Based on the biblical story of Adam and Eve's first two sons, Cain and Abel is about Cain's jealousy towards his brother Abel. Lee Cho In is a very gifted doctor who has everything that he wants whereas his older brother, Seon Woo, is jealous of all the attention that Cho In receives. Seon Woo blames his brother for taking everything good in his life away from him. Seon Woo blames Cho In for getting their father's love, getting more recognition as a doctor, and for stealing the woman he loves.

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  Shin Hyun Joon (Lee Seon-Woo)

  Main Role

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  So Ji Sub (Lee Cho In)

  Main Role

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  Chae Jung Ahn (Kim Seo Yeon)

  Main Role

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  Han Ji Min (Oh Young Ji)

  Main Role

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  Song Jong Ho (Kang Suk Hoon)

  Supporting Role

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  Jang Yong (Lee Jong Min, Seon Woo's father)

  Supporting Role

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• Mar 24, 2012 20 of 20 episodes seen

  kdramafan89
  6 of 6 people found this review helpful
  Other reviews by this user
  • Overall  8
  • Story  9
  • Acting/Cast  10
  • Music  7
  • Rewatch Value  5

  I decided to watch Cain and Abel because the premise sounded interesting and I'm a new fan of Han Ji Min. I also wanted to see what all the fuss about So Ji Sub was…
  
  Story- Very intense throughout. I liked not exactly knowing what was going to happen next. I liked that it took place in different settings. It helped to keep the story fresh and watchable till the end. The episodes have a good pace. The wea point of the story would be the romance. It was kind of not believable at certain times just because Cho In was so obsessed with the first gf for a long time. Solid ending.
  
  Acting/cast- Solid acting by the 4 leads. So Ji Sub was very good at playing both the Dr. and Young Ji’s fake cousin. He pulled off the two different characters well. Now even though the acting was top notch, I just could not get invested in the characters. First, I was turned off by So Ji Sub’s character in the beginning. His decision to date his older brother's love just because he had been gone a while, just didn’t sit right with me. Now as odd as it sounds, I actually was rooting for the villain Sun Woo. Yes he did unforgivable things but I kind of understood where he was coming from. I was rooting for him to see the light and be reunited with Seo Yeon. Ha Ji Min’s character was sooo annoying. Not only was her North Korean accent she had throughout annoying but also her actions just made her character not likeable. She also asks too many questions! Let’s just say it was really hard to root for her. I liked the supporting cast. The villains were villainy and the side Dr. couple was funny/cute.
  
  Music- it fit the scenes but I didn’t really like it.
  
  Rewatch- I don’t think I’ll be watching this again but it is rewatchable.
  
  Overall, on the surface Cain and Abel is a high quality drama but I just didn’t get that feeling you get by the end when you really enjoyed a drama and are sad to see it end. read more

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• Jan 23, 2012 20 of 20 episodes seen

  Bladey
  4 of 7 people found this review helpful
  Other reviews by this user
  • Overall  7
  • Story  7
  • Acting/Cast  9
  • Music  9
  • Rewatch Value  7

  Well, this is an action drama with elements such as the title suggests, so it is melodramatic and makjangy, but it is done in style, the porduction values are excellent. Warning: some characters may not be to your liking and it ends up being watered down.
  
  
  ****MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS *******
  
  I am not entirely satisified with this drama, though it generally it makes for a great and exciting watch, but I have problems with how it was trying to do too much. The drama has clever ideas, but it feels a bit lacking in their execution.
  
  
  However, atr the same time as I watch dramas I think about how they stand out from other, more standard dramas, and this one certainly does. I do not consider watching it a time wasted, because it is fun to watch.
  
  It's well shot and has a sense of style, with some fantastic locations, too and the action side story to do with the borderline zones and smuggling, which I found quite engaging, but I felt there was little heart to it.
  
  I think it was trying to do too much- to be an action, medical, romance and morality drama all at once but fell short of doing any of those things in an outstanding way, though admitedly the hospital setting is a great idea for the Cain and Abel concept to give it greater dimension.
  
  I watched it and I thought about it as about any other regular drama of this kind, with all of their typical plot elements, though undoubtedly having the advantage of seemingly higher budget. In other words, the drama could have been given any other title as it did not, to me, sufficiently, bring out all there is to the story.
  
  The suspense, as expected, was good. So Ji Sub is one hell of an attractive actor...but the story is done by so many dramas: two brothers, ambition, woman, fighting, though admittedly rarely do I see a brother who wants to get rid of brother with quite the same amount iof selfish cruelty, in a moment of total blindness and greed, but the murdeorus brother also has some other problems...and so at the end of the day the ending, while it does try to give the drama human dimensions, is mostly very vacuous and bereft of impact. It just doesn't impact me at all, its human aspect/ moralising aspect dies down somewhere.
  
  Still, it did pull me in, as these dramas are likely to do, and I wanted to keep watching it. Even though the characters ultimately do not really feel all that believeable. The Abel brother is likeable and you pity him, but there is also something about him that didn't let me want to attach myself emotionally to him, his love interest is silly, but kind, his step mother is a particularly evil witch, his father is mostly rendered helpless, his brother breaks the bond of brothershood due to feelings of slight and greedy ambition, but it is the Cain brother who is possibly the most fully rounded character of all. The story develops partly over the hospital inheritance and ambition and partly over another woman, who is just useless too and rather annoying, to be honest; meandering between two brothers like a lost, though very much suffering, soul that she seems to be
  
  They tried to make the characters multi-dimensional, but that multidimensionality comes off as a too cardboard and it's superficial and the Cain brother, in all this, is possibly the best. To me, the drama relies on effect more than depth.
  
  I gave it an overall 7 because it is very well done, pretty fast-paced and pulls you in. Acting is great overall, but...I thought the drama would have benefitted by getting rid of the romance, for once and focusing more on the family relations spoiled by ambition, though the middle action part was really interesting how it filled out the story of Abel, and I thought it was quite clever. Some of the characters, like the mother, should have been developed a bit more. At the same time, everything comes together and there is not a moment in which the drama loses its pace and nothing is really filler material, everythings does back the story and increases its "pull".
  
  In the end, the message just wasn't strong enough and the substance of the drama seem to have died down under all of the other ideas.
  
  But, it does make for a gripping watch and pulls you in, so I will most likely rewatch it if I'm in the mood for a well-executed drama packed with action that is very pleasing, all in all.
  
  In short: this is what I call a compelling series, but it's mostly just shiny package. read more

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