“If you can’t tell the fake from the real, is it really fake?” This rich line captures the class-infused theme at the heart of The Art of Sarah, Netflix’s latest K-drama offering. Titled 레이디 두아, or “Lady Doir” in Korean, the eight-episode drama follows a woman who will do anything to break out of her working class hell and ascend to the upper class. A non-linear story of revenge, social inequity, and the power of performed identity, The Art of Sarah keeps viewers guessing until the very end.
The Art of Sarah begins with the discovery of a body in the Seoul sewers. Detective Park Mu-gyeong (Love Scout’s Lee Joon-huk), our audience surrogate character, is professionally committed to getting to the bottom of the apparent murder. However, the more he and his team investigate, the less they seem to know. Initially, they verify the identity of the victim using an ankle tattoo and a one-of-a-kind bag. Both point towards Sarah Kim (Dear Hyeri’s Shin Hye-sun), a member of the Seoul elite who just celebrated the Korean launch of the luxury bag brand Boudoir.
However, while trying to determine who might want Sarah Kim dead, Mu-gyeong quickly discovers that Sarah Kim had secrets of her own—in fact, her entire identity was built on them. Then, mid-way through the series, Sarah Kim walks into the police station alive and well, throwing the case into a completely different direction. Let’s break down the twists and turns that lead to The Art of Sarah’s big ending.
Who is Mok Ga-hui?
The character we are introduced to as Sarah Kim did not begin life as Sarah Kim. As we learn through a series of flashbacks told through the testimony of various witnesses to Sarah Kim’s many cons, and from Sarah Kim herself, the persona was created by a working class woman named Mok Ga-hui, a shop girl at Samwol Department Store, selling luxury bags to the uber wealthy and getting drawn toward the high class status the bags represented.
Ga-hui dreams of a better…
