Ryu Jun-yeol and Seol Kyung-gu's Thriller Deulchwi (Mousetrap) Reaches Netflix Global #1 in Its Second Week

Korean thriller Deulchwi (Mousetrap) reached #1 on Netflix's global non-English TV chart in its second week, logging 4.4 million views (measured as total watch time divided by runtime) for the period of August 31 to September 6. The show debuted at #5 in its opening week after launching worldwide on August 28, making the two-week climb to the top one of the faster rises a Korean series has managed on the platform this year.

The series topped the Netflix charts in four countries outright, South Korea, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Pakistan, and landed in the top 10 across 45 countries in total, a sign that its appeal has spread well beyond its home market.

What the show is about

Deulchwi (Mousetrap) is a mystery thriller drawn from a webtoon of the same name, which itself was inspired by a traditional Korean folktale called "The Field Mouse That Ate a Fingernail", a story about a mouse that transforms into a human by consuming a person's clippings. The series takes that mythology somewhere darker: a reclusive novelist named Je Moon-jae (Ryu Jun-yeol) has his name, face, and entire life stolen by an enigmatic creature known only as deulchwi (field mouse). Tracking the creature alongside him are a loan shark named Noja (Seol Kyung-gu), who is trying to recover stolen money, and Detective Park Soon-yong (Lee Gyu-hyung), who is hunting the thing's true identity.

The combination of a folkloric premise and tightly wound suspense seems to be exactly what's pulling in global viewers. It's a setup that feels distinctly Korean in its roots but hits recognizable thriller beats, stolen identity, mounting paranoia, three very different people converging on the same target.

Other Korean shows in the top 10

Three other Korean titles joined Deulchwi (Mousetrap) in the non-English top 10 during the same tracking week. Four Hands, the tvN drama starring Song Kang and Lee Joon-young about friendship, rivalry, and romance among musically gifted students at an arts high school, made its debut on the chart at #5 in its first week. This Crappy Love, starring Jung Hae-in and Ha Young, came in at #7 after holding inside the top 5 since its release. Rounding out the Korean presence, tvN's romantic comedy Chilling Romance, with Park Eun-bin and Yang Se-jong, landed at #10.