A woman is out for revenge after her father was killed. A close friend of her deceased father is a powerful gangster, and he and her father were best friends. She starts working for this gangster, and he tells her that a cop killed her father. After some years, she joins the police to find her father’s killer.
“My Name” is a miniseries consisting of 8 episodes. This is a true South Korean gangster series that offers a lot of hard action scenes, darkness, and drama. It’s the usual stuff, but “My Name” is such a good series, even though it has some problems.
First, I have to applaud the acting. Park Hee-soon is an old-timer, and he is always great. But it’s Han So-hee who steals the show as the mole who’s searching for her father’s killer. I have never seen her before in anything, and now I want to watch more of her. She is so great and captivating.
I love discovering new talents, and man, South Korea has so many of them. Han So-hee is so natural and raw. Her character is a fighter, so you expect a character like this to not have that many layers. But Han So-hee manages to transform her character into a tough woman and a vulnerable woman who has lost all hope. Her acting, without saying any words, shows us that she’s something out of the ordinary, and, strangely, she hasn’t gotten her big breakthrough yet.
The story doesn’t offer anything special. It’s the acting, the mood, the cinematography, and the soundtrack and score that elevate the generic script. I loved the soundtrack and score. It took me back to some of the best movie experiences I have experienced in the last 20 years of watching Asian movies. It’s so sad and melancholic, and it fits like a hand in a glove with the sadness and emptiness Han So-hee conveys in most of her scenes, especially in the last two episodes where she shines. Oh man, she’s so good, and I wanted to erase her past so that she could smile again.
My biggest issue with “My Name” is the ending, and by that, I mean the last three minutes or so. Without saying too much, I’m a lover of dark endings, and I didn’t feel “My Name” nailed it in that department. The ending doesn’t resolve anything regarding the protagonist, so that was hard to swallow. But other than that, this is a solid and entertaining miniseries you should check out if you like the atmosphere in movies such as “Drive” with Ryan Gosling.