Why Am I Here

Now I understand why people gave bad ratings to this show. This show is a gold and sh*t at the same time. The story tells about a girl who took a fake identity of Sarah Kim. She used such identity to build a luxury brand by conning a lot of people, including a loan shark, an investor, a hostess, a sick-wealthy man, a luxury department store owner, her own store sales agent, and a lot of VIP customers because her luxury brand was not luxury. She conned everyone meticulously by using another fake identities, and threatened them with their own secrets. She made them unable to report her (and it was pointless to report either since her identity was fake), and even unable to let the world know that she had conned them. How come a series of con became so much success? Because all of the victims fall into the same pit: DESPERATION. The name of her brand spread quickly and successfully made other people jealous, putting her into a point where a con tried to become her fake. So now there is a fake of a fake person. And after that you'll begin to question: among all those frauds, which one was done by the fake and which one was by the "fake of the fake"? I also began to question: if these all are cons, then maybe they weren't cons but business? Then all of her confessions, were they all a con too? What if actually Kim Mi Jeong who made the confessions? What if it was actually Mok Seol Hui? What if Kim Mi Jeong was actually never exist, and she made it all so Sarah Kim could die and Mi Jeong could take all the blame?

While all of the story above are really convincing materials for a thriller, this type of story needs to be written very very meticulously. They tried to pull a mindblowing plot, but unfortunately the number of plot holes are too much here. Park Mu Gyeong found out her suicide was fake through some phrases referring to luxury brand taglines in her suicide note, why the hell she had to left hint? Also the remains of a man that found in the suicide scene, who's that? The polaroid of a couple; I think it was her and Seong Sin, why Ji Hwon name was written in the back? Then about Sarah Kim in a crutches at the police station front, in what part of timeline was that and what was that? When she said she is Kim Mi Jeong, why didn't they check the surgery scar? More importantly, throughout the show I think the police were all too one dimensional and frustrating. They were too certain of something unclear, and later trusted her confession too much. How could they trust a con after she said she was actually Kim Mi Jeong? It feels like the police let Sarah dictate the investigation. In the end, they tried to make us pity Sarah, but failed to do so.

Shin Hye Sun is a bit overkill for this show. I thought they were going to explore the fragile side of Sarah Kim, why she did all the con, etc but they didn't. She played excellently as a jerk villain, but I feel she isn't jerk enough. Lee Jun Hyuk and other talents are a bit wasted here as the story focused too much on Sarah Kim.

This show highlighted a harsh reality about a luxurious culture, the fake and superficial live. Everyone tries to pay at any price for a prestige. It doesn't matter if it's a fake, as long as it can amaze others. And when it comes someone who steal more eyes from them, they will always try to win it back, no matter how. This theme is very comparable to a show from the same production 3 years ago: Celebrity. It has same elements: fake luxurious life, con,, and murder. That's why people will compare it directly to it.

The ending lets us decide which part of the story is true and which part isn't, and which identity of Sarah Kim survived. The pace of this show is extremely fast. Very intriguing and quick, but maybe not enough for a rewatch.