Mouse (2021)

 

Sypnosis

Mouse fantasizes the scenario, what if psychopaths can feel remorse and guilt for their actions. It follows Jeong Ba-reum (Lee Seung-gi), a steadfast police officer, whose life changes when he encounters a psychopathic serial killer. This drives him and his partner Go Moo-chi (Lee Hee-joon) to unearth the truth behind psychopathic behaviours. This also raises the questions, whether it is possible to scan a psychopath in the mother's womb using fetal genetic testing? And if the child in the womb is a psychopath, will it be wise to have that child?  

Cast & Character

Main

• Lee Seung-gi as Jeong Ba-reum / Jung Jae-hoon, a police officer whose life changes after the confrontation with a psychopathic killer. He stopped school violence perpetrators and won the Citizen Hero Award in high school. He is a new police officer at the Dongbu Police Station. He frequently visits senior citizens living alone in the neighborhood, and helps them with their laundry, repairing the boilers, buying the groceries and many more. He also feeds stray cats on a daily basis and even once rescued a bird by stopping a car with his body. He is such a nice guy that one would wonder whether a man like Ba-reum actually exists in the world. The lack of knowledge on his past and his "too kind to be true" nature has raised suspicions on his identity. 

• Lee Hee-joon as Go Moo-chi, a detective who does not care about the rules and is willing to resort to any method to catch criminals
  • Song Min-jae  as young Go Moo-chi
  • Suh Dong-hyun  as teen Go Moo-chi

Just like his name, "Go" Moo-chi the legendary gangster detective, standing alongside the unsub, will make you feel confused as to who is the detective and who is the criminal. Because of his hot temper, he ends up assaulting suspects, doing expediency and illegal investigation. Therefore, the arrest rate of Go Moo-chi is the highest among other public figures, but he is not interested in promotion or performance. He became a detective to get revenge on the murderer who killed his parents. His only goal is to enter the detention center where the murderer is and kill him. He has visited a lot of psychopaths and attempted to kill them but failed to do so. Then, a psychopath, the Predator, has captured his attention. He is willing to be a monster to catch it and is willing to provoke and chase him. Something unexpected happened and he is thrown into another whirlwind of fate...

• Park Ju-hyun as Oh Bong-yi, a tough-looking high school senior who lives with her grandmother and is an expert in martial arts. Though she doesn't excel much at school, she is confident and tough, and always straightforward. However, she is a character with a deep past. After the incident ten years ago, she realized that she was the only one in the world who could protect or save herself. Bong-yi has learned the basics of "self-defense" to protect herself. In her backpack, instead of books, she always has her boxing gloves and sports bands. She is a 10-tier martial arts girl who is excellent in boxing and jiujitsu, as she visits the martial arts gym every day. She has a bickering relationship with Jung Ba Ruem however she cares a lot about Ba Ruem's over all well being. 

• Kyung Soo-jin as Choi Hong-ju, a talented production director known as "Sherlock Hong-ju"
  • Park So-yi as young Hong-ju

She is a producer of the Current Affairs and Culture Department of OBN, and nicknamed "Sherlock Hongju." She is proud of herself and if she wants to, she would throw herself to broadcast the incident somehow. Even fire and water cannot stop her passion. And Hong-ju's instinct is never wrong. At a young age, she won the Celestial Arts Award, various journalists' awards, and special awards, making her one of the most talented reporters in the station. She seems to be in and out of the police station as if it was her own home to obtain information for her broadcast. Then the murder that caught Hong-ju's radar! But somehow, the closer they get to the case, the harder the truth is to be found. For 25 years, she is about to open a huge Pandora's box, which she has lived with in her heart all 

People around Jeong Ba-reum

Ba-reum's friends

• Lee Seo-jun as Na Chi-guk, a prison guard at Mujin Detention Center

He is a high school friend of Ba-reum. Of course, the first place to be assigned after his graduation is Mujin Detention Center, where all the felons from all over the country are gathered. When he sees death row inmates who enjoy prison like a hotel, he is disillusioned by them who have no remorse. Along with Ba-reum, he is so righteous that he received the "Citizen Hero Award" for saving victims of school violence in high school and he always gives his credit to Ba-reum.

• Woo Ji-hyeon  as Gu Dong-gu, a prison guard

Ba-reum's high school friend and neighborhood friend. He was in the same class with Ba-reum and Chi-guk at a private academy to get prepared for the civil servant examination, but unlike his friends, he has a bitter taste of being eliminated. Since then, he has given up on the exam and said that he would become a movie director, which was his dream for a long time. He is an aspiring talker, but in reality, he is living a jobless life at home. After a series of incidents, he has become a prison guard and a strong ally of Ba-reum.

People around Ko Moo-chi

• Kim Young-jae as Ko Moo-won, Moo-chi's elder brother
  • Jo Yeon-ho as young Ko Moo-won

He is a priest temporarily housed in the basement of a church. When he was young, he was miraculously saved from being killed by a rare killer, but he became disabled since then. He is Ba-reum's counsellor and a close brother of his. However, he was isolated from his younger brother Ko Moo-chi. Seeing Moo-chi who destroys life with vengeance, he is heartbroken and always prays for his younger brother.

People around Oh Bong-yi

• Kim Young-ok as Grandmother who lives with Oh Bong-yi

Bong-yi’s grandmother always urges Bong-yi to marry Ba-reum, whom she considered a good bachelor in the neighborhood because she thinks it would be safe for her granddaughter to marry a police officer. Ten years ago, she thought that Bong-yi was the target of the crime because of herself, and she has lived with guilt. But she always appears to be energetic in front of her granddaughter.

Police Station

• P.O as Shin Sang, a freshman detective working under detective Go Moo-chi.

The precious late-born only son. The only thing that wraps around him is the brand-new luxury brands! Although he became a police officer with his own ability, he is teased to be a “parachute” by Moo-chi because his father is a president candidate. Even though Moo-chi has been creating trouble, Shin Sang respects him a lot.

• Ahn Nae-sang as Park Du-seok, Head of the Military Manpower Administration Evidence Storage Team.

He was a successful homicide detective, but a word he said to the killer headhunter during the 1995 "headhunter serial murder" dropped his life into the abyss. Afterwards, he stepped down to take care of his sick wife, and was appointed as the team leader of the first new evidence storage team in Korea, forming a team with Moo-chi thereafter.

• Hyun Bong-sik as Bok Ho-nam, Leader of the Mujin Bokbu Police Station Violent Team.

He has been suffering from stress and hair loss due to Moo-chi, who brings him trouble every day. As Du-seok's freshman, the "headhunter serial murder" was his first case in 1995 as a freshman. He is the person who knows the pain and suffering of Du-seok better than anyone else and comforts him.

• Yoon Seo-hyun as Gang Gi-hyeok, Detective Inspector.

A late cop. Moo-chi is the reason for him to join the police force, and he is elder than Moo-chi. Although they used to be colleagues who could not survive without each other, he wanted Moo-chi to quit the police officer more than anyone else after an incident. However, in his heart, he cherishes Moo-chi more than anyone else and wishes for his happiness.

• Kim Min-soo as Lee Min-soo, Detective.

To put it in a good word, he is a cool guy, but he is actually rude. He keeps an appropriate distance from everyone and never gets close with anybody. When he was in high school, he was in an unrequited love with a girlfriend who was later killed by a murderer. He then became a police officer with determination.

• Jeong Seok-yong  as Woo Jae-pil, Du-seok's former partner

Others

• Ahn Jae-wook as Dr. Han Seo-joon, a genius neurosurgeon doctor at Guryong Hospital.

He is an all-round handsome man with excellent speech, manners, and a good sense of humor. He is always the first to be invited in TV broadcast and lectures with a lot of followers. When a woman he loved was killed by a robber during his study in England, he returned to Korea and met Ji-eun while concentrating on his work. He married Ji-eun and had a child, and he was looking forward to the birth of "Blessings." There were so many things that he wanted to do and dreamed of when "Blessings" was born. But with the Headhunter serial murder, his dream plan with "Blessings" was shattered...

• Kim Jung-nan as Sung Ji-eun, Dr. Han's wife.

Although she was a flower-loving florist, she is taking a break from work and concentrating on prenatal education due to Seo-joon, who is worried about her late pregnancy. She wanted to have a child who looked exactly like her husband, and eventually the child whom the two had hoped so much for came as a "Blessing". She always thought that her family of three would be happy, but a few days before the expected delivery of "Blessing", something tragic happened, and the happiness she dreamed of was shattered...

• Kwon Hwa-woon as Sung Yo-han, an emergency medical resident at Mujin Hospital.

He is the youngest doctor in Korea to pass the state examination. He is also a genius doctor with an unprecedented success in a brain tumor surgery when he was still an intern. However, he is too quiet and always treats his patients coldly. Everyone around him often avoids him, but it does not matter. He is always comfortable alone. He has his own reasons. What happened to him as a child, is haunting him for the rest of his life...

• Jo Jae-yoon as Daniel Lee, a doctor of genetics and a criminologist 

He is a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He is a Korean-British man who was adopted to the United Kingdom as a child and was raised by British parents. Han Seo-joon, who discovered Daniel's genius at Cambridge University Hospital where Daniel was working as a cleaner, gave him the opportunity to study in college and work at a genetic research institute. Since then, Seo-joon and he have been like brothers and made friendship. They conducted successful research to identify fetal psychopathic genes, getting on a highly secretive flight to Korea...

• Jung Eun-pyo as Kang Deok-soo, a child sex offender

• Song Jae-hee as Woo Hyung-chul, Jae-pil's son and a lawyer

• Yoo Yeon as Hyung-chul's mother

• Shin Ha-young as Song Soo-jung

• Kim Kang-hoon as younger Jung Jae-hoon
  • Seo Woo-jin as Young Jae-hoon

• Son Woo Hyeon  as Kim Joon-seong, Yo-han's classmate and friend

• Jung Ae-ri as Choi Young-shin, a corrupt Secretary General in the Blue House

• Kim Ha-eon as Kim Hankok, a kidnapped kid.

• Go Woo-ri as Jennifer Lee, Daniel Lee's sister and Han's former girlfriend

• Kang Mal-geum

• Cheon Jeong-ha as Chi-guk's mother. This was the last drama role portrayed by Cheon before her death from low blood pressure and kidney failure at the age of 52 (in Korean age) on 28 April 2021.

• Jin Seo-yeon

• Ma Dong-seok

• Woo Ji-hyun

• Kim Yo-han as brain transplant patient (Ep.20)