The film was well received when it premiered in the "Korean Panorama" section of the Busan Film Festival in 2009, and was later shortlisted for the "World Feature Film Competition" at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as the only representative of Korean films.

The film script participated in the 2008 Korean Film Promotion Committee's HD Support Project Competition and stood out among 154 candidate works.

Although it was defined as a "low-cost production" in advance, as the first feature-length film directed by Lin Chengyun, the film ultimately exceeded the budget by a large margin, with the total production cost exceeding 300 million won.

From the start of filming on May 25, 2009 to the completion of filming on June 27, "The Vegetarian" was completed in 20 takes, which can be called super speed.

Cai Minrui lost 8 kilograms of weight to present her perfect figure and "became a veritable vegetarian in the three months before filming started." However, she later discovered that body painting had to overcome more than just the naked body. , and “had to stay still for 6 hours.”

The male protagonist Kim Hyun-sung is a loyal fan of the novel’s author Han Gang. In order to play the exact opposite of the vegetarian Ying-hye—Min who believes in “carnivorism” Hao, he put on 10 kilograms of weight before the photo shoot.

The film's cinematographer Jiang Changbae has won many authoritative awards in the Korean advertising industry. The producer said that he was able to produce outstanding images under such a tight budget. The art team he led had the largest of credit.