Netflix released all eight episodes of My Name on October 15, 2021. The show opens with Yoon Ji-woo watching her father die, then putting her trust in the man who runs a drug gang. Han So-hee plays her. The series asks one question and keeps asking it: how far will she go, and who is using whom?
Trailer, via Netflix K-Content.
A Mole Inside Inchang Police Station
The setup is clean. Ji-woo’s father dies suddenly. She wants revenge on whoever is responsible, and she takes it where she can get it — with Dongcheon, the drug crime gang led by Choi Mu-jin, played by Park Hee-soon. Mu-jin does not hand her a gun and a target. He directs her into the police force.
She joins under his direction and becomes Dongcheon’s mole. Her fake name is Oh Hye-jin. She is assigned to the drug investigation unit at Inchang Metropolitan Police Station. Her partner there is Detective Jeon Pil-do, played by Ahn Bo-hyun. That is the engine of the season: a woman with a dead father, a gang boss she works for, and a cop who is supposed to trust her.
Han So-hee Plays Two People
Han So-hee has to hold two identities at once, and the series lives or dies on whether both hold. She is Yoon Ji-woo when she is grieving and Oh Hye-jin when she is working. The gap between those two people is the show’s real subject.
Park Hee-soon’s Choi Mu-jin is the other half of it. He is not a monster who shouts. He gives orders and expects them followed, and the series treats him as a business, not a villain.
Ahn Bo-hyun’s Jeon Pil-do is the complication. He is her partner in the drug unit. He is also, by design, the person she lies to every day. Kim Sang-ho plays Cha Gi-ho, Lee Hak-ju plays Jung Tae-ju, and Chang Ryul plays Do Gang-jae.
Busan Screened Three Episodes First
Three of the eight episodes screened at the 26th Busan International Film Festival, in a newly created section called ‘On Screen’, on October 7, 2021. Eight days later the full season hit Netflix.
That festival slot matters more than it sounds. Busan built a section specifically to show television, and My Name was in the first group through it. The show was directed by Kim Jin-min and created by Kim Jin-min and Kim Ba-da. It sits on the action crime thriller shelf, though it is filed under Crime, Drama and Mystery.
| Detail | My Name |
|---|---|
| Episodes | 8 |
| Season | 1 |
| Released | October 15, 2021 |
| Busan screening | October 7, 2021, 3 of 8 episodes |
| Genre | Crime, Drama, Mystery |
| Audience score | 8.2/10 |
Revenge Is a Job With a Boss
The mole premise is old. What makes My Name work is that Ji-woo is not running her own operation. Mu-jin directed her into the police force. Every day she spends as Oh Hye-jin, she is doing his work, and the show is honest that revenge and obedience look the same from the inside.
The eight-episode run is the right length. There is no filler season to survive. The story starts with a death and ends with the bill for it.
The weakness is that the middle leans on the same beat: Ji-woo gets close to someone, Ji-woo lies to them, Ji-woo goes back to Mu-jin. Pil-do is the best answer to that repetition, because he is the one person whose trust would actually cost her something.
What the Numbers Say
My Name is a revenge story that understands revenge is a job, and jobs have bosses. Han So-hee carries the double life without asking for sympathy. Park Hee-soon gives her a Mu-jin who is calm because he has already won.
KEY FACTS
– Title: My Name (마이 네임)
– Network: Netflix
– Episodes: 8, one season
– Released: October 15, 2021
– Busan International Film Festival: 3 episodes, October 7, 2021
– Cast: Han So-hee, Park Hee-soon, Ahn Bo-hyun
– Score: 8.2/10
It is not a mystery about who killed her father. It is a story about what she becomes while finding out. That is the part worth watching, and it is why the 8.2 holds up.
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