Alfred Hitchcock would have LOVED this Korean drama!

Queen Mantis (2025) was a murder mystery that kept me guessing who the copycat murderer was in its story until the last two episodes. When you can figure out who a killer is in a mystery police drama in the first few episodes a lot of the suspense peters out too soon. This drama wisely avoided that pitfall. Also, I think the acting was truly phenomenal in this clever police drama, by the entire cast, and even improved upon the script at times. I knew the screenplay by Lee Young Jong would be generally excellent because he had written some of the biggest hit films in Korean history, for instance Parallel Life, The Flu, and Lucid Dream. This was his first Korean drama written, as a derivative screenplay based on a 2017 French series, and he was quoted as saying he poured his whole heart and soul into the story to help give it a more Korean flavor. The characters did seem to be quite realistic, and their emotions were well depicted. The director was Byun Young Joo who directed two popular films Helpless and Flying Boys. As of this writing the drama can be viewed on Viki.com and Netflix and Kocowa.

Our two leads were veteran actress Ko Hyun Jung, here playing a jailed serial killer, an actress whom I've been delighted watching for decades in classic dramas like Sandglass, Spring Days, The Queen's Classroom, Dear My Friends, Return, and her earlier 2025 drama Namib, and the actor playing her estranged son Jang Dong Yoon (Daily Dose Of Sunshine, Solomon's Perjury). This was obviously his most challenging role to date, playing a dedicated policeman / detective whose mother had been a murderer. Their tense mother-son dynamic adds depth to the emotional layers of this fast-moving crime thriller. It’s a story about confronting a painful past, seeking truth, and wrestling with an almost impossible trust between two estranged relatives.

The Story:

In the 1990's, there had been a female serial killer who had terrorized her modest neighborhood with seemingly random, grizzly murders against men. She was nicknamed Mantis by the police, for like the insect the praying mantis, that bites off the heads of males after mating with them, she selected and murdered men she considered trash in society, those men who were abusive toward their wives and children, and then she dismembered their bodies ... including her own abusive husband (Cho Seong Ha)! Any time she saw a husband hurting or cheating on his wife in public that man went on her secret list to be extinguished and chopped up as soon as possible. 

Her name was Jung Eui Shin (Ko Hyun Jung) and once arrested -- after her fifth murder! -- she would only agree to admit her guilt if her jail conditions / cell could be made to look more like a nice apartment, with a police guard (Kil Eun Sung) bringing her daily designer coffee and food! She also stipulated that her young son Cha Soo Yeol (eventually played by Jang Dong Yoon as an adult) was to receive extra protection by the police force and given a new life free from the stigma of being the son of a murderer. He ended up being raised by his Granddad Jeong Hyun Nam (Lee Hwang Eui) a man with many secrets of his own that he managed to hide from others for most of his life. These secrets are revealed later in the drama.

We jump to twenty-three years later, and a horrific string of copycat murders mimicking Jung Eui Shin’s methods occur in the same city. The perpetrator kills victims in exactly the same way as the Mantis did in the past, then arranges their mangled bodies neatly in places where anyone can find them, as if displaying valuable art pieces. The murderer was obviously intentionally attracting police and the media to the corpses in order to spread fear in the populace.

Upon hearing this news about the copycat murderer, Jung Eui Shin in jail sends a message expressing her willingness to cooperate with investigators in helping to find the new assassin. Her only condition is that her son, now a police officer / detective, Cha Soo Yeol, must personally lead the investigation. The other police Soo Yeol works with (played by Kim Min Ho, Kim Tae Jung, Park Wan Hyeong, Cho Seong Ha, Lee Yoon Gun) seem a bit ticked off at first since they all expected the lead female cop Kim Na Hee (marvelous Lee El) to be promoted to lead police captain in their department.

This demand of hers to lead the investigation causes great pain for Soo Yeol. He had spent his life trying to erase his mother’s existence from his memory, not even telling his wife Lee Jung Hyun (Kim Bo Ra) about his family history. This moment tears open those old wounds again for the young detective son. But with copycat killings continuing unabated, and no other leads, Soo Yeol has no choice but to accept cooperation from his jailed mother, whom he hasn't seen since childhood. In trying to decipher the clues about the new copycat serial killer both Mom and son eventually become closer, and for one murder case Soo Yeol's Mom is even allowed out of her jail room to help uncover the mystery of the new serial killer's identity.

As time goes on the true reason for Mom's request to help decipher the new serial killer's identity proves to be less about the investigation and more about her desperate curiosity and longing for her estranged son, who is the only person she had ever had a normal relationship with, when he was a child. Her twisted emotional life happened later and arose when she started her killing spree against abusive family men.

While the investigation with his mother proceeds, detective Soo Yeol’s wife Lee Jung Hyun sees the extreme distress her husband suffers from taking on the case and so she begins her own private investigation to uncover his secrets, with the help from a seemingly docile female friend named Seo A Ra (Han Dong Hee) who works as a ceramist.

This Is Superb Acting, Folks!

Meanwhile, Soo Yeol’s brotherly childhood friend Park Min Jae (Lee Chang Min, excellent performance!), and his Mom's most twisted cult follower Seo Gu Han (Lee Tae Gu) fall under suspicion of being the new serial killer, but the copycat killings continue after they are apprehended by police, raising doubts on the police force's original idea that Mantis Jung Eui Shin herself might have been controlling the crimes from prison.

Through the cooperative investigation, Soo Yeol gradually comes to understand his mother is not a mere mad killer but a complex figure with a specific sense of purpose. Although he cannot forgive her crimes, his blind hatred begins to fade. The copycat’s crimes grow increasingly brutal, and Jung Eui Shin begins to suspect the culprit is someone who was indirectly involved in her old crimes because the patterns perfectly replicate her past crime scenes. For instance, upon hearing a distant lullaby at the fifth copycat murder scene, she finds a crucial clue: that lullaby was the song she sang while committing her past murders, and only someone in the victims' families could have heard it.

Investigators track down the family of Jung’s fifth victim and discover they had a transgender "son" who struggled with gender identity. Could this person be the new Mantis? The copycat murderer even calls Jung Eui Shin directly, leaving a cryptic message with a disguised voice: “I made your son Soo Yeol happy.” This hint makes Soo Yeol think of his now pregnant wife Lee Jung Hyun with suspicion, who had brought him so much love and happiness. But then his wife is kidnapped by the new Mantis and her own life put in danger! Can Soo Yool find and rescue her in time? Even the first Mantis is now desperate to do anything to capture her copycat murderer; she doesn't want her son destroyed emotionally by the loss of his beloved wife and mother of his own future child! Her son has been through enough trauma for one lifetime!

Queen Mantis is a top of the line murder mystery. Although I often stay away from serial murder themed Korean dramas I will make an exception and watch them if some of my favorite Korean thespians are hired for the roles! This one was gripping and very well done. Enjoy!

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