My Name (2021) Review: Han So-hee Fights Her Way In

Is My Name worth watching?

Yes. My Name is a fast, bruising Korean crime thriller whose eight episodes are carried by Han So-hee’s startling physical transformation and some of the hardest-hitting fight scenes on streaming television. It is lean, violent and propulsive, and its undercover premise generates steady tension. The reservation is that its story rarely surprises: anyone familiar with gangster and infiltration films will see several turns coming well in advance.

What is My Name about?

Yoon Ji-woo is a teenager whose father is shot dead outside their apartment. Desperate for revenge and let down by the police, she turns to Choi Mu-jin, the head of a powerful drug ring and her father’s closest friend, and asks him to turn her into a weapon. After years of brutal training, she enters the police under a new identity, joining a narcotics unit that is investigating Mu-jin’s own organisation, while she hunts her father’s killer from the inside.

My Name is a South Korean series in Korean, written by Kim Ba-da and directed by Kim Jin-min. Han So-hee plays Ji-woo, Park Hee-soon plays Mu-jin and Ahn Bo-hyun plays her new partner in the narcotics squad, with Kim Sang-ho, Lee Hak-joo and Chang Ryul in the supporting cast. This review covers the complete series: one season of eight episodes, and the story is finished.

A lead performance built on bruises

Han So-hee was best known for romantic and glamorous roles before this series, and My Name reinvents her screen image completely. Ji-woo is feral, closed-off and physically relentless, and the performance is as much about body as dialogue: the stiff, watchful posture of someone always ready for a blow, the blank face that hides grief. Han commits fully to the fight scenes, and her intensity sells a character who has deliberately sanded away everything soft about herself.

Park Hee-soon is a strong counterweight as Mu-jin. He plays the crime boss as calm, paternal and faintly unreadable, which makes his relationship with Ji-woo the most interesting in the series. Ahn Bo-hyun brings warmth and swagger as the detective who partners with her, even if the script gives him less to work with.

Fight scenes that hurt

The action is the show’s calling card. Kim Jin-min stages fights in cramped corridors, stairwells, parking lots and training rooms, with sharp, grounded choreography that emphasises exhaustion and pain rather than elegance. Blows land heavily, knives are used with frightening intimacy, and Ji-woo often wins by grinding endurance rather than superior technique.

The eight-episode format keeps the plot moving. There is little filler, and each episode tightens the pressure on Ji-woo’s double life as her police colleagues close in on the gang she secretly serves. The cinematography favours cold, dark palettes and neon-lit night streets, well suited to the story’s hard edges.

Where the formula shows

My Name borrows heavily from classic undercover crime stories, and it is not especially interested in subverting them. Key revelations are telegraphed, supporting gang members are sketched with broad strokes, and a romantic thread feels bolted on to soften a story that works better without it. Some viewers will also find the relentless bleakness wearing by the final episodes.

Those limits keep it short of the top tier of Korean thrillers, but they do not stop it from being gripping while it lasts.

Who should watch My Name?

It suits viewers who enjoy hard-boiled crime stories, revenge thrillers and physical action. The violence is frequent and graphic, including stabbings, shootings and brutal beatings, alongside drug-trade material, so it is firmly for adults. At eight hour-long episodes, it is easy to finish over a weekend.

If you like it, try these next:

• The Glory, another Korean revenge drama about a woman who spends years preparing to strike.
• Flower of Evil, for a thriller built around a hidden identity and a police investigation closing in.
• Weak Hero Class 1, for grounded, painful fight scenes powered by a young lead’s quiet fury.

The verdict

My Name is a tough, efficient revenge thriller that turns a familiar undercover story into a showcase for Han So-hee’s ferocity. The plotting is predictable and the romance unnecessary, but the fight choreography and its lead’s commitment make it one of the most satisfying Korean action series on Netflix.

Rating: 4/5