Celebrity Travel: Go Away With Suk Park
Born in South Korea, raised in Spain and educated in the United States, entrepreneur Suk Park now resides in Manhattan's Upper West Side with his wife and two children. Park, 41, is the co-founder and president of DramaFever (www.dramafever.com), a popular multilingual video streaming service that offers viewers subtitled foreign content. Park, who's always looking for the next big thing to add to DramaFever's lineup, says that when he gets on a plane, "I travel with screeners of television shows to get a sense of what the world is watching -- usually one or two episodes subtitled into English and originating from non-English speaking countries. Scandinavian noirs, Turkish historical soaps and Japanese taigas are a few of the great content categories that I personally would like to see get more global distribution."
Q. When you're not watching things for work, what will you tune into when you're taking a trip?
A. At home we watch Korean dramas almost exclusively -- a lot of romantic comedies sprinkled with some melodramas and the occasional thriller. However, when I travel alone, I'll watch entire seasons of shows from the United States, United Kingdom and Spain. I'm big on scripted television miniseries, procedurals like "Sherlock," "Luther" and "True Detective," and period pieces like "Mad Men," "Tiempo Entre Costuras" and "The Tudors."
Q. What is your favorite vacation destination?
A. I work closely with my wife and my brother, and the three of us curate the content that makes its way to DramaFever. Every year for the last seven years, the three of us have attended a content licensing conference in the Haeundae district of Busan, Korea. Every time we go, we make sure to stay the weekend to unwind and enjoy some of Busan's laidback atmosphere and amazing food.
Busan is the epicenter of fresh fish in Korea and there are countless times when I'm in New York dreaming about the Hwaheo Hwe (Korean sashimi) from the restaurants in Nampodong or the small restaurant shacks within the Jagalchi Fish Market. It's also hard to beat grilling some Korean barbecue next to Dalmaji Hill or having some C1 soju (which is local to Busan) with grilled oysters and scallops at one of the many pojangmachas that line the Haeundae beach. If there are a lot of foreigners in the restaurant, you will be missing the point.
Q. Besides eating, what else would you recommend in Busan?
A. Attend the Busan Film Festival, catch a few movies and make friends with local cinephiles. If you want to go shopping, go to the Shinsegae Centum City -- supposedly the largest department store in the world. And take walks by the beach any time of the year, by Dalmaji -- especially during cherry blossom season -- by Yonggungsa or Beomeosa (two of the many Buddhist temples in this district).
Q. What's the most important thing you've learned from your travels?
A. I strongly believe that traveling allows you to discover new opportunities, not only professionally, but also at a more personal level. Previous to starting DramaFever, I worked for an American media company that allowed me to travel extensively, mainly throughout Asia. It was then that I discovered the popularity of Korean dramas throughout the entire continent. I could be in Taipei, Tokyo, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur and at least one broadcaster dedicated their primetime television to a Korean drama.
...continued
(c) 2015 DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
