[HanCinema's Drama Review] "My Name" Episode 6

When last we left off with "My Name" rapist turned drug pusher Kang-jae had nearly bested gang lord Moo-jin in hand-to-hand combat when our secretly gangster heroine cop Ji-woo shot him down. Ji-woo's ambivalence wasn't exactly convincing. I vaguely remember her slashing the genitals off of Kang-jae's assistant rapist back in the second episode. But by and large this is a surprisingly nonviolent episode- and likewise the most interesting.

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First off, Moo-jin's inconsistent competency is starting to look like a deliberate plot point. The whole battle at the construction area was a clear misfire on his part, and he very nearly allowed himself to be goaded into a dangerous fight that could have easily killed him. Moo-jin's scenes at the monastery hiding out from the cops don't depict him as a champion, or even as very threatening. Really, the whole exchange just makes him seem pitiful.

This neatly dovetails with Ji-woo's own character arc. Ji-woo and Moo-jin both have sinister dreams, with the usual craft and care being given to unsettling camerawork. Then she gets a posthumous package from Kang-jae, upending a lot of assumptions she had made about her backstory. Apparently her dad was a cop. Moo-jin seems to be aware of this, yet the look on his face examining his cherished lighter near the end suggests he was a lot more clueless than he thought.

Could it be that the political situation with the cops and/or robbers was more complicated than it looked? That would certainly explain how Kang-jae managed to crawl up out of nowhere to challenge the existing criminal hierarchy. Unfortunately the list of suspects is mainly just Tae-joo. Mostly because there really aren't very many named characters in "My Name" and who else does that even leave, Pil-do, who confronts Ji-woo at her lonely apartment to awkwardly hit on her some more?

Well, hm, I guess phrased like that sure, it's possible. Although this speculation is a bit silly, given that the remaining two episodes of "My Name" have been out for two weeks at this point so there's a good chance you already know the full story Still, these antepenultimate twists are fairly compelling, and "My Name" benefits a lot from being watched with breaks rather than binges. With a current international Netflix ranking of sixth worldwide, "My Name" still has a steady audience.

Review by William Schwartz

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"My Name" is directed by Kim Jin-min-I, written by Kim Ba-da, and features Han So-hee, Park Hee-soon, Kim Sang-ho, Ahn Bo-hyun, Lee Hak-joo, Chang Ryul. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2021/10/15, Fri on Netflix.