First Impressions: "Moon River" Is A Whimsical Tale Of Soul-Swap, Fate, And Revenge
After her frothy 2024 romance drama “Brewing Romance,” Kim Se Jeong has finally returned to the small screen alongside “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” star Kang Tae Oh. The Friday-Saturday MBC drama “Moon River” is a romantic comedy set in the Joseon Dynasty era, where the main leads’ souls swap and the fun begins. But behind the lighthearted premise, a tale of revenge unfolds.
Here is what you can expect from the premiere week episodes of “Moon River.”
Warning: spoilers ahead!
“Moon River” opens with a striking scene where our male lead, Crown Prince Lee Gang (Kang Tae Oh), is talking to Elder Wolha in what seems like an otherworldly setting filled with red and white blossoms. The elder starts explaining the significance of these blossoms and the meaning behind their two different colors. In essence, everyone in the universe of “Moon River” is connected to their soulmate with a red thread, and no matter what the world unfolds, one way or another, the people who are connected with the red thread will find their way to each other in this life or the next one.
But the flower that catches the prince’s and the audience’s eyes is neither red nor white but a beautiful fusion of both. And while Elder Wolha does not explain the meaning behind a flower that blossoms with both white and red petals, in the context of the drama, the two-colored flower certainly manifests the bond between our main leads.
Soon we learn more about the characters around whom this story revolves. Crown Prince Lee Gang, while seeming cheerful and even endearingly eccentric at times, possesses layers. Around five years ago, the prince’s wife was accused of the murder of the queen and was being forced to ingest poison as punishment. As if she saw the future in her head, she knew if she refused to accept the punishment, the crown prince would run away with her and get killed by the court members who were plotting against him. So, she accepted her fate and jumped into a lake instead, killing herself but on her own terms, not accepting the blame for the queen’s murder. Since that day, the crown prince has had only one thing on his mind: revenge.
However, just when he starts working on his revenge plan, something catches him off his tracks. He sees someone who looks exactly like his late wife, but is she just a doppelganger?
Meet Dal I (Kim Se Jeong), a salt merchant who is simply marvelous at her job. She goes from town to town selling plain old ordinary salt like white gold. However, she has a secret — her past — which is even unknown to her. Five years ago, Dal I was found near a body of water, unconscious, and when she woke up, she remembered nothing and was later placed under the care of her current parents.
Now, based on common K-drama or melodrama logic, the audience would not have known the significant detail about Dal I’s amnesia because it reveals the plot twist of the story. However, “Moon River” does not rely on plot twists. Instead, it reveals major plot points, like the amnesia, and also that the minister framed the princess for murder because he intended to marry his daughter to the prince and have his blood flow in the royal bloodline to access the power that comes with it.
This puts pressure on the plot itself to deliver enough thrill, comedy, and chemistry to ensure the viewers stay for all 14 episodes. And after the premiere episodes, the task is not onerous.
As said earlier, Lee Gang is a man with many layers. While he is conjuring up a foolproof plan to avenge his late wife, he is not shown as someone who is broody 24/7. In fact, one of the introductory scenes of the adult Prince Lee Gang is of him educating his palace staff about color palette analysis. Later, he is shown using modern-day abbreviations. If the synopsis was not clear, the audience could have easily mistaken him for a time traveler from 2025, but in the “Moon River” universe, he is simply ahead of his time.
On the other hand, Dal I is mostly funny. Her personality is loud and fiery. She is someone who can run over the roof of a house without fearing the fall. However, she is simultaneously virtuous enough to endanger her life to save someone else’s. She does exactly that by traveling to Hanyang despite being warned against it, just so she can save the life of a young woman she does not know.
And as far as chemistry is concerned, Kim Se Jeong and Kang Tae Oh bring enough of it to turn lead into gold. In the scene where the couple finally meets after five years apart, Lee Gang sees his late wife in Dal I. His eyes are full of yearning, and Dal I, who has lost her memories, should not feel anything. But Kim Se Jeong’s subtle acting shows that Dal I can feel the red thread pulling her toward Lee Gang, even if she is unaware of their shared past. Just this one scene alone makes the audience excited to see how the couple will react after uncovering Dal I’s true identity, when they realize five years were stolen from them.
Start watching “Moon River”:
Javeria is a binge-watching specialist who loves devouring entire K-dramas in one sitting. Good screenwriting, beautiful cinematography, and a lack of clichés are the way to her heart. As a music fanatic, she listens to multiple artists across different genres and stans the self-producing idol group SEVENTEEN. You can talk to her on Instagram @javeriayousufs.
Currently Watching: “Moon River“ and “Typhoon Family”