Review | K-drama review: My Name – Netflix gangland revenge drama starring Han So-hee spins its wheels after promising start

Han So-hee seeks to avenge her drug-dealing father’s murder by joining his gang and going undercover as a cop. The show sparkled early on but has become dreary

Despite its shortcomings, My Name offers more evidence that Korean TV drama series are aggressively and successfully tackling new challenges as they go global

Reading Time:3 minutes

Han So-hee in a scene from Netflix gangster-revenge drama My Name. Her character survives many against-the-odds fights, but they tend to run into one another as the narrative peters out and turns in on itself.

Published: 9:15pm, 18 Oct 2021Updated: 8:06am, 19 Oct 2021

This article contains spoilers.

3/5 stars

In South Korea, nothing is as important as family – you may be wondering, why start a review of a gangster revenge saga with a mention of families?

Partly because the revenge aspect of Netflix’s My Name boils down to a daughter looking to avenge her father, but mostly because this new eight-part series, despite its many appealing elements, fails to build on its early promise as it spirals in on itself – its world shrinking with each new family twist until it threatens to collapse.

Rising star Han So-hee of The World of the Married and Nevertheless tackles her first action role as Yoon Ji-woo, a student who drops out of high school when her drug-dealing father’s profession is revealed. Her father comes to her one evening and is killed on their doorstep, with Ji-woo looking helplessly on through the keyhole.

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