Hollywood actor Daniel Dae Kim is known for starring in the American TV series "Lost" and "Hawaii Five-0" but nowadays he is busy producing.
He is the executive producer of the upcoming ABC drama series "The Good Doctor," an adaptation of the Korean medical drama of the same name which aired in 2013 starring Joo Won, Moon Chae-won and Joo Sang-wook.
The US series will air its pilot episode on September 25 and will star Fredie Highmore, who will play Shaun Murphy, the counterpart role Joo Won played in the original series.
Kim went to Seoul to attend the Broadcast Worldwide (BCCW), the largest video content market in Asia.
Kim said there is more freedom in being a producer.
"As an actor you can only get the roles that you are given. As a producer, you can create a world from the ground up and populate it with the types of people you want to see, ones that reflect the actual reality around you," the Korean-American star told The Korea Herald.
He hopes that other Korean dramas will be adapted and aired in the US but said the story should go beyond romance.
"You can't just rely on romance. For a show to succeed in America you need something beyond a love story, an engine that can keep it going for several seasons maybe," he explained.
He said Korean dramas like "Winter Sonata" center on the characters' emotions
"I remember watching 'Winter Sonata.' There was a lot of 'I love you but I can't be with you.' ... In Korean dramas, (the characters) feel everything 100 percent. If they're in love, they're deeply in love with their whole body, their whole being," Kim said.
But the American culture is very different, he said.
"These things are I think unique to Korean culture and the way (Koreans) express (feelings). That's one of the dangers of trying to bring a Korean format to America. Relationships are different in America. Things like divorce and family are treated differently," he noted.
However, he believes that Korean dramas "shouldn't change at all" since "that's the character of K-drama."
