Nobel Prize Winner Han Kang’s Book Vegetarian Was Made Into A Movie. Here’s All You Need To Know

Han Kang winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024 has come as a huge achievement for not just her country South Korea, but even writers across Asia. Her honour comes "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life." This made her the first Korean writer and the first Asian woman to receive the huge award.

Han Kang's novels

Kang's most popular and bestseller books include The Vegetarian (2007), Human Acts (2014) and The White Book (2016). While Human Acts got adapted for a theatrical production titled May 18 in Poland in 2019, The Vegetarian was turned into a movie in 2009 by the same name. It also became her first novel to be translated into English, and even won the International Booker Prize in 2015.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g1Sa7yed5o

Vegetarian: The movie

Vegetarian is a South Korean title touted as an “erotic body horror drama” that released in 2009. It was directed by Lim Woo-Seong. It starred Chae Min-seo, Kim Hyun-sung and Kim Yeo-jin.

The movie follows a part-time graphic artist and a young housewife Yeong-hye who starts disgusting meat after getting strange dreams. She eventually has trouble living with her meat-loving husband. In the meantime, she draws attention of her artist brother-in-law. The turmoil leads her to mental health struggles and problems in her familial life.

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Vegetarian at film festivals

Vegetarian debuted at the 14th Busan International Film Festival on October 8, 2009, before releasing in South Korea in February 2010. It was also screened at Sundance in 2010.

The story of Yeong-hye, a part-time graphic artist and homemaker, whose decision to stop eating meat leads to mental health struggles and problems in her familial life, was adapted as a feature film by Woo-Seong Lim and screened at Sundance Film Festival in 2010. It was also invited to the World Cinema Narrative Competition at Sundance.