SBS “Cain & Abel” starring So Ji Sub, Shin Hyun Joon, Han Ji Min and Chae Jung Ahn will finally air this Wednesday, replacing Choi Ji Woo’s Star’s Lover (which ended in such a great note. It makes me want to see the whole series after taking a peak at the ending. It’s been a while since we got this kind of ending in a Korean drama :P)

2 more days (well, 1 more day if you’re outside U.S.), let’s get ready for Cain & Abel, whom some media say that it shares quite a whole lot of similarities as MBC “East of Eden”. If only they’re on the same slot, it’ll be such an interesting rating war to see between the two.

So what are the similarities that Korean media and news are saying?

First of all, though the two broadcasting stations are well-known, but SBS hasn’t exactly had their year in 2008. Both of the dramas are high-budgeted, and star-studded. MBC “East of Eden” had Song Seung Hun, who came back from his military service, in comparison to So Ji Sub, who chose this drama as his comeback drama after his military service also. Not only that, Shin Hyun Joon hasn’t played in a TV drama for a while also. They both have pretty strong cast to carry this huge ship, I just hope that they carry one heck of a scriptwriting to pull through.

Song Seung Hun and So Ji Sub are well-known to be best-buddies also in real life. So, there we go, what a great start, right?

Secondly, it deals with the storyline. Both Eden and C&A deal with conflict between brothers. The mix of fate between the two brothers and of course, love is the midst of them. There’s always a girl involved, though they might not approach it on the same term.

The third one, which I already mentioned above is about the budget. “East of Eden” is so-called the MBC 45th anniversary project. Huge budget, huge-scale of masterpiece including its cast. Both of them have it. “Cain & Abel” and “East of Eden” both have overseas filming sites.

The fourth one is that both of them deals with the Bible. Of course, it doesn’t specifically deal with religious issues or even Bible stories. Though “Cain & Abel” might suggest that the two brothers are ended up killing each other just like how Cain killed his brother, Abel out of jealousy of their father’s affection.

The expectations are higher than usual, and of course it will involve the ratings. “East of Eden” were able to pull ratings over 25% just after 8 episodes, and now, they’re watching for “Cain & Abel” to do the same if not more. With the star-studded cast, and I believe in So Ji Sub’s charisma (and magic lol), to pull this wayyyy higher than what I dared to expect.

“Cain & Abel” (CaBel) managed to be the #1 top search since earlier this month on Korean portal sites and search engines. The drama hasn’t even started yet, but yet it broadcasts tons of hits already. As this is not only So Ji Sub’s comeback drama, but also for the rest of the cast, Shin Hyun Joon’s long way back to home theatre is very much anticipated. Not to mentioned, the transformation of Han Ji Min’s character from her latest drama, MBC “Yisan”, and Chae Jung Ahn’s comeback drama as MBC “Coffee Prince”. CaBel is coming, get ready for ratings war!

“Cain & Abel” will compete with the Wednesday-Thursday slots, MBC “Return of Iljimae” and KBS “I hate you once again” (this one is quite stable and managed to get high ratings in just a few episodes. Yay for Park Hye Jin!)