Little Forest — Filming Locations & Real Places

After Little Forest, you somehow get hungry and want to go somewhere quiet.

Hye-won's house — I assumed it was a set that got torn down once filming wrapped.

It wasn't. It's still standing in Ubo-myeon, Gunwi, Daegu, exactly as it appears on screen — the wooden floor, the kitchen, the jars, even the bicycle.

And it's free, open year-round. Since 2023 it's even an official stop on Daegu's 'Gunwi City Tour.'

군위읍 시가지, 대구 군위 · Wikimedia Commons

The little shop in front of Hwabon Station, where Hye-won and Eun-sook eat ice cream, is real too — over fifty years in business, still standing in the same spot.

I also learned this film is based on a Japanese manga but isn't a sequel to the 2015 Japanese film adaptation — it's a separate Korean remake, shot from scratch.

As for the story itself, it's really not driven by any single big event. It starts with Hye-won, having failed the teaching exam, giving up on city life and heading home — and from there it's really just the seasons passing.

What fills that space instead is her mother. Hye-won gradually recovers the memory of the mother who left home without a word, one dish at a time — napa cabbage soup, fried acacia blossoms, cold cucumber noodles, candied chestnuts, each one layered with a memory of her.

What I liked most, personally, is that the film never neatly explains why her mother left. Instead, it shows the process itself — Hye-won slowly coming to understand a little more with every dish she makes.

의성역, 군위 인근 지역(2025년) · Wikimedia Commons

Her childhood friends Jae-ha and Eun-sook matter too. The film quietly follows each of them building a life in their own way, and Hye-won's own choice takes shape gradually, through the time the three of them spend together.

Napa cabbage soup to fried acacia blossoms, cucumber noodles to candied chestnuts — the story moves at the pace of the seasons, and its real backdrops still bloom and fade with those same seasons today.

The stone-walled village from the persimmon-picking scene is real too — Hanbam Village in Gunwi, where the same stone walls from the film are still standing.

I won't spoil here whether Hye-won ultimately goes back to the city or stays home for good. What's certain is that the same four seasons she lives through before making that choice are, right now, passing in exactly the same way if you actually go to Gunwi.

So if this movie sends you down to Daegu, or more specifically Gunwi, don't just take photos — grab an ice cream at the shop in front of Hwabon Station.