So Ji-sub has a pretty distinctive face, but he’s still rather disguised in these new stills from his upcoming drama Cain & Abel.
Shooting started for the drama at a Seoul hospital on November 16, which is aiming for a February 2009 premiere. The 20-episode drama co-stars Shin Hyun-joong (Stairway to Heaven), Chae Jung-ahn (Coffee Prince), and Han Ji-min (Yi San). In the drama, So and Shin play doctors and brothers and get caught between two women (of course).
Director Kim Hyung-shik is no stranger to medical dramas, having produced the popular Grey’s Anatomy-esque 2007 drama Surgeon Bong Dal-hee. He explains that this is no mere medical drama, but also deals with the brothers’ “intertwining fates and loves.” So far, pretty standard stuff, although with this cast, we can hope the end product is more fresh and innovative than its description.
Cain & Abel was to be So’s first project out of the army, but due to repeated delays, his television comeback has come after four years (since 2004’s I’m Sorry, I Love You) rather than the intended two.
Although the media is careful to say the details aren’t finalized, they are reporting that Han Ji-min (Capital Scandal, Yi San) is on the shortlist to fill out the main cast of SBS’s Cain & Abel.
Either she is really close to being cast, or the media is jumping the gun again. She does seem to be seriously considering the role, and even went out earlier this month to eat with and spend some bonding time with the other three confirmed lead actors, So Ji-sub, Shin Hyun-joon, and Chae Jung-ahn. In any case, her management has acknowledged that Han will be making her decision soon, so we won’t have to wait long to find out.
A source at production house Plan B Pictures said, perhaps indicating their eagerness to bring in Han, “Because we’re still in the process of writing the script, the character can be adjusted.” Although Cain is a medical drama, her character is not a doctor, unlike leads So Ji-sub and Shin Hyun-joon, who also play brothers.
Han Ji-min finished up the long-running sageuk Yi San earlier this summer. Cain & Abel plans to start shooting in November and will air next February.
Urgh, confused yet again by the vaguery that is Doctor Stop aka Cain & Abel aka So Ji-sub’s comeback drama.
First called Cain & Abel, the drama had attached Jung Ryeo-won opposite So, but then undergone production delays and planning issues, losing both Jung and its original title. At one point the SBS president even said it was officially canceled. (You can read more about that here.) It was then called Doctor Stop and may or may not replaced its original PD, and then may or may not have gotten him back on board.
Anyway. Now the drama is back to being called Cain & Abel and has fixed upon a February 2009 premiere on SBS (it’ll be a Wednesday-Thursday series). Writing the script is Park Kye-ok; behind the camera is Kim Hyung-shik (Surgeon Bong Dal-hee).
Shin Hyun-joon has been cast as So Ji-sub’s brother, marking both lead actors’ return to television after five years — Shin in Stairway to Heaven and So in I’m Sorry, I Love You. Apparently part of the reason for the name switch (again) is to highlight the rift between the brothers (although I wonder if the Cain/Abel title actually ties into the story more than as a vague, thematic Biblical reference).
Filling in for Jung Ryeo-won’s vacated female lead role is Coffee Prince’s Yuju, Chae Jung-ahn. The drama starts filming in November.
I was actually writing up So Ji Sub’s new movie (with Kang Ji Hwan!) and was looking to see what his next project was, and got wrapped up in trying to untangle THAT mess. (So Kang Ji Hwan will have to wait for the next post.) I’d been hearing about the high-profile drama Cain & Abel forever, but all the mentions of that series were so contradictory that I could hardly make sense of what the deal is.
It appears I’m not the only one confuzzled; even the drama production and broadcast stations can’t seem to agree on what the heck’s actually going on.
In an interview with Asia Economy two days ago, Gu Bon-geun, the president of SBS, said that Cain & Abel was canceled and officially off the schedule. The drama had been in planning for two years, attaching So Ji Sub before he was even officially discharged from military duty, and casting Jung Ryeo Won opposite him. However, the production has been unable to find its feet. Instead, Gu said, slated in Cain & Abel’s original timeslot, following similarly troubled drama Daemul, is the new drama Doctor Stop. He didn’t offer concrete news, however, as he explained, “We’ll have to watch Doctor Stop a little longer. We haven’t made a decision yet.”
But in contrast, Asia Economy also spoke with Cain’s PD Choi Ho Sung on the same day, who thought all systems were go and that SBS was planning to air Cain in November as scheduled. He expressed, “Hearing otherwise is shocking news. I’ll have to confirm what’s going on.”
But in another report by IS Plus, Doctor Stop is described as the new name for the drama originally conceived as Cain & Abel — after struggling to work out problems, the title was changed, along with the synopsis, plot outline, and even writers. Phew, that makes some sense — only, then, why would they have a new PD without the old one knowing about it? Doctor Stop will be helmed by director Kim Hyung Shik, formerly attached to Daemul, the drama it may or may not follow, depending on what ends up happening to Daemul. (Notice a pattern with the two shows? One thing’s for certain: SBS prez sure has lousy communication skills.)
In any case, Doctor Stop is explained as the term applied to a doctor’s warning to a wrestler or boxer who is injured so badly he should not continue. The drama centers around two brothers in this world (not sure yet in what capacity), for now, tentatively slated for a November premiere. (Maybe, possibly.)
