John Wick Meets ‘Kill Bill’ in Netflix’s Near-Perfect Revenge Thriller 'My Name'

K-Dramas have long embraced the thriller genre, and Netflix’s My Name is a prime example. Perfect for fans of John Wick and Kill Bill, the series revolves around a teenager trying to make sense of her father’s death. With the rest of the world positioned against her, she finds answers in the criminal underworld her late father was allegedly involved in. As she soon discovers, there is a price to pay for power, and when you’ve pledged your life to the most powerful drug kingpin in the country, that loyalty must be upheld. Boasting a 100% Tomatometer score, My Name is a nonstop, hyper-slick thriller series that’s perfect from start to finish.

What Is ‘My Name’ About?

My Name introduces Yoon Ji-woo (Han So-hee), a 17-year-old girl who is constantly mocked by her fellow peers at school for her estranged father’s alleged involvement with the Dongcheon drug ring. When he finally returns home on Ji-woo’s birthday, he is brutally killed in a shooting right outside their front door. Distraught by his death, Ji-woo turns to her father’s closest confidante, Choi Mu-jin (Park Hee-soon), the boss of Dongcheon. Although Mu-jin warns Ji-woo about the consequences of pursuing a path of vengeance, Ji-woo decides to take matters into her own hands, especially after the police fail to identify her father’s murderer.

Years later, the now-adult Ji-woo assumes the alias Oh Hye-jin, enrolls in the police academy, and joins the Narcotics department at Inchang Metropolitan Police Station as a mole. Leading a double life, Ji-woo is caught between two sides of the law: her allegiance to Mu-jin, who will stop at nothing to help her with her long-suppressed purpose, and the Narcotics department, whose sole mission is to take down Mu-jin.

‘My Name’ Delivers Some of TV’s Most Realistic Fight Scenes

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Like The Bride (Uma Thurman) in Kill Bill, Ji-woo has to go through hell before becoming a full-fledged killer for Dongcheon. She trains under brutal conditions, thrown straight into a run-down dojo with no mercy from Mu-jin’s henchmen. Although she’s tenacious and already knows how to throw a punch, Ji-woo is still greatly inexperienced. This is where My Name gets it right: becoming a dangerous killer takes time and practice. In Ji-woo’s case, it takes five years, shown through a flash-forward montage that follows her transformation from an impulsive fighter into a skilled assassin.

My Name delivers some of television’s most convincing close-quarters combat, with choreography that makes excellent use of Ji-woo’s smaller stature. Rather than relying on strength alone, she fights strategically, catching her enemies off guard. She still gets pummeled on occasion, but the more she’s beaten down, the harder she fights back. Whether she’s defending herself against a school bully, narrowly escaping a car compactor, or shooting someone atop a shipping-port crane, this variety of situations showcases Ji-woo’s full skill set.

• The Wick films run on discipline: an underworld with actual etiquette, a hero who honors
  every rule of it, and a world that unravels the instant someone breaks one against him.
• You share that quality. You are extraordinarily reasonable right up to the line, and then
  completely immovable past it.
• Focus, commitment and sheer will. You’d be the one carrying grief through three sequels
  and turning it into technique rather than noise.
• People wouldn’t call you dangerous. They’d say your name quietly and let that do
  the work.

• This series went from street racing to orbit without ever changing its real subject, because
  loyalty scales and plot doesn’t have to.
• You have the same instinct. You build a family out of whoever turns up, and then you defend
  it past the point of reason.
• You’d thrive here because the franchise rewards exactly your strengths: warmth, nerve,
  an absolute refusal to leave anyone behind, and a relaxed relationship with physics.
• The mission can wait. The barbecue cannot.

• This is the franchise of the plan that collapses on schedule: the team, the mask, the
  rooftop, and the one person sprinting flat out because sprinting is all that’s left.
• You share that refusal to accept an outcome. Told the odds, you treat them as an
  administrative error.
• You’d thrive here because these films reward competence and loyalty in equal measure.
  The mission matters, but nobody on the team gets left on the wrong side of a door.
• Some people delegate the cliff. You have never once been that person.

• Die Hard invented the modern action hero by making him mortal: outnumbered, out-planned,
  battered, and extremely funny about it.
• You share that stubbornness. Adversity doesn’t make you noble, it makes you sarcastic,
  and then it makes you unstoppable.
• You’d thrive here because these films reward improvisation and nerve over preparation,
  and you’ve never had the luxury of preparing anyway.
• You didn’t want any of this. You just declined to be the person who let it happen.

‘My Name’ Turns Grief Into a Brutal Coming-of-Age Story

Growing up isn’t easy for Ji-woo, especially when she has no one else to turn to for support. With her father gone, Mu-jin becomes the closest thing to a parental figure in her life. He is the one who shapes how she sees the world, teaching the impressionable young girl never to show fear and to kill without hesitation. The first half of the series reflects this well, as Ji-woo becomes Mu-jin’s most loyal subordinate, using her position in the police department to stay one step ahead of the authorities and protect Mu-jin. However, there’s more to Ji-woo than her killer instincts.

Much like John Wick, Ji-woo’s pursuit of revenge is rooted in grief. Having never learned how to cope with her pain, she channels it into violence instead, following Mu-jin’s “guidance.” But as the series progresses, the more time she spends with her police colleagues, the more she discovers a different side of life, one where peace is possible. However, that isn’t the future she’s paved for herself. As long as her desire for retribution remains, she won’t stop pursuing those who ruined her life. Even if she does leave her criminal past behind, Dongcheon won’t let her walk away so easily. By the end, Ji-woo must choose between the life she’s been trained to lead and the possibility of moving beyond revenge. Every kill carries consequences, giving My Name more depth than a mere bloody spectacle.