Little Forest
Short description
Little Forest follows Hye-won, a young woman who grew up in a rural village before moving to Seoul. Unable to settle into the pace and food of the big city, where she struggles to find work and sees a relationship end, she returns to her childhood home. There she lives largely off what she grows and cooks herself, reconnecting with the countryside and with two friends from her school days, Jae-ha and Eun-sook. Cooking becomes a way of dealing with complicated feelings toward her mother, who left when Hye-won was in her final year of high school.
The film is a Korean drama directed by Yim Soon-rye, her first feature before The Point Men, from a screenplay by Hwang Sung-goo. Kim Tae-ri plays Hye-won, with Moon So-ri as her mother, Ryu Jun-yeol as Jae-ha, Jin Ki-joo as Eun-sook, Jeon Guk-hyang as Bok-sun and Park Won-sang as the postman. It was produced by Plus M Entertainment and Watermelon Pictures.
Made for about 1 million USD, Little Forest took roughly 11 million USD worldwide, a strong return on a modest budget. On IMDb it holds 7.3/10 from around 5,100 votes, and on TMDB 7.6/10 from about 188 votes, indicating a small but appreciative audience.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the scene where Hae-won (Kim Tae-ri) removes a caterpillar from her friend's shoulder and throws it away, the caterpillar was supposed to fall from the 3rd floor, and the film crew was more concerned about the caterpillar’s safety than the actress’s performance – a blanket was stretched below to prevent the caterpillar from being injured.
- Since director Im Soon-nae does not eat meat, all the dishes in the film are vegetarian.
- Filming period – from January 21 to October 24, 2017.
- The film features 16 dishes, 2 of which are Japanese (okonomiyaki and candied chestnuts), as this was a requirement of the Japanese rights holder. Pasta and crème brûlée were added with the target audience of the film – women aged 20-30 – in mind, as European cuisine is popular among them.
- During filming, Kim Tae-ri adopted two stray cats. She believes she did so under the influence of director Im Sun-nae, who is an animal rights activist.
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