A nice start to the lunar year of the ox so far with no big bad news around the world and for the first K-drama to premiere in this metal ox year KBS sageuk River Where the Moon Rises is also off to a promising start. The premiere episode this Monday brought in 6.5%, 9.4% ratings in the two part calculation, with the storyline moving swiftly through the adult backstory setting phase and right into the young leads Kim So Hyun‘s Ga Jin and Ji Soo‘s Ondal meeting yet again. This drama hits all the right Gorguyeo era sageuk notes, action-packed with stirring lush imagery and plenty of badassery from strong female characters. Kang Ha Neul’s guest starring role is, of course, super amazing but I am glad he and Son Ye Jin passed on the drama leads and the production aged down one whole decade because now we get the cutest pairing of assassin princess with amnesia and wholesome lunkhead who still remembers her.
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The child actress is very pretty and talented. I saw some resemblance to KSH. Just realized she played little Dalmi in SU. I’ll keep an eye out for this young lady.
KSH is luminous here.
KHN was a delight to watch.
Jisoo didn’t have much screentime to make an impact on me. But why is he a fool, though?
We have our usual power-hungry general as villain. The usual sly concubine. And another mad king. The one in TTON would be jealous.
What a nice surprise to see the adorable eunuch in METS!
Interesting story, so far. Lovely visuals and cinematography. Acting on point. Solid premiere, overall. Hope the quality holds till the end.
Heo Jeong-eun is pretty well known child actress you know.. It’s just that she’s growing up now, I almost didn’t recognise her. She was a cutie pie back then.
She’s been added to my Watch Out For list. Along with Lee Re. And Park Da-Yeon aka Her Sassiness Hwang Aeng Du in TTON. Lol.
@aurora
Thank you for sharing your lovely, insightful review ❤️ Something came up and therefore I couldn’t watch the first episode yet but I intend to soon. Your recap makes me more excited to check it out!
Laura,
Have you gotten the chance to watch it yet? I’d love to hear your perspective.
@Aurora
I’m sorry it took me sometime to get back to you.
Episode one in my perspective was brilliant. From the opening to the end, it was so riveting and exciting, there was not a dull moment to be seen.
I love a badass female character and we were blessed with so many lovely action sequences! I couldn’t stop cheering for each head count haha I was like girl, you go drink all the blood you can haha I literally repeated the first 3-4 minutes several times when she was flying off her horse and slaying in the battlefield. I was like! Destroy! Stab! Slice their bodies haha ?
I was honestly irritated with young FL, what took her so long to reveal such imperative information? HAHA ?
I love KHN, his relationship with Ondal was so lovely, especially his teachings on how life is precious. I love it.
I know some people gave Jisoo flack but I thought he was perfect here, this role was made for him.
I was shocked that the queen was also talented and adept with the sword! I was yelping so loud in joy!
I’m having so much fun so far. I don’t have any major complaints yet, let’s see 🙂
KSH was something fierce, wasn’t she? Haha.
Yeah, I also got annoyed with the young princess! You hear such crucial information, you share it pronto. But I guess the plot needed things to unfold that way.
When the death arrow was flying towards the queen, I for real thought she’d deflect it with her sword. The way they shot that scene made it seem like she saw it coming and had enough time to dodge it but alas.
I loathe the king so much. So weak, so foolish and so crazy. Just full of hot air. He had this badass queen by his side and got her killed out of misguided jealousy. Argh!
@aurora
She was mighty fierce! If the writing and quality holds up, this may end up being my favorite drama of hers. My favorite of hers currently is Let’s Fight Ghost, she was so cute and so hilarious there. Her drunk scene is gold! I hope she can do another comedy role one day similar to that drama.
LOL I agree, I definitely thought she could had avoided that arrow. I somehow think the writer saw her cameo in Goblin and loved it and gotten inspired by it. Because here she also died by arrow, ordered to death by an imbecile, puppet king, and also the painting of hers ?
The king is very much like Nokdu’s father, very insecure and power-hungry. He’s afraid of losing his throne and is easily deceived. He’s a tool for sure
It’s Heo Jung-eun. Try to watch her take the lead in “Oh My Geum-bi.” She’s only nine then, yet she out-acted the adult cast. I want her to be as successful as Kim So-hyun/Kim Yoo-jung someday.
Yeah, I looked her up. She’s very promising. Is Oh My Geum-bi a good drama overall? Or was HJE the only standout performance in it?
Correct me if I’m wrong, RWTMR’s premiere ratings are the highest among KBS Mon-Tue dramas since 2016. The previous holder of that record is TTON,a KSH drama as well.
If that is so, KSH has the star power. She just needs a drama that is consistent from beginning till end. Hence, I am hoping RWTMR will be that drama.
Very good and interesting first episode. KSH has the gravitas and looks to draw all my attention to her every time she appears on the screen. Truly a leading lady.
Absolutely. I couldn’t take my eyes off her when she’s on screen not only because she’s so beautiful, but also because just like you said she has amazing gravitas that I keep forgetting she’s so young! She’s really one of the best from her gen.
I can’t believe we got a surprise bonus Kim So Hyun double role, with her starring as the princess as well as the princess’ mother!
She’s really incredible, to have that kind of presence and gravitas at 21. It’s good to see her in dramas that know how to use it (Nokdu and now I hope this one too)
The ratings are not so surprising, The Royal Agent ended with pretty good ratings and there is no new drama in public channel.
I didn’t watch the first episode yet, wishing to do it in the best conditions and not in the train. But I’m pretty excited for a serious sageuk, my last one was My Country (I’m still crying after this end…).
Ah, so there’s no competition? But even then, I expected higher ratings than this given the way her fans overhype her to the point of threatening others with different opinions. And I expected more comments in this article. Wonder where all those over 100 commenters in the older articles about this drama went.
@hmm
please don’t be misleading..there’s a competition during the timeslot.. @sayaris said from public channels, but there’s still competitors, luca the beginning, and sunbe lipstick from cable channels. but yeah, i admitted the real competition will begin in March as more dramas will be inserted in the timeslot.
but more important thing is, if the drama is good, then more ppl will watch it. if that drama itself isn’t good, no matter how lack the competition is, ppl will not watch it. there’s many cases like this happened in last year 2020. that dramas unable to attract many viewers despite no competition from the timeslot. and in another case, even tho that slot had many competitors from other dramas, not a single drama was able to attain high ratings. the average of these dramas rating was below 4%. so it’s actually quite remarkable to attain such ratings from only the premiere episodes. but yes, there’s still more upcoming episodes to see whther this drama is able to attain more higher rating. we’ll wait and see it together.
@hmm..actually I’m quite amused with ur assumptions. it quite ambitious actually to expect a high rating just from a pilot episode ? even fans didn’t expect like that.. and just because fans overhyped her, it doesn’t mean that it’ll get a higher rating. and noted that all of the overhyping are coming from international fans. so i can’t see here how the overhyping from intl fans here affected the rating which has korean citizens as the audience. but yes.. there’s some fans that are quite extreme.. but i hope u didn’t see it as whole fans just because 1 or 2 person are toxic.
and that 100 comments happened for certain reasons. i think u will not see it here
They have no competition from public channels So, it is easy win for this drama.
@lay pey yee
i don’t think that’s the main factor of a drama to attain a high rating. cheat on me if u can(kbs), delayed justice and do u like brahams (sbs), and many other public dramas was the examples of sole drama from public channel that airing in their timeslot. but why the rating isn’t high and didn’t have an easy win? as i said before, if the drama is interesting, many ppl will watch it. how do u think mr queen, love divorce marriage and uncanny counter have a high rating despite them having to compete to each other? coz these dramas are interesting to the audiences. btw, rwtmr is still on its way to the 2nd episode. so it is too early to tell about its performance just from its premiere episode
@Hmm Well, almost every fans overhype their favorites, and I don’t see any problem with that. I think some commenters here like you are just not used to the stan culture and find it over the top, which is, fair enough. But the point is every fans do it. Also, we’re “overhyping” or whatever KSH because we’re proud of her beauty and talent, not that we’re expecting this drama to have high ratings, especially that we’re aware of the writer’s previous works. If you look at the comments on previous RWTMR articles, literally no one was expecting this drama to have high ratings, so this is a pleasant surprise to us.
As for the “threatening others with different opinions”, it was like one or two people who attacked others for expressing dislike to Ji Soo, and they definitely don’t represent the whole KSH fandom. If you look at the comments, most KSH fans even called them out for their toxic behavior. There’s also the possibility of those commenters being mere trolls trying to instigate fanwars just to make KSH fans look bad, just like @joane. Most of us KSH fans called them out, so please don’t generalize the whole fandom, thank you very much.
@jijie
Lol. Actually, I was not expecting, say, 20% right out the gate. That’s unrealistic. I was thinking at least double digits like 11% given how fans are always going on and on about her star power and ratings guarantee. One is even in the above comments. People on this site always say that the pilot episode rating is about star power and the ratings of the remaining episodes depend on the story. So I’m just talking about the pilot, not the whole drama. Relax.
Those articles I’m referring to had a lot of commenters who were eagerly looking forward to this drama. It wasn’t all fan wars and trolls. There were many real fans but I’m not seeing them here in this post for the premiere. So I’m just surprised.
@jijie
My reply to your expected essay is not posting. I know from experience on this site though that it will post eventually.
@hmm previously u said u expected a high rating due to overhyping. now u said about star power. i really don’t understand u ? btw, it isn’t so easy to attain double digits just from premier. how many dramas has already done it previously? even some actors and actress with real star power also started from single digit first, then it gradually increased to double digits. that’s why i said it’s quite ambitious/expectant to have a double digit just from a premiere. a rating nearer to double digits is already good.
abt the star power, it’s that person’s personal opinion. I’ve no opinion abt it. coz for me, interest matter.
@everyone
Ignore users like @hmmm
They are users that like to act smug and just want to draw out random debates because they find entertainment in poking at things. It’s best to just enjoy the drama and let them talk to a wall ?
This person @hmm, in other case @lmfao (referring to her other username below), and @ultramarine (her username in that KSH article with 100+ comments) has always a smug tone. She was in that KSH article with 100+ comments. I bet she is here to recreate that unnecessary fanwars together with her/his fellow toxic people that’s what she means when she said “I expected more comments in this article” LMAO. Too obvious huh.
Ignore her and she won’t have fun.
@laura
actually i knew she/he as well as others are pretentious and their intention was so obvious. I wish i can ignore.. but i dont want another species like her camping in the reply sections agreeing their comments ?. and plus, i don’t want their not so wise and smart thinking affected other readers’ thinking, so i think better to refute it immediately in order to avoid others for being influenced. yes after this.. let them talk to the wall. coz no matter how detailed we explain it, they didn’t care as long as their goals are achieved.
@kiki
agree with that 100 comments ?
@jijie
In that case, I agree with your methods then 🙂
Koreans like sageuk and SBS/MBC didn’t have any new drama. So rating is good but not great. Anyway congrats to the casts and wish them success.
Maybe it will hit 20% just like penthouse.
SPOILER ALERT
Am I the only one who wants KSH more as Queen? I also want more of her and Kang Ha Neul scenes. I kind of ship them. When Kang Ha Neul was shot with two arrows in the back protecting her I was like “UWAAAHHH”. I hope they will have a drama together in the future.
You’re definitely not the only one, I was lowkey shipping them as well ?
Too bad they didn’t have much scenes together. Let’s hope they’ll work again in the future!
@BunnyGirl you are not the only one.Even I wanto to see more of a
queen. Maybe they will show some backstory of her.
I really liked the Queen character and wants to see more of her story. There’s a lot to be mined from what she had been through.
Married at a very young age to a man old enough to be her father. Her daughter looks more like her younger sister.
Not only is the king too old, but also powerless and like the enemy’s description, easily shatters like glass. Completely demented and useless king. I wish he was killed in Episode 2 already.
Shaky camera moves and too much cut in a single action scene kindly ruined my mood. It is a pretty cheap production plus KSh playing both mother and daughter looks a little off, they should just get a different older actress playing the mother but probably budget constraint.
So far, it bored me, stopped in the middle of the 2nd episode. I will pick up later. Rating is promising due to lack of competition from public channels, I expected that. This drama is lucky cuz penthouse 2 was moved to sat/sun slots. We wait until Josean Exorcist, then we can talk about rating. KSH is beautiful though.
@js
That’s what I thought about single handedly dominating the rating. The show is only centered on KSH alone here. Nothing else that sustained my interest. If only they get more older or veteran actors on board.
I’ve checked the PD, I’ve not watched any of his dramas. So I’m not familiar with his directing style. But the action scenes were bad. I watched Sisyphus trailer and PSH looks like a pure badass in there but I cannot say the same to KSH here, her action scenes heavily depend on editing, and it’s bad editing. Too bad. I hope it gets better and I love KSH.
the camera is definitely bad
this is disappointing because as much as I want to talk about story and the acting, it just doesn’t look good in screen.
I don’t mind the rating, I am glad it gets a good recognition but I hope the quality gets better
lucky? no competition? yeah righttt… this is so lucky and no competition according to you guys ? oh if u don’t know.. this is the list of dramas or shows that airing LITERALLY in the same TIMESLOT. enjoyy
https://mobile.twitter.com/mysore1216/status/1361673550491312137/retweets/with_comments
oh ya. i remembered some dramas also airing in literally the best timeslot without having to compete with other dramas from public channels (for sure u know what channel and time this). since no competition from other dramas from other public channels, how come these dramas isn’t as lucky as u claimed? something to ponder ?
Actually, I also want to share that information ?, well done @lmao ??
@yta
sometimes some people aren’t smart and ignorant even tho someone has already explained abt it so many times. so they need physical FACTS that they can see by their own eyes. btw u r welcomed
They are not even prime-time dramas to begin with. So,how can you can compare apples with oranges.
it’s literally still a fruit category..lmao
Ah, thanks for sharing. I’ll go check out those dramas.
okay, I get u, we can start talking about rating after Joseon exorcist starts streaming..lol.
@everyone
Some of these users who are talking about lack of competition and etc are just instigators, they know the truth but they don’t care.
Nowadays, it’s rare for public channels to get good ratings. Cable tv generally does better for the past few years and that’s the truth.
Ratings are promising due to lack of competition in “public channels”? Tell that to other millions of dramas that also had no competition in public channels as well. It’s a fact episode 1 of RWTMR ratings were the highest in kbs for years for the first episode.
If you don’t like the drama fine, but no need to come up with different unproven shades to shade the drama and the actress. We know what you’re trying to do and trying to cause feuds in this article.
Go have fun doing something else haha
I saw the first chapter and I did not like it, maybe the direction is not to my liking or the subject is too dense for me, it feels strange and despite the action boring, I don’t know, I think it is more like my personal taste and maybe later read the reviews take it again, still no one can discredit the performances Kang Ha Neul and Kim So Hyun, they did really well.
It may be that the ratings are influenced by the fact that it does not have great direct competition, but it is mean to say that just because there are no other programs on the air, its ratings were good.
If the drama was not to the liking of the Korean public, they would simply change the program or do anything else, but it was not like that, even on Twitter I saw that in real time today it reached 14,6, do not be obnoxious or ill-intentioned with your comments you may not like drama like I do, but that’s not why you have to lower the work of others.
since the rating is good, I thought people will talk about the story because it’s indeed boring,
I hope it gets better
it just it looks lackluster and I don’t even have a high expectation
Even the supposed fans aren’t talking about the story. They’re more obsessed with ratings, star power, attacking contrary opinions and desperately trying to prove that the drama has competition to justify its average ratings. What a mess.
@jared @smh Have fun playing some video games, reading books, go study, go exercise… too much negative instigating energy ?
@smh wtf? when fans are overhyping, it’s a problem. when fans stop overhyping in this site, it’s also a problem. get a life dude…lmfao…fyi, the supposed fans were already talking toooooooooo much how great they felt ep 1 is until they’ve no energy left (metaphor) in other sites like twitter, mydramalist, Instagram, fb and else. too pity and pathetic u guys just enter the chat ? hahhaha..or u must’ve seen it already but pretended not to see it. u must dislike the drama or casts so much which made u dropped such comments. it is ok.. it’s understandable. not everyone like to hear the fact and truth. the justifications was reliable.. stay pressed.
Not having fun? Too bad. KSH fans are not dumb enough to give in to your fan war requests. It is fine if you don’t like it. Just don’t watch so you won’t have to complain. There are enough people who love it already and it’s all that matters.
No doubt ksh popularity and the hype brought the ratings
So plz ignore those who want to create trouble and enjoy ur drama
Or else the joy of seeing ur girl on screen will b missed by u
Just talking from experience
The only thing I didn’t like about this drama is the King’s acting( although there’s an improvement in episode 2) and his tone. It seems a bit off for me?
The agony of watching current airing drama-waiting for another week.
Oh sorry@ana comment above meant to be an independent one not reply to yours. Lol
But it’s so sad, why did you let it affected your love for watching your girl on screen? I don’t care about the negatives I’ve been reading about KSH specially during the duration of a drama she’s in. It didn’t/doesn’t deter me from enjoying watching bec what matters most is my own opinion and my opinion is I love my girl’s acting since 2012?
@Ma exactly very well said.
I came here to express my love to KSH. No matter what others say as long as I’m enjoying it, I will continue to watch it. Different opinions, different taste, so it is okay if some doesn’t like it. But I love it and it’s all that matters.
Koala: No big bad news around the world.
Ebola: Hello world! I’m back.
Heaven save us all.
warning ⚠️ I’m gonna talk abt rating here. those who are fed up with rating can mind ur own business.
so after waiting wed thurs dramas, apparently that the lucky and unlucky term only apply to river where the moon rises. coz apparently hello it’s me isn’t lucky despite the only drama from public channel airing in the same timeslot. and there is only 2 dramas currently airing in this time. wow.. river where the moon rises is so fucking lucky