Little Forest

Little Forest (2018) is a South Korean drama directed by Yim Soon-rye. It adapts Daisuke Igarashi's manga, which had already been made into a two-part Japanese live-action film. Hye-won (Kim Tae-ri) lives in Seoul. After failing to pass the national qualification exam to become a teacher, she quits her part-time job and her city life stops working. One snowy winter day she goes back, on impulse, to the empty rural house where she grew up. She keeps saying it is only for a few days.

She stays through a full cycle of seasons. She farms, cooks with what she grows, and eats. Her mother (Moon So-ri) was an excellent cook and left home abruptly years earlier. Her two old friends (Ryu Jun-yeol and Jin Ki-joo) stayed in the village, and a puppy keeps her company. Reviewers describe the plot as simple: a very hungry young woman who is hungry for real food, for soul food and for answers.

The film has little conventional drama. It is built from small rituals: kneading dough, pulling weeds, waiting for food to ferment or ripen. Memories of Seoul and of her mother surface as she works. The film asks what she is really hungry for.

The film argues that recovery comes slowly and through the body. Attending to work, seasons and food can restore a person whom competition and exams have emptied. Hye-won does not return home to hide forever. She returns to learn what nourishes her and to understand the mother who left her.

It also quietly criticizes a society that measures young people by exams, jobs and productivity. Her question is not "how do I succeed?" but "what do I actually want to eat, to do, to be?" Critics have noted the film's love for traditional Korean cooking and slow living, and they have also noted that this life is somewhat idealized.

One reading sees the film as a healing fantasy that praises withdrawal from society. A more critical reading is that this life is attractive but unattainable. It depends on a family house, free time and friends nearby, and it leaves out the hardships of farming.

Yim Soon-rye is described as one of the most important Korean female filmmakers and a leading figure of Korean New Wave Cinema. The film adapts a Japanese manga and gives it what ScreenAnarchy called a distinct Korean flavor. It was a commercial success in Korea. It also circulated at international festivals as a cinematic love letter to slow living.

Critics noted that in Korean cinema a retreat to the countryside usually ends badly for the characters, and that this film reverses the pattern. Some also noted that the film idealizes traditional Korean culture and cuisine and glosses over the harsher parts of country life, such as the extreme cold of winter. Meat is never eaten in the film, despite Korean cuisine's heavy reliance on it.

Viewers praise the film as comforting. Many single out the food photography, the sound of cooking and nature, and Kim Tae-ri's natural performance. Letterboxd reviewers describe it as soothing and as a live-action Ghibli-like experience. Critics such as FilmDoo called it a gentle, low-stakes picture about the modest pleasures of simply being.

The main criticism is that it is idealized. Reviewers noted that it skips the hardships of country life, and some found the pace slight and uneventful. The overall verdict is warm: a restful film that leaves many viewers wanting to cook.