Looking for a gritty police drama, well Netflix has quite a few. One of them that I enjoyed the most is My Name, the Korean crime thriller. Note that there are some mild spoilers below.
What’s it about?
My Name is a series that revolves around a young lady, who we first meet while she is a 17-year-old school girl. Her dad is one of the most wanted criminals in the area. He is the trusted Lieutenant to the crime drug lord of the Dongcheonpa crime family.
The young lady, Yoon Ji-woo (played by Han So-hee), is bullied at school because of her dad. She is under constant police surveillance and harassment as they try to track down her father. She is alone in her apartment. In fact she is alone in the world. Her dismal life just gets worse when her father is killed outside her apartment door while see witnesses the ordeal through the door peep hole.
As she knows that she is under surveillance she is certain that the police must be involved. Motivated by revenge and desperation she joins the Dongcheonpa crime family. Moo-jin the crime boss of the Dongcheonpa takes her in because of her father and pushes her lust for revenge for his own gains.
Highlights
What stood out for me was the desperation of the Ji-woo character and how her motives were not only justified but you can sympathise with her. Her joining of the crime family is a violent process where thug hopefuls are put into a compound together and basically beat the life out of each other.
The violence that is inflicted on Ji-woo is extreme and even though she is being mentored by Moo-jin she needs to face the violence alone. The fight scenes were believable and the fact that she was always at a physical disadvantage was always addressed in the fights.
This is where the show suddenly gets more interesting. As she is accepted into the Dongcheonpa tribe she is enrolled in the police department under a false name to be an informer for Moo-jin. But for the first time in her life she becomes the part of a team.
Her focus and instincts are suddenly being tested by the acceptance of her by her peers in the police department. This causes her a dilemma as she starts to bond with her police team and is removed from the Dongcheonpa.
The one thing keeping her loyal is her superior officer’s obsession with catching Moo-jin. This obsession borders on psychotic and keeps Ji-woo focused on her tasks. The portrayal of the dilemma that Ji-woo is facing is brilliantly portrayed. Suddenly she is in a position where she can see the wrongs of the Dongcheonpa and how their drugs hurt people. Han So-hee is brilliant in her role. From gritty claustrophobic fights to personal dilemmas her acting was always on point.
Conclusion
For me this was more than a police drama it was a brilliant character study of the main character, Ji-woo. I loved the way that it portrayed the decisions that she needed to make of right verse wrong but entangled with loyalty and belonging. The cinematography always feels just right and sets the mood. The fight scenes are brutal yet satisfying and the acting and character development is superb. The plot lends itself to all these elements coming together artfully.
Verdict
My Name comes with a Wayne stamp of approval. Go watch it!
