Insadong Scandal is a tale of deceit and black-market art deals. Bae (Uhm Jung Hwa) is an art dealer, who hired the art restoration expert Lee (Kim Rae Won) to do his magic on what she thought was a newly discovered painting from the Joseon Dynasty.
Right from the start you’ll have the feeling that Lee is up to no good and you’ll anticipate every move he and his gang will do next. Insadong Scandal does feel a little bit like Ocean’s Eleven and The Thomas Crown Affair but that should not stop you from watching this movie.
But the similarities stop there. The characters were well developed. The story explained why Lee and the others turned on the scheming Bae. Kim Rae Won was successful in his portrayal of the mastermind of an elaborate plan to take down the Queen Bae.
Uhm Jung Hwa in Insadong Scandal was completely the opposite from her role in He Who Can’t Marry. As Bae, she was fierce and totally dominated everyone in the movie.
Insadong Scandal shows the dark side of the Arts industry where forgeries are rampant. There might be an instance where forgers are copying a fake without their knowledge. Hopefully nothing like that is happening in the real world or else what we take for an original work of art might turn into a brilliant counterfeit.
Insadong Scandal might have borrowed some inspiration from Hollywood movies but it maintained the unpredictability factor that I enjoy from most Korean movies I’ve seen. The twist in the plot surprised me and hopefully I didn’t spoil much of the plot for you to enjoy it as well.
