Netflix has announced its upcoming mystery thriller Mousetrap starring Ryu Jun-yeol, releasing the first teaser trailer and poster ahead of the August 28 premiere. The series centers on reclusive novelist Moon-jae, who loses access to his own life when the everyday systems that confirm his identity begin to fail. He is then forced to track down a shadowy figure known only as “The Rat” who appears to have taken everything from him.
The newly released teaser trailer shows Moon-jae living a solitary routine under a pen name, rarely leaving his home, until the systems that confirm his identity begin failing one after another. Viewers watch him stripped of money, digital access, and any proof of who he is before he decides to hunt down the mysterious thief.
Watch the teaser trailer below:
Netflix Korea shared the first teaser poster for the series, which centers the story’s core tension around questions of authenticity and imposture. The poster carries the pointed tagline “Prove I’m real, or I’m the imposter.” The image and accompanying text underscore the psychological stakes that drive the entire narrative.
Directed by Kim Hong-sun, whose previous credits include Dear Hongrang and Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, Mousetrap adapts the webtoon Field Mouse. Ryu Jun-yeol takes the central role of Moon-jae, joined by Sul Kyung-gu as the fierce loan shark Noja and Lee Kyoo-hyung as the detective Sun-yong who is already pursuing “The Rat.”
Moon-jae’s isolation ends the moment “The Rat” seizes control of his financial accounts, digital footprint, and public identity. With nowhere left to turn, he forms an uneasy alliance with Noja, a man whose own ruthless methods may be the only tools capable of matching the thief. Their joint pursuit becomes a high-stakes game of deception in which every clue risks revealing more about the hunter than the hunted.
The premise draws from an old Korean folktale in which a rat that eats someone’s clipped fingernails transforms into that person. This unsettling idea gives the series its central metaphor as Moon-jae confronts the possibility that someone else is living his life more convincingly than he can. The adaptation expands the original webtoon’s tension into a full psychological thriller focused on how fragile personal identity becomes once the systems designed to protect it are compromised.
Sun-yong’s investigation runs parallel to Moon-jae’s personal quest, adding official pressure and competing motives to the already tangled chase. The detective’s determination to capture “The Rat” places him on a collision course with both the novelist and the loan shark. Together the three men create a tense triangle of suspicion and reluctant cooperation.
Ryu Jun-yeol previously played a complex prisoner navigating moral gray areas in Revelations and took on a high-stakes role inside a twisted game in The 8 Show. Those performances showed his skill at portraying men whose carefully controlled worlds collapse under external pressure, a quality that fits the isolated writer fighting to prove he still exists.
Mousetrap premieres exclusively on Netflix on August 28.
Source: Netflix
