One Percent of Anything wants us to remember that even if there’s only a 1% chance something will happen, it’s not a definite no, and we should keep trying. So, if I tell you there’s a 1% chance you’ll like this Kdrama, will you watch it?
The percentage is actually much higher than that. Yes, it’s worth seeing but not until you’ve watched everything that has received a rating of 3 and above. There are some great older dramas, and then there are some older dramas – without the “great” attached. One Percent of Anything is one of the older dramas. It just has an unpolished feel about it, but don’t cross it off your list.
This is a show about plain old life – family, friends, and finding love. I kept waiting for the real plot to be unveiled but there wasn’t one. It’s just what it is – a show about people falling in love and the many obstacles they overcome to be together. It was refreshing to see parents objecting to their children marrying into rich families because they didn’t want their kids to have the trial of being in the public eye. And the idea that being happy has nothing to do with being wealthy was nice, as well. Other than one egotistical mother, all the characters were very likable. The leading man was not the type of person I would have fallen for and the leading woman wasn’t someone I’d choose to be best friends with, but they were still nice characters. One thing that bothered me was that it seemed like the main couple argued with each other 90% of the time. Why do you want to be with someone you almost always fight with? There was only one rotten person in the show and she was only in a couple episodes. She had the leading woman kidnapped but no one would go along with her evil scheme so the kidnapped woman was found the same night she was taken. And, the boyfriend of the victim decided to press charges! (That doesn’t happen very often.) His girlfriend wouldn’t let him do it, but it was nice that the writer had him at least begin the process.
I wasn’t familiar with any of the actors other than the cute, old grandpa played by Lee Hee-Do. Even though I wasn’t impressed with Gang Dong-Won I thought he was darling when his character was jealous. And I loved Kyung Joon’s character, Kim Seo-Hyun, who was Da-Hyun’s older brother. He was intelligent, kind, and sensitive – not to mention, handsome.
The soundtrack was okay. There was lots of American music played at restaurants and stores – older music. One of the songs was sung by some guy whose voice sounded just like Neil Diamond’s. I wonder who it was.
Other than a few scenes at the beach the show was shot indoors or in the city. Nothing very exciting to catch our eye.
Here are some problems I had with this show… The subtitles were substandard. Before I go on, please remember there’s a big difference between the subtitles and the drama itself. Now, if I spoke Korean fluently I definitely would have enjoyed One Percent of Anything more than I did. For me, the subtitles were the biggest obstacle with me being able to get more involved in the show. Not only were they not a perfect translation but they weren’t always there. I don’t speak Korean but after watching so many dramas I know when some things haven’t been translated correctly, and it bothers me. That happened way too much with this show. But that wasn’t as bad as when the characters would say a full paragraph and a small sentence worth of translation would pop up, or someone would say something without any translation subtitles and the next words on the screen would be the other characters comment to what had just been said that hadn’t been subtitled. Now, that didn’t happen all the time, but often enough that I can say, without hesitation, the subtitles were awful. Another bad thing was that the picture would sometimes go funny, like the pixels were all crazy. Again, the picture is separate from the drama but it was bothersome, none the less. And the editing was pretty poor, as well. You could sometimes see a bit of the hanging microphone, there would be no rain on the ground after it had rained, the sun was IN the sky as they said, “what a pretty sunrise”… But the thing that irritated me most was the orange juice. I know that’s a silly thing to be bothered by but several times an episode someone would be drinking orange juice at a restaurant. Was an orange juice company sponsoring the show? There is enough orange juice in this drama to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool. There’s got to be some other drink to order in Korea than just orange juice! Okay, enough about the bad. One thing I thought was impressive was the job the make-up department did. When someone got hurt the wounds really looked authentic. Some of the best looking fake stuff I’ve seen. Good job.
There’s not a lot of wonderful things to say about the 26 hours you’ll spend watching One Percent of Anything. It’s just a so-so Kdrama but I’m not sorry I watched it. I don’t think you will be, either. But wait until you’ve seen higher rated ones first.
Score: 2.5
The Good:
Simple plot about life
A person at least planning to press charges when someone broke the law
Parents concerned about their kids marrying into a wealthy family
Good make-up artistry
The Bad:
Poor editing
No big stars
Unpolished feel
Too long
Too much orange juice
(Bad subtitles and occasional bad picture on the copy I saw on DramaFever)
Heart and Seoul 