Kdramas Similar to Mousetrap: There are very few dramas that can actually make me stresswhile watching, and 들쥐 was definitely one of them. At any moment when I thought I had found out who was lying, the drama would throw yet another curveball, and by the end of it, my head was spinning. What made the K-drama so enthralling was the ability of the characters within it to change our perception of it. Ryu Jun-yeol’s Je Moon-jae starts off as a terrified novelist who seems to have lost everything, but as we learn more about his past, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to see him as a completely innocent victim.
There is also Noja, played by Sul Kyung-gu, the villainous loan shark who ends up becoming the partner of Moon-jae in finding out the truth, whereas Detective Park Sun-yong, played by Lee Kyu-hyung, begins to realise that the case is closer to him than he initially thought. So if you also happen to be a fan of series in which the characters themselves are as surprising as the storyline, here are five K-Dramas which had a similar effect on me.
They are not mere crime or mystery dramas; rather, they contain characters who hold many things from their viewers, including unexpected facets, motives, loyalties, and secrets that would always make them question what they thought about the characters. Here are some of the Kdramas like Mousetrap that will make your mind spin in the same way.
Best Psychological Thriller Kdramas Similar to Mousetrap
The Art of Sarah
For all those who enjoyed the complexities of characters and the constant confusion regarding which one of the characters is telling the truth in Mousetrap, The Art of Sarah presents a comparable plot featuring Sarah Kim, played by Shin Hae-sun. This is because, unlike Je Moon-jae, who seemed to be an innocent guy whose identity had been stolen, his very own past came out to entirely transform our perception of him. Similarly, here too there is a character-based mystery as Sarah’s successful and glamorous persona slowly unfolds into a series of fabricated identities that she had adopted over the years.
Both the characters here have been incredibly dedicated to protecting their constructed lives from any threat, even if it means indulging in morally disturbing deeds. This resemblance is further extended by the similarity between the detectives working in both cases. In the drama The Art of Sarah, Lee Jun-hyuk’s Detective Park Mu-gyeong, just as Detective Park Sun-yong from the Mousetrap series, does not take the obvious explanations and does further investigation when the facts do not quite match.
It was found out that the case the detective is dealing with is linked to many more secrets surrounding the people involved. Nevertheless, where one of the shows places its emphasis on the discovery made by Moon-jae that he is far from his true identity, the other employs the identity changes of Sarah in order to achieve the same effect.
Notes from the Last Row
Whereas you were initially intrigued by the complex relationship between Je Moon-jae and Yu-min in Mousetrap, the same cannot be said about the complex relationship between Choi Min-sik’s Heo Mun-oh and Choi Hyun-wook’s Lee Kang in the drama Notes from the Last Row. The story revolves around Heo Mun-oh, a novelist whose fascination with the works of his student, Lee Kang, becomes increasingly complex over time.
While the initial fascination was based on Mun-oh’s appreciation of the young man’s talent, this admiration later turns into obsession, jealousy, and ambition as a writer. Just like Moon-jae, Heo Mun-oh is a complex character, where his insecurities about himself and his relationship with writing make it hard to tell whether his admiration is genuine or not. The resemblance becomes even more fascinating when one considers the nature of the relationship between the two protagonists in each of the films.
In Mousetrap, it turns out that the relationship between Moon-jae and Yu-min is based on envy and plagiarism, with the latter being something that each of the two is unable to escape from. Yu-min is fully aware of Moon-jae’s weakness and makes use of this knowledge by using his own past against him. Notes From the Last Row, like the above-mentioned movie, looks into how an unhealthy passion for the talent of another person can be born. In spite of the differences in the situations and characters described, both movies deal with writers’ psychology in its relation to the passion for someone else’s talent.
Mouse
Just as Moon-jae’s development through the character arc is what made the show Mousetrap worth watching, then Mouse should be one that features on your watchlist. The protagonist in the drama, Jung Ba-reum, played by Lee Seung-gi, starts out as being a very nice and average police rookie, but this perception about him gradually fades away during the unfolding of the story. Just as Moon-jae is, Jung Ba-reum is another character whose identity forms part of the mystery of the plot.
The similarity is also evident in the fact that both stories have the supporting cast bring the truth to light through their actions. In Ba-reum, there are detectives and victims as well as investigators of horrific crimes, while Mousetrap places Moon-jae in the company of Noja and Detective Sun-yong on their respective paths towards the same truth. The two dramas also have an obsession with the difference between how someone looks on the outside and how he or she really is. If you found out about Moon-jae’s victim role being much more complex than originally thought, you will enjoy Mouse as well.
A Killer Paradox
The Killer Paradox would prove to be quite an interesting series for those who enjoyed the more sinister aspects of Moon-jae’s character. At first, Choi Woo-shik’s Lee Tang seemed like any other average individual living a fairly normal life. But when he ends up committing murder, he realises that the people he has killed are guilty of terrible offences.
In regard to its similarity with Mousetrap, this lies in the way the seemingly normal hero is changed to the point that he cannot be judged easily by the audience anymore. Moon-jae first seems to be just a person who is trying desperately to reclaim what was stolen from him, but as he plunges further into the plot, his own morality seems to become complex too. Similarly, Lee Tang undergoes this change, with Detective Jang Nan-gam, played by Son Suk-ku, still trying to track him down and figure out the pattern of his murders.
Somebody
While the character’s journey in the show is very different compared to Mousetrap, there is one thing they have in common: both series have very disturbing characters. Kang Hae-lim’s Kim Sum is a socially awkward programmer who designed the dating app, Somebody. Her life gets entangled with a string of murders committed by a serial killer who is hunting his victims on the app. She meets the architect Sung Yun-o, played by Kim Young-kwang, who has a very charismatic facade but an extremely disturbing inner personality.
The connection that binds the two characters in Mousetrap is that uneasy interaction between the one being watched and the one who watches him. Moon-jae tries to unravel the mystery of how the Rat seems to know all he does about him, while the Rat himself uses technology and information to be always a step ahead. In Somebody, the online dating site becomes a means for Yun-o to search out and manipulate people, while Sum gets gradually involved in the life of a man who is far different from his outward appearance. Sum, like Moon-jae, is also a solitary character who fails to form social relations.
Do you guys have any recommendations for Korean series like Mousetrap? Let us know in the comments.
