear more impressive,” narrates Shin Hye-sun (Dear Hyeri) as Sarah, walking down a red carpet. “That is, until they’re exposed.” As if to punctuate that sentence, Sarah loses her grip, falling from grace into a heap of trash. A tear slips from her eye.
Who is Sarah Kim, exactly? It seems no one has a clear answer. We see her across various iterations – reclining leisurely as stacks of cash are counted, resting her sore legs at a department store job, ravenously scarfing down leftover food with her lips pressed to a plate. All contradictory, perhaps all disingenuous.
Then the detective Park Mu-gyeong – played by Lee Jun-hyuk (Mercy for None) – discovers a corpse in the sewers. It’s no coincidence that its name also happens to be Sarah Kim, yet there are no records attached to that name. No records proving its origins – nor our heroine’s. Is Sarah’s empire merely a beautiful fabrication?
From sultry seduction, to begging in supplication, there’s nothing Sarah won’t do in order to climb the ranks of high society. But across her many personas – her myriad of distinct appearances – there’s one thing she’ll never be able to control. “You can never erase the memories of the people around you,” Mu-gyeong points out. Just like the glass that an infuriated Sarah hurls past him, illusions are bound to shatter.
Or will they? “But, detective,” says Sarah, enunciating each word with a deliberate composure. “I haven’t told you everything yet.” Along these lines, Sarah’s character poster challenges our perception of truths and lies – if something cannot be distinguished from its original counterpart, can it truly be considered a fake? To that, Mu-gyeong’s poster questions: “Who is the person standing in front of me?” With Jung Da-bin (High Cookie), Kim Jae-won (You and Everything Else), Jung Jin-young (Mother and Mom), and Bae Jong-ok (Black Out) filling out our cast, the mystery deepens. Will the web of deceit eventually unravel – or will it trap our detective in its snare?
Helmed by PD Kim Jin-min (Goodbye Earth) with scripts penned by Choo Song-yeon, The Art of Sarah is slated for a February 13 release.
Via Sports DongA
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