Mouse – Full Review
Welcome to Mouse – Full Review. A search for a serial killer reveals a government conspiracy and some unlikely victims. If you haven’t watched this drama yet, I recommend checking out my unspoiled review here.
Mouse
♥ Aired: March 3 – May 19, 2021
♥# of Episodes: 20
♥Where to Watch: Viki
♥Genre: Psychological Thriller
♥Starring: Lee Seung Gi and Lee Hee Joon
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The Story
Twenty-five years ago, a government funded experiment sought to isolate the genetic marker for psychopathic tendencies by testing unborn children. Now, a chain of serial killings is striking fear in the hearts of the nation and the cases seem to link back to the original experiments. A young, caring police officer and a veteran detective are determined to solve the cases and arrest the killer, but the murders may have more of a personal effect on them than they ever imagined.
The Leads
Lee Seung Gi as Jung Ba Reum
A kind-hearted police officer with a love of animals and a desire to protect those around him, Jung Ba Reum is liked by everyone. After taking an interest in a serial killer case, he begins working with Detective Ko to solve the puzzling crime and find the murderer. But in the process of capturing the culprit, Ba Reum receives a brain injury that requires surgery and causes him to lose his memory. When strange thoughts and memories begin coming back to him, he is shocked to find out that in order to save his life, doctors transplanted a portion of the killers brain into his head. And the surprises don’t end there. As his memories return and he tries to sort through which ones are his and which are Sung Yo Han’s, he discovers that he is not the person he believed he was.
Before his surgery, Jung Ba Reum was a psychopathic killer with no empathy or regret. Growing up in a family where they only expected the worst of him did nothing to help him curb his natural tendencies, and when that family is found dead, everyone assumes he did it. After getting a portion of Yo Han’s brain, Ba Reum experiences feelings like love and remorse for the first time. After years of begging God to save him from himself, his prayers were answered. But the pain of living with what he had done was far more painful than he ever expected. Lee Seung Gi did an amazing job in this drama. He was believeable both as the sweet, pure hearted officer and the deranged psychopath. This more mature, serious role gave him an oportunity to really show his talent and I was impressed with his performance. In my opinion, it was the strongest part of the whole drama.
Lee Hee Joon as Ko Moo Chi
As a young boy, Ko Moo Chi’s entire family was killed by the serial killer, Han Seo Jun. Now, as a detective, a copy-cat has surfaced and is terrorizing the city. Moo Chi is determined to find the killer and inflict judgement however he can. But when the killer suddenly turns up dead, something still seems off. And the more he learns, the more complicated things seem to get. When all the signs start to point to the police officer who has been helping him on the case, he really hopes that he is wrong.
Ko Moo Chi is hot-headed and reckless. He has lived his whole life with the guilt of knowing that his parents died trying to give him his birthday wish and his brother ended up disabled trying to save him. His anger and resentment make him a determined detective with a chip on his shoulder. I liked Lee Hee Joon in this role. His strong sense of justice was relatable and well played and he and Lee Seung Gi made a great team. From friends to enemies, their energy was dynamic and interesting.
Supporting Characters
Kwon Hwa Woon as Sung Yo Han
Sung Yo Han is the son of killer Han Seo Jun. He and Ba Reum share a connection because they were both tested for the psychopath gene before they were born. Yo Han is the killer that Moo Chi and Ba Reum work so hard to catch, and Yo Han dies after being shot by Moo Chi in order to save Ba Reum’s life. But after his death, additional evidence shows up to prove that he was not the cold-blooded killer that they believed. Yo Han was also dating Hong Joo, which made Moo Chi jealous.
Park Joo Hyun as Oh Bong Yi
Oh Bong Yi is a young girl from Ba Reum’s neighborhood. She has a crush on him and he has identified her as someone who would be easy to control, even if she found out the truth about him. But after his surgery, Ba Reum ends up really falling in love with her. Unfortunately, once he realizes that he was the one to kill her beloved grandmother, he knows that she will end up hurt no matter what he does.
Kyung Soo Jin as Choi Hong Joo
Choi Hong Joo is a TV producer who does the true crime show “Sherlock Hong Joo”. As a child, she was forced to become Han Seo Jun’s accomplice and never got over the guilt of what he made her do. She is dating Yo Han and finds out she is pregnant with his child after he is killed by Moo Chi. Now she is working with Doctor Daniel to help clear Yo Han’s name and get revenge for what happened to him.
Things I Liked
♥ Child Actors
The child actors in this drama were required to do some seriously heavy lifting and they all did an amazing job. These roles required a maturity of emotion that must have been challenging and difficult for children so young. I have so much respect for their acting ability and hope we will get to watch them in many more roles to come.
♥ Red Thread
I always love the red thread of fate concept and I especially loved how subtly this drama handled the theme. It is pictured in the introduction to every episode but the concept is never forced or heavy handed. My favorite example is the puppy. That one pitiful creature ties together Ba Reum, Bong Yi, Yo Han and even Sung Ji Eun in a subtle way that lets you put all the pieces together for yourself.
♥ Flawed Lead
“Mouse” took a unique approach by giving us a flawed lead who gave us his unreliable account of events for the first half of the drama. And it is an amazing testament to Lee Seung Gi’s acting skills that even after finding out what a monster he was in the beginning, I was still broken hearted to see him die in the end. This is not a handsome hero story but it is a story of the kind of redemption and grace that can come to even the most flawed of humans.
Things I Didn’t Like
Oz
I just didn’t really think the whole OZ storyline was necessary. The story was full enough and they could have easily left it with Doctor Daniel and Han Seo Jun’s experiments. The members of OZ didn’t contribute that much to the overall plot and I didn’t find their portion of the story that interesting. In a drama already packed with characters and themes, I feel like this one could have been left out and no one would have missed much.
Trading Kids
The whole idea that the moms traded babies because then they would somehow be able to kill him if they needed to was kind of ridiculous to me. A child you raise doesn’t have to be your biological child for you to love him. And it ended up being so unfair to Yo Han. He ended up not even being a psychopath, but he was raised with the trauma of having a father who is a known murder and a mother who never let herself love him just in case. The situation accomplished nothing but negative issues.
Psychopaths
I know this is just a drama, not a documentary, and fiction can either simplify or stretch the truth as it sees fit, but I didn’t like the way this drama represented psychopaths. First, not all murderers are psychopaths, so ridding the world of babies with that gene does not magically create a safe existence free from crime and killing. And second, not all psychopaths kill people. There are enough misconceptions about these kinds of mental illnesses and I feel like we should be careful about over-generalizing.
The Ending
As expected for a drama so dark, there isn’t much happily ever after in this one, although they do a fairly good job of trying to tie up all those crazy loose ends. This is a long one, so hold onto your seats. In the end, all the members of OZ, plus their fearless leader, Choi Young Shin are arrested for their crimes. So are Ba Reum and Hong Joo. With those arrests, Yo Han’s name is finally officially cleared of any wrong-doing. 6 months later, Ba Reum is suffering terrible physical pain because of his brain surgery and emotional pain, now that he remembers all the crimes he has committed. In a final act of revenge, he kills Han Seo Jun for Moo Chi. His final scene is a vision of him and his younger self in a church. He tells the child that his prayers have been answered and he is no longer a monster. Then Ba Reum bows his head and dies. Three years later, Choi Young Shin receives a pardon from the Blue House and is set free, but she is killed on the drive back into the city. Hong Joo’s parents have been raising her son while she served her time, but now she is finally free. Moo Chi has left the department to sell eggs and support Bong Yi while she goes to college. He goes to put a marker on Ba Reum’s grave behind the prison, so he seems to have finally made his peace. The series ends with a dinner party at Bong Yi’s house that tries to add some levity to the final moments, but seems surprisingly superficial and heavy. We do get a short scene where Moo Chi and Hong Joo talk and he apologizes for his part in wrongly accusing Yo Han. After the credits we get two bonus scenes. One shows the mouse from Han Seo Jun’s original experiment miraculously coming back alive. And the other shows a new doctor performing a brain transplant, so apparently this research didn’t die with Han Seo Jun after all. While these scenes could open the door for a season two, I suspect they are just a reminder that corruption and evil still live on.
Should I Watch
Well, in a year full of dark, intense crime dramas, “Mouse” fits right in. This drama is a gruesome pyschological thriller that is purposefully complex and confusing. It will require your full attention for all 20 episodes, and even then, the large cast list featuring several murderers makes it difficult to keep all the names and characters straight. If you are sensitive to violence or depressing stories, this one probably isn’t for you. However, if you are looking for an exciting roller coaster thriller with an outstanding cast and intricate sci-fi crime story that will keep you guessing right up until the end, “Mouse” may be just the ticket. I give “Mouse” an 8 out of 10 ramen.
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