Mouse

A hit in a head that just makes you want more

There’re dramas that take time to get hooked on. And then there’s Mouse, drama that doesn’t give you a minute to think and kidnaps you for the over twenty hour long journey. And if by the warning sign at the beginning saying that child actors were provided with counselling we weren’t sure how serious it would be, after first episode the seriousness of the situation will be most probably completely clear. So hold onto your pants, this is going to be a wild ride with no seatbelts.

I’ve honestly couldn’t believe how intense was this first episode. It had this feel of a stand alone movie. With proper ending of it I’d gladly watch it in this form.

The drama revolves around existence of “murderer gene” which assumes that science is able to find a specific gene that can be found only in psychopaths and, very rarely in absolute geniuses. In the first episode we’re introduced to dr. Daniel Lee, scientist, who claims that can detect this gene and proposes to the general assembly to test all foetuses and abort the ones that are diagnosed with potential psychopath gene. We’re also shown two women who’s unborn children are supposed to have this gene and those women and their children will be our main focus point here. After first episode there’s twenty year time jump, after which we’re meeting our main characters:
Jung Ba Reum, kind young police officer who seems innocent enough to risk his own life to save a bird
Kim Mu Chi, detective and serial killer survivor with very high motivation of catching serial killers to get revenge for his family
Sung Yo Han- unsympathetic doctor with all the psychopath’s red flags

And here we are, we have two kids diagnosed with psychopaths gene and two candidates that could’ve been them, now the question is, was the science right?

Seeing that this drama had 20 episodes I was wary at first. I don’t trust dramas that are more than 16 episodes long. More often they tend to be too slow and motives dragged just to fill the time. Not this one. From the beginning till the very end writers provided us with a true killing speed. Viewer has absolutely no time for rest and a moment of inattention may cause that we’ll simply miss an important part of the story. Theories about who’s killer and who’s not change basically every episode and writers do everything in their might to not give us a simple answer. Every now and then they’ll toss us a hint that usually is just a trick. Even when there’s a seemingly strong proof of someone’s guilt, I’ve automatically felt unease. I was sure that it’s not the whole story. There’s so many “whos and wheres” and nothing is shown in it’s entirely so even pretty obvious scenes make us question what is true and what is not.

This drama basically has couple of beginnings. There’s obviously first episode, the very beginning of the story.

Second beginning is a second episode, when we are introduced to the actual main characters.

Third beginning is around sixth and seventh episode, when the story get’s a 180 turn. There’s change of scope, change of perspective and another problem, is the person we’ve pointed to as a killer, really a killer, or were we wrong from the beginning. This makes this drama so multidimensional, that after finishing it, we look at the beginning of it as a completely different show. After those 20 episodes, I felt the same as after watching three seasons of standard western tv show.

But the thing is that at this point the drama starts from the beginning we can say. We relive previous events from new perspective. Once again the viewer doesn’t know who to trust, and the same for Ba Reum, he as well is not sure what is real and what is not. Because here begins a bit of a fantasy motive, even though the writers tried to wrap it in as much science and logical explanation it still felt a bit far fetched. And this would be my only criticism towards the story. I'll not say more to make this review spoiler free.

The fact that some events are shown from subjective perspective of one of the characters makes them extra confusing. Oftentimes it turns out that there’s another side to the story. That this person only saw half of the truth and there’s much more to the story. In times when the same event is shown from perspective of three characters or more, viewer doesn’t know if he can trust his own eyes.

The story doesn’t really slow down even for a bit. Even when it seems that all the motives has been explained and everything supposed to be clear there’s always additional “but” lurking around the corner. New evidence, new memory, new character that shows up with additional information that can change what we thought we already knew for sure. This drama is why I have trust issues because even till the very end I wasn’t sure if this really is a final explanation to all of the events.
This was absolutely amazing drama. From the beginning till the very end. Ba Reum’s character, so multidimentional, so complicated was shown perfectly. And here a big kudos to Lee Seung Gi, it’s really hard for me to say, but I think that this was the role of his life and my only hope is that he’ll prove me wrong and that he’ll do it very soon.

This drama was extraordinary. It was rough, difficult, heavy on a stomach, but it was one of a kind. Mouse just hits you in the head but you still want more. Because the truth, even though it might hurt, is the most important thing here.

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Unexpected plot twist

I honestly knew from the very beginning who would be the predator but it's still very emotional and painful to watch the family of the victims suffering and how the victims died. This is a very emotional story and the plot isn't totally expected. I wasn't expecting all those truth that were revealed in the end. This drama totally kill it. The acting are excellent as well. No words to describe how incredible this drama is. I can't assure you won't regret if you watch this drama but I would really recommend this drama for all the thriller/ psychology/ mystery/ crime/ investigation drama fans' out there.

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Is it psychopath or the idea of psychopath that’s more haunting?

Blending barriers between the world of sci-fi and the realm of thrilling and gore-y realm, Mouse surfaces as somewhat a unique and intriguing Kdrama. As wild as it gets, the fantasy side of Mouse seems unrealistic by the books. Brain transplant is one of the surgeries that has never succeeded in real medical world. However, this drama excavate the uncertainty of that surgery into such damnable plots on top of wrecked plus wretched characters. In between those many many characters, the spotlight dims onto notable psychopaths (by genetics), which this drama revolves around.

Mouse started with a bang. The premise is rationally convincing although it is nowhere near realistic (psychopaths have hereditary genetics). Honestly, the pilot episode alone stood out and could've been a single movie. As the series jumped into the next 5 episodes, we began to learn our characters step-by-step although with murders going on. Things started to shift after Bareum's surgery. We were able to notice change in his behavior and surroundings being far fetched from the first 6 episodes. While his memory was still not fully intact, he's collecting puzzle pieces to be aligned, thus gathering everyone once again to reveal the truth.

As Mouse itself is a heavy plot-driven drama, it became a problem when the plot stuck with no progress. That was my problem during episode 7-13. These middle chunk of the series spread puzzle pieces like easter eggs through the bushes, many of them. Does it sound interesting? Yes. Was it actually interesting? Not so much. The problem is most of those puzzle pieces open new cases rather than adding new informations to the main case. It was all over the place. Well some of them were helpful and/or interesting: Dr. Daniel Lee, Oh Bongyi and Kang Duksoo, Detective Konam and cat tooth — the rest could be retold with a summary: Woo Hyungchul, Lee Jaeshik, and Kim Byungtae. I dragged myself watching those cerebral episodes as they didn’t really came off as entertaining. Thus being said, the middle part could’ve been trimmed and would’ve resulted a more compact 16-episode drama rather than a hefty 20.

The pacing of Mouse started to picked up again on the last third, reciprocating everything from the start. The creators were surprisingly consistent with the over-the-top delivery of the main plot (its backstory, recent past, and present). (Oh, watch Mouse: The Predator after Episode 15 by the way, most scenes are skippable as they were repeated but it gave new perspective). While I love the “main” twist and everything karma wise, something about OZ organization still irks me. The idea of “the bigger forces controlling things” felt cliched and unoriginal. Yet from that, the characters can step in and deliver the message to not spark a fire to the fuel. Psychopaths can be dangerous, but the people triggering them and protecting their crimes are worse.

Despite the consistency that Mouse centered on the seven deadly sins murder, the show had some subplots that were all tied yet felt dragged to be added. There might not be a room for romance here yet there were baits that can be seen as a filler within the main characters. Cho Hongju’s family plot felt not so remarkable as they dropped the premise and was remain untied until the very end. Some other psychopaths (as were mentioned before) felt like a filler. And The OZ, welp. Another thing, I found it a little strange that all of the psychopaths are male as the show did not explain in advance that the gene was only inheritable towards male individuals.

Now let’s talk about the characters, especially the main four. As this drama centered on Jung Bareum (Lee Seunggi), his arc was nearly terrific. The character development could not have been any better in this sci-fi thriller drama, and it would not have been delivered perfectly without his standout acting. (You can clearly sense his outstanding performance in Mouse: The Predator). Go Muchi (Lee Heejoon) is another amazing character. The tough main detective may have malicious intentions in the name of justice, but deep inside he was just a kind-hearted man. Contrary to the men, the female characters were not as spectacular. Most of the time, Choi Hongju (Kyung Soojin) and Oh Bongyi (Park Juhyun) only helped at certain parts of the drama and felt like a nuisance at other times. Nonetheless, the actresses delivered great performances.

Some supporting elements of the drama were accommodative but not so extraordinary. Most of the scenes happened in the dark (well, it’s a thriller one). I genuinely don’t have a problem with that but some times the shots couldn’t be seen clearly, especially during rainy dark scenes. The music is generally alluring and in line with the plot. They are thrilling but not to the point it was too scary like those horror jump-scare movies. Additionally, I genuinely appreciate the team to not harm any animals within the series and use CGIs that did not came off as tacky at all.

One thing that I would like to point out from Mouse is the ability for viewers to empathize with the psychopath. The writer did a great job in adding layers to pity “a mere” psychopath due to the suppressions that were put against them. Analogical to the real life, everything threatening can be reviewed. Is it really threatening or the idea of it is threatening. In the end, humans tend to go with the flow. Ironically, barked the wrong tree without knowing the real truth.

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Genetic psychopathy real or bluff?

Mouse was a very interesting show I was hooked from the very first episode! The show did a spin never seen before in crime kdramas and left me in suspense without a clue of what could happen which doesn’t happen easily so I loved that aspect! The entire plotline was very thought out and was executed in ways I didn’t even think of when brainstorming theories it’s definitely one of the best crime dramas this year. The entire concept of the show was something never seen before and it was very interesting to watch how they executed this plotline out. Watching this while it aired was definitely a great experience. Massive applause to Seunggi he really nailed the complex role of playing ba reum and it’s by far his best acting role. Ba reum was such a complex and tormented character Seunggi truly did execute the acting of his character very well . All other characters were also amazing! Including the child cast I really applaud all those included in the cast for they played their roles out really well. I loved moo chi and soojin’s character and so many others too :(( . I really think you can’t rate this below a 9.0 cause it’s that good, however, that doesn’t mean that the drama is perfect. I really did not like bong yi’s character and her romance with ba reum was very off putting because of the age gap. Their romance arc should’ve been left out or if they made her less annoying/ older this would’ve actually been a pretty good enemies to lovers (tragic). Also I feel like they could’ve made it slightly shorter (maybe 18 eps(?)) to reduce how some eps dragged a bit. Some people didn’t like how they added brain transplants as it wasn’t realistic,however, that wasn’t the case for me I actually really liked this aspect and it was very unexpected as for the unrealistic part the genetic gene thing was unrealistic from the start and this is a DRAMA btw so I don’t care for how realistic it is as long as it’s good :)) . Overall, it’s a must watch crime drama that you definitely should try out

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This is one of the best psychological thriller drama... Im rating this because it's absolutely deserve at least 9 ... Lee Seung Gi.......... I'm in love with his acting........ Everything in this drama was perfect ... The OST's and background musics are just wowwwwww........
I knew that from bringing that my poor yo han baby was innocent .... I'm thankful to writers and directors for the ending....
This drama didn't make me feel bored for a minute
The story was really good ..
I don't know what to say but one thing I know that this drama is a masterpiece

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DRAINED AF ?

How to even begin...

I mainly watched this drama without any sort of expectations or background about the story. Never read the synopsis and never seen the teasers, only for the single fact that Lee Seunggi is one of the casts. However, on my first episode, right of the bat, the captions in front had said “Counseling has been provided for the child actors” and damn that scared me. For my entire kdrama journey (I watch all kinds of genre too), it was my first time to see such a note and I was beyond intrigued. So I watched the first episode and I was scared the whole time. It was a first time experience of being scared not because of ghost characters but because of killers (I never get scared cuz it’s a character) but the way the killer has been portrayed on the first ep was damn scary for me for some reasons.

I watch All the Butlers (Seunggi’s variety show) and it has been said there in passing that he is the culprit so I had an inkling. But what surprised me was he wasn’t acting like a culprit at all and my brain was torn between two possibilities and a hope that “oh maybe he’s not the culprit”. Tbh I thought about this until the 18th episode, like is there going to be a big reveal that it’s all been staged and they messed with his head to make him remember things he never actually did. I guess the biggest struggle for me here was not figuring out who’s the culprit because from the very beginning Seunggi was a very plausible candidate, the struggle was the “hope” that “it can’t be this easy, he’s not the culprit is he? No how? He’s build too much rapport with the other characters” but as episodes went by, that hope dwindled little by little. Call me crazy but I think that’s what the writers are actually going for.

Next, this series showed how sick society is. Ba Reum’s psychopathic behavior was brought upon by society and irresponsible adults not through birth no matter how the story wants us to believe with all the DNA and stuff. Which comes to my next argument, imo it’s not Yohan that influenced his emotions but because he lost the violent memories and only remembered the good ones (which was highly influenced by the people around him only telling him the good things). Think about it, if he had been fed bu good things since childhood, he wouldn’t have thought that the whole world was against him. If only his mother was the like Choi PD. The influence of the society plus the push of OZ in that direction happens in real life you know; some into violence and some into taking their own lives. How sad is that. What I hate about the society in this drama is that they all were playing “god”, which was shown at the end when they voted pro to aborting babies with psychopath genes. And they don’t consider themselves serial killers that way? That’s like mass serial killing isn’t it? Messed up.

I’d be biased and talk about Lee Seunggi’s acting only in this review: HE BLEW MY MIND AWAY. I like him a lot really and I know how kind he is but his villainous self in this drama scared the shit out of me. He was that good; like how can you adore and loathe and pity him all at the same time? His character in itself was a roller coaster ride and he pulled it off so well. I don’t think anyone can do better. They did well casting him for this role and kudos to him for taking this role. Hat’s off.

Despite this being an exquisite LSG performance, I give the rewatch value a very low score. Only for the reason that it’s mentally and emotionally excruciating to watch. It came to a point where I had to pause the video a couple or times just to watch something brighter and lighter in the feeling before continuing. Still, I do recommend giving this a shot, just be sure that you are mentally prepared.

Now...lemme just go back to 2019 and watch Little Forest Lee Seunggi cuz I needa wash my eyes from dark Seunggi hahahahaha...watch it guys MOST ADORABLE VARIETY SHOW ♥️

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My honest opinion

First of all, im a kdrama fan since 2016 and I love watching thriller, mystery, crime and suspense drama... Theres so many good dramas on my list but this one, this one really caught my attention this exceed my expectation! I thought it was just a simple crime drama but nah... This is a masterpiece even tho my head hurts a lot while watching this but in the end.... Its worth it!

. Theres this thing when you'll get tired of a kdrama in the middle because it gets boring BUT one of the biggest twist is what I LOVE FROM THIS DRAMA! I didn't know the lead will be the answer.

I salute to the writer of this drama! This needs to be so popular, and one thing I love not just the storyline but also the actors and actresses here. Lee Seunggi really portrayed the kind and also the killer one that makes me more scared of him. I love how the detective didn't save faces when acting... They're all great actors!

This is amazing! ♥

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spectacular! for me, one of the best dramas of this year!
you don't get bored looking at it!
I recommend watching it and after episode 15 see Mouse The Predator.
I think it's so important that he could have been part of the drama and not as a spinoff!
I loved how we see the world through Ba Reum's eyes!

the story goes on well, it has many plot twists and creates many questions.. in some moments I was confused because there are many victims and names to keep in mind LOL but it's ok!
many events follow one another but all well connected! they show us scenes that bring us doubts about what the role of that character is, how he is connected with others, how does he know some things .. and in the middle of the drama we see the continuation of that same scene that leads us to have a different point of view and clarifies our reasoning ..

an important point of this drama is the acting! they all did a great job! but I got goosebumps with Ba Reum WOW Lee Seunggi was awesome!
his eyes were so expressive, they went from angel to evil naturally! and when he starts to feel emotions .. I felt them all, they reach the heart! I felt the pain, the suffering and the fear as if it were all true!
this work was also done perfectly by Moo Chi (Lee Hee Joon) and BongYi (Park Ju Hyun) with their sad stories.
YoHan is a character that hits right away, he is so mysterious! interpretated very well by Kwon Hwa Woon, with this cold and serious but so fragile character! he didn't deserve everything he went through.
I felt very sorry for him and Ba Reum! YoHan, however, has the possibility of being loved by his girlfriend and his mother even if she has not been able to protect him. instead Ba Reum is seen as scary and remains alone until the end.

what makes their lives hell is the special gene! their mothers are influenced by this and it prevents them from totally loving and understand their childs and making them grow a peaceful and happy life! Daniel created the mess.. LOL!

however I loved everything! 10/10

and the OST! wonderful! I'm still listening a lot to Giriboy's "a rat in the trap"


thank you!

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Not a psychopath apologist but damn it writer-nim!

I love the plot. It spins my head plus I enjoy reading other viewers' theories/thoughts throughout the airing of Mouse. It was fast-paced at the first half which made us want to know what the hell was going on. The second half was more detail-oriented and focused more on that one main character which may lead to the growth of others but going through its ending, it actually made sense. Choi Ran wrote the ending of Mouse better than Black (probably because Black was more into fantasy and quite illogical). Overall, it set a good standard for an anti hero thriller. A heartbreaking closure!

The performance by every actor was phenomenal. Like, one of the best line-up starting from the main characters to side characters. Oh Bong Yi (Park Joo Hyun) was great, I love her despite of her status as a newcomer.

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A UNIQUE THRILLER KDRAMA AND IT WAS WORTH WATCHING

This drama is for you if you like intense plot twists. Every moment you should focus and remember, otherwise it would confuse you later. I guess this aspect also lead some people to dislike the drama and for some others to like the drama because it kept us on our toes on how every character and their actions are getting connected.

The drama is obviously a purely fictional story, where psychopaths are shown as people with no empathy and murderers. but to be frank, there are many people who have tested as psychopaths but in the real world, they live normal lives, they just don't have an understanding of emotions like the rest of us and live normally. but this drama has shown all psychopaths are murderers only. This aspect I didn't like at all, but since this a fictional story I let that slide and enjoyed the drama.

Overall this is a good entertaining drama after all entertainment is the only thing we expect from any drama and this one provides. it is worth watching.

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