News Center_ The film “Little Forest” is based on the manga series of the same name by Japanese manga artist Daisuke Igarashi. It revolves around the contradiction between the fast pace of crowded city life and the quiet life close to nature. Actress Kim Tae-ri stars as “Hye-won,” who returns to the rural where she was born and raised after failing to find the life she was looking for in the capital,Seoul.

After Hye-won fails an employment exam in the education field and leaves her job in the city, she returns for a period to her childhood home. There, she rebuilds her connection to her past by preparing dishes she learned from her mother. As the seasons pass, she begins working on farming. The young woman starts discovering the possibility of producing her own food from the earth's bounty, and learns to appreciate the value of small details in daily life.

Hye-won's return also revives her relationship with her childhood friends "Eun-sook" and "Jae-ha." The conversations of the three friends and the meals they share form the axis of the film's questions about friendship, solitude, and human reflection on life.

The film extends across the four seasons, making nature and rural life essential elements of the narrative. Scenes of food preparation, natural sounds, and detailed imagery contribute to enhancing the calm atmosphere that distinguishes the work.

"Little Forest" stands out as a quiet work addressing the experience of a person who has become estranged from themselves and their surroundings amid the accelerating pace of urban life, returning to nature and their past to reconsider their life and what they want from it.