1% of Anything (1%의 어떤 것)

1% of Anything (1%의 어떤 것; also translated as Something About 1 Percent or 1% of Something) is a 2016 South Korean romantic comedy television series in which an arrogant chaebol (large family-owned South Korean business conglomerate) heir must enter a ten-month contract engagement with a schoolteacher he has never met in order to inherit his grandfather's fortune. Directed by Kang Chul-woo and written by Hyun Go-woon from her own novel, it aired on the cable channel Dramax from October 5 to November 24, 2016, and is a remake of the 2003 MBC drama of the same name.^{1 • 2}

Cast

The main roles are Ha Seok-jin as Lee Jae-in, a third-generation chaebol; Jeon So-min as Kim Da-hyun, an elementary school teacher; Kim Hyung-min as Min Tae-ha; Lim Do-yoon as Jung Hyun-jin; and Joo Jin-mo as Lee Kyoo-chul, the chairman.^{4 • 1} Supporting cast includes Lee Kan-hee as Kang Se-hee, Kim Sun-hyuk as Park Hyung-joon, Choi Sung-jae as Jung Sun-woo, Seo Eun-chae as Han Joo-hee, Baek Seung-heon as Ji-soo, Lee Hae-in as Soo-jung, and Park Jin-joo as Han Yoo-kyung.¹

Production and broadcast format

The drama was 100 percent pre-produced: filming ran from June 6 to August 16, 2016, before the first broadcast.² It was jointly produced by Godin Media and iHQ and was originally slated for MBC, but because some conditions did not match it moved to Dramax, iHQ's premium drama channel, where it became the first drama iHQ premiered on its own channel.^{2 • 7}

Its release format was unusual for the time. The series was released exclusively on the Oksusu mobile video app from September 30, 2016, in 32 episodes airing Friday to Monday at midnight, one week before the television version; the Dramax broadcast then presented the same story as 16 episodes of about 40 minutes on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:00.^{2 • 3} Korean press described this as opening a new chapter as a drama airing six days a week across the two platforms.⁸ A fan meeting was held to celebrate five million views of the drama on Oksusu.²

The 2003 original and what changed

The 2016 series remakes 1% of Anything, which aired on MBC from July 6 to December 28, 2003, in 26 episodes directed by Jang Geun-su and starring Kang Dong-won, Kim Jung-hwa, Lee Byung-wook, and Han Hye-jin; it recorded ratings of 11.6 percent and 14.9 percent and was credited with creating a wave of devoted fans known as "1% addicts".^{9 • 7} The 2003 version was itself an adaptation of the same Hyun Go-woon internet novel, with the novelist adapting her own work for the screen.^{9 • 10} It was also Kang Dong-won's first leading role in a drama, and it passed 10 percent in ratings despite its Sunday-morning slot.¹¹

The remake's producers framed the difference explicitly. Godin Media planning director Jeon Ji-hye said at the September 26, 2016 production press conference that the 2003 version, made to fit a 12-and-over morning-drama rating, had taken on the color of a family drama, while the remake, like the original novel, focused on the romance and carried a 15-and-over rating.¹² Trade coverage likewise noted that the rating was raised from 12 to 15 and the romance strengthened, and that the heroine changed from a serious middle school Korean-language teacher living with strict parents to a bubbly elementary school teacher enjoying attic-room life.¹³ The male lead was also updated, with Ha Seok-jin's Jae-in given sharper prickliness and intellect than the 2003 character.¹³

International distribution

Because it was fully pre-produced, the drama was built for export from the planning stage. Through an exclusive deal with the global platform DramaFever, it began simultaneous broadcasts on October 5, 2016, the day of the Dramax premiere, in about 70 countries across the Americas and Oceania in Korean, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese; through a deal with Interactive Media Mix (IMX) it was also scheduled for Japanese internet and satellite services, with sequential release planned in a total of about 120 countries including China, Taiwan, and Europe.¹⁴

Reception

Early ratings were modest but sufficient to quiet concerns about pre-produced dramas: episode 2 exceeded the 1 percent mark on Nielsen Korea's paid-platform measure.¹⁵ Viewership then grew, with Sports Chosun reporting three weeks into the run that viewing volume had tripled compared with the first week on word of mouth.⁸ DramaWiki lists a Nielsen Korea Seoul rating of 3.437 percent among women aged 30 to 49.² The drama won the Grand Prize in the New Media Category at the 2017 Korea Cable TV Awards.² Critics and viewers responded to the leads' chemistry; Jeon So-min's comic drunk scene in episode 9 drew wide attention, and press coverage called her a new romantic-comedy lead.¹⁶

References

1. Something About 1 Percent (2016), AsianWiki
2. One Percent of Anything (2016), DramaWiki
3. Something About 1 Percent, KoreanDrama.org
4. 1%의 어떤 것 상세정보, 씨네21
5. 1% of Anything, Apple TV
6. 1%의 어떤 것 (Something About 1%), MBC Global Media
7. IHQ, 드라마 '1%의 어떤 것' 리메이크 제작… 채널 드라맥스 독점 방영, 머니투데이방송
8. '1%의 어떤 것' 첫주 대비 시청량 3배 UP, 스포츠조선
9. MBC 드라마 편성 자료: 1%의 어떤 것 (2003), MBC
10. "일요아침드라마 편견 깨렵니다" MBC 새드라마 '1%의 어떤것', 서울신문
11. 드라마 리메이크 열풍①, 뉴스핌
12. 전지혜 기획이사 "리메이크 달라진 점? 가족극 아닌 로맨스", 전자신문
13. 2016 '1%의 어떤 것' 2003년과 어떻게 달라졌을까?, 아주경제
14. '1%의 어떤 것', 120개국에 순차적 방영…5개국어로 선봬, 아이뉴스24
15. '1%의 어떤 것' 시청률 1% 무난히 안착, 아주경제
16. '1%의 어떤 것' 전소민, 리얼 만취 연기란 이런 것, 스포츠경향

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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