I accepted rather early on (around episode 3 or 4) that this would probably turn out to be a rather mediocre sageuk, but even so I enjoyed it quite a bit, and even had a lot of affection for it … until the last episode made my goodwill evaporate, which has impelled me to lower the (in my estimation generous) 7.5 rating I was planning to give this drama to a 6.5 (which, honestly, still may be rather generous).

I think it’s quite clear that this drama hoped to follow in the footsteps of Queen Seondeok and Empress Ki, to become the next epic historical drama led by a strong female character, liberally interpreting the life of a famous historical woman. Pyeonggang’s characterization is markedly similar to Empress Ki’s Nyang, while the overall progression of the story almost seems modeled off of Queen Seondeok. Though neither of those dramas was perfect, River Where the Moon Rises unfortunately fell short of the mark they were aiming for. The problems with this drama largely stem from the writing, which really isn’t surprising, considering that Dr. Jin is the only sageuk Han Ji Hoon has previously written. As I have not read the novel from which this drama was adapted, I cannot say how many of these issues were present in the source material, but certainly they did not stem from the original folktale recorded in the Samguk sagi. Still, I will start by discussing the positive aspects of this drama, which indicate that it probably did have the potential to join some of those classic epics, had it not gone so far astray in other respects.

Though there was nothing particularly outstanding about Yoon Sang Ho’s directing, it was perfectly serviceable and evoked the classic sageuk style quite well. This drama definitely had its moments that were genuinely exciting, epic, and moving (even if it didn’t manage to make me cry). The cinematography and the production design are definite stand outs. The natural scenery was gorgeous (this drama has some of the most amazing landscape shots I’ve seen in any drama) and the ancient cityscapes looked great. Some sets are a bit better than others, but overall they were very appealing, with striking colors (and sometimes lighting) as well as well-conceived choices of decor. While I do have some complaints about some of the whatever-the-designer-thinks-is-cool costumes, there were also many beautiful ones.

The music was both a strength and a weakness of this production, though the scale leans far more towards the former. The songs were not terribly memorable to me, but there were some nice classic ballads. There were also some more contemporary-sounding additions, but they were hardly used in the actual drama (generally they played during the credits), so thankfully this drama largely avoided the trend of using jarringly current music that feels incongruous with the historical setting. However, where the soundtrack really shined was in the instrumental (and sometimes choral) pieces, which were often quite beautiful. Where it detracted was in the tendency to overdo it with the dramatic music. Of course, I cannot think of a single sageuk that isn’t guilty of this, so I suppose I should give it a pass on that respect.

The battle scenes are reasonably well-executed. Though there are a few shots that are not entirely convincing, and it is clear that sometimes the armies are smaller than they are said to be, overall, they’ve done quite a good job filming the battles in such a way as to obscure rather than emphasize the weaknesses. I did feel that, for a drama about a great general, there is relatively little focus on the action scenes. This may be due to budget constraints necessitating rather short battle sequences. However, even smaller fight sequences are not very emphasized. This is to say, that while the execution of the actions scenes is not lacking in a way to detract from the drama, you shouldn’t come to this expecting a martial arts extravaganza.

Now, onto the story … The first five episodes exist mainly to get the romance started and give the heroine a “cool” backstory, so it takes about six episodes for the real political plot to get started. This is unfortunate since there was nothing very memorable about how the romance was set up (there’s no reason it couldn’t have been written differently and still be equally, if not more, compelling), nor was her backstory very well-executed, so it does feel like the politics of the early episodes were sacrificed for nothing. Thankfully the politics get better as the drama refocuses on the court, though the problems do not entirely disappear.

The main strength of the plot lies in the general set-up of the politics. Many dramas have 2-3 main political actors, while all supporting characters are mindless pawns in their game. In this drama, though there were around 3 (maybe 4, depending on who you count) main sides to the conflict, many of the supporting characters were independent political actors, who had their own motives and ambitions and were willing to switch sides, play both sides, or fake alliances as it suited them. Some of them also had changes of heart or circumstance. Thus, it was actually rather difficult to predict what role all these characters would play and where they would end up aligned by the end. The result is that the overall outline of the politics is much more interesting and complex than most historical dramas.

However, sometimes it felt like just that, an outline. The actual execution of the politics was often rushed and simplified. Sometimes plot arcs seemed to be resolved almost as soon as they had begun, resulting in momentous events lacking impact. I felt that many plot arcs needed to be longer or otherwise more fleshed-out. This is an issue that plagued the depiction of the characters as well at times. Though many of them were reasonably interesting, had more time been spent on their development, there was the potential for them to be more so. A more detailed portrayal also could have helped to make some of the shifts in their personalities and relationships seem more nuanced and less sudden. This also may be why it sometimes seemed this drama had pacing problems, since it was trying to balance taking enough time to establish aspects of the characters and relationships with the very rapid progression of events … the results were mixed.

The second main issue with how the politics were written is due to the way the story at times is obviously manipulated in service of making the heroine look good. For starters, we have the very standard sageuk device (which I’m not particularly fond of), oft used to shine the spotlight on princes and princesses alike, of making said young royal’s father (the king) largely useless, lest he overshadow his progeny. Pyeonggang’s brother suffers from this to a certain extent as well, and while I stand by what I said about there being many characters with independent political motivations and agency, this is mostly true of the characters not so closely aligned with Pyeonggang, because if her allies were given more focus or had independent thoughts, they might run the risk of stealing her thunder. Though I think minimizing these characters to make the protagonist shine is certainly not ideal writing, it’s so common it might not be worth complaining about except that this drama went well beyond the typical pathetic king trope. Pyeonggang wins fights that realistically she should lose, because, hey, she’s the heroine, so she has to win. Other characters make conveniently illogical decisions just to move her into the situations the writer wants her character to end up in. The Silla king is overly concerned about her, which seems to be an attempt to inflate the impression of her importance. Considering that Silla didn’t conquer Goguryeo for another century after these events (and they enlisted the help of Tang to do so), are we really supposed to watch with a straight face while Jinheung acts like this one princess is the main obstacle standing between Silla and the unification of the Three Kingdoms? They even attributed a major military victory to Pyeonggang's actions, which were, frankly, incredibly stupid and would have ended in disaster had other characters not intervened. These are the sorts of things that undermined the credibility of the politics and made it hard to take this drama seriously as a historical epic

What is particularly frustrating about this is that even after bending so much of the writing around the heroine, she ended up being the least compelling and least well-characterized of the leads. Initially when I found myself not drawn to Pyeonggang’s character, I thought it might be due to my bias against warrior princesses (I consider it an annoyingly overused trope, though Éowyn will always be awesome), so I tried to hold off judgement. Around episode 5, I thought she was beginning to grow on me, but it didn’t really last. Eventually, I came to realize that the real problem with the character was her inconsistency. Sometimes she would carefully plan out clever schemes, but at others she was mind-bogglingly impulsive and stupid. They seemed to want to portray her as being ruthless, but we never actually see her do anything particularly ruthless. Moreover, I felt that the way the drama dealt with her character conflicts and development was rushed and poorly-communicated, thus lacked weight. Though it is true of many of the characters suffer from this at points, I think it particularly bad in her case, partly because she undergoes much of her development very rapidly in the early episodes. I also have to say I often found Pyeonggang to be a bit lacking in personality and sometimes just not terribly likable.

To make matters worse, I was actually rather disappointed by Kim So Hyun’s performance, especially considering she was one of the main reasons I watched this drama. I did like her portrayal in some of the softer romantic scenes, but I don’t think she really had a strong enough presence for the commanding ones. Basically I think she’s more suited to a lovely Joseon princess-type character than the 2021 version of Queen Seondeok or Empress Ki.

For me Na In Woo and Lee Ji Hoon stole the show from Kim So Hyun. I found her lack of charisma particularly apparent when standing beside Na In Woo, who turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. Since the first six episodes have been reshot, I will not comment on Ji Soo’s performance except to say that Na In Woo was a definite upgrade. I had never even heard of Na In Woo before he replaced Ji Soo. Though I wasn’t immediately taken with him, he began to grow on me and by the end I found him to be the most compelling actor in the drama (aside from Kang Ha Neul, whose brief appearances were quite impactful). Though I do think Na In Woo has a tendency to over-exaggerate his expressions, he was convincing both in the sweetness of the character’s cheerful, good-natured “foolishness” and in the gravity of a battle-hardened general leading thousands of men. He also brought a softness and sincerity to the character in the romantic scenes. On Dal might not be the most fascinating character, but he seemed to have the most well-rounded portrayal and the most multifaceted personality. His development and conflicts also did not suffer from the muddled characterization that Pyeonggang’s did, though some more in depth exploration of some of these aspects wouldn't have hurt. I do wish the story had treated his character differently, particularly in how his motivations and even his role as general were portrayed. At first I wrote off my issues with this as a matter of personal taste, that is until it all culminated in a downright disgraceful ending for his character (which, along with some other stupidity in the last episode, is what led me to drop my rating).

Lee Ji Hoon was one of the stronger aspects of this drama from the start and remained so throughout the drama. Go Geon was one of the drama’s more interesting characters and while I can’t say I was entirely surprised by all his developments, since I did see the biggest transformation coming from a couple episodes out, his character definitely didn’t end up as I had expected at the start. I felt that the later episodes did some disservice to the character, but again this is the fault of the writing, not Lee Ji Hoon’s portrayal (which was one of the few good things about the last episode). I don’t have much to say regarding Mo Yong or Choi Yoo Hwa, either positive or negative. Her performance was fine and I liked the character, but I don’t think she was one of the aspects that really stood out.

Among the supporting cast, I consider Lee Hae Young to be a particularly good casting choice. I’ve seen enough power-hungry nobles portrayed by sneering old men, thus I really appreciated seeing a good-looking and relatively young man in such a role for a change. They also managed to give his character a couple dimensions other than political ambition, which distinguished him somewhat from the stock sageuk villain. It would not have been difficult to imagine this character as a great leader if he hadn’t been written as the antagonist.

Overall, I’m not sure whether to recommend this drama. If you like classic-style sageuks, this one isn’t too bad, though it can’t be said to be notable either. It has romance, politics, and battles, all presented with particularly stunning visuals and some pretty good performances. However, I have rarely been so upset by an ending and the writing is messy to say the least. It’s unfortunate that it wasn’t better, especially since Three Kingdoms period epics are so rare.