I watched Moon River (2025) on Viki.com honestly because I had loved the leading man, Kang Tae Ho, in another hugely popular Korean drama called Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022) and I wanted to see more of him, especially in this role of a fictional royal Prince in the old Joseon era. I was not disappointed in his performance in this newer drama, and I think he had very good screen chemistry with his pretty leading lady, Kim Se Jeong (The Sound Of Your Heart). The drama was full of mystery and plot twists that I wasn't expecting, like a strange body swapping scenario which occurred twice in the drama. Kim Se Jeong even won Best Actress at the MBC Drama Awards for her impressive performance, and actor Kang Tae Ho won the Best Actor award at the MBC Drama Awards as well. They also won the Best Couple award too because of their nice chemistry together! These awards are sure to give both actors a nice, well deserved career boost!

I do think the drama would have been an A+ drama for me if it had been 10 to 12 episodes instead of 14. That's really my only criticism of the drama because I felt the later episodes repeated some plot cliches and twists that weren't really necessary. Other than that I enjoyed the story a lot and enjoyed the screen couple's growing intimacy as the story progressed.

The Story:

The story begins with a mystery of fate that fantastically binds our main couple together. Crown Prince Lee Kang (Kang Tae Ho) is the heir to the throne of Joseon and he bears the burden of both the pain of losing his mother to palace intrigues and power struggles and also losing his newly betrothed wife to a supposed drowning in a moonlit river at night. He deliberately creates the image of a careless, hostile Prince in order to survive the efforts of some evil nobles who wish to dispose of him too, like nobleman Kim Han Chul (prolific actor Jin Goo, All In, Spotlight, Swallow The Sun, Descendants Of The Sun, and the 2009 film classic Mother), and the jealous Kim Woo Hee (new actress Hong Su Zu, who won Best New Actress at the MBC Awards for her performance).   

Then one auspicious day Prince Lee Kang is outside the palace grounds and meets a precocious salt vendor named Park Dalli (Kim Se Jeong). She seems to have lived a simple life, with her early memories gone, for a reason she is not sure about, until one day she has to travel to Hanyang (old name for Seoul), the capital city she was forbidden to approach. Her strange meeting with the Crown Prince is fortuitous for both their lives.

The couple's meeting was not just a coincidence. When Lee Kang first saw Dalli, he felt like something was familiar about her. She had a face that looked like his poor wife who had supposedly died, and then something unexpected happened: a mysterious body swapping. Our Prince Lee Kang, heir to the throne, had to live in the body of a young merchant. The young merchant had to become the heir to the throne in the palace. The couple's lives were turned upside down in the blink of an eye. And this is the beginning of a love story that will change the couple's lives forever. They both begin to see each other with clearer vision, and our Prince realizes his wife had never died after all! They grow to comfort one another and to join forces to defeat those who wish them harm in the kingdom.

There are so many twists and turns in this drama that you should discover for yourself. The drama was very popular around the world and can be watched on VIKI with a membership. The romance in this one is very special, but I have to be honest and say that I am still anxiously waiting for a sequel to the lead actor's most famous role in Extraordinary Attorney Woo with leading lady Park Eun Bin. I wish that writer would get on the ball and write the sequel to that worldwide hit! In any case, if you like the leading couple actors here in Moon River then definitely don't miss it. They obviously worked very hard on their performances and it shows in every scene.

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