The short answer
- The Dwaejissal Supermarket — the biggest Parasite location — closed and was demolished in May 2025. Yet official Seoul City and Korea Tourism Organization pages still list it as open. Trust the official material and you'll walk straight into a wasted trip.
- A surprising share of the famous spots were never visitable in the first place. Parasite's Park family house and the Kim family's semi-basement, Oldboy's prison room, and The Outlaws' Garibong-dong alley are all sets.
- Plenty of places people think are in Seoul aren't in Seoul at all. Oldboy's dumpling shop is in Busan; Extreme Job's Suwon Wang Galbi Tongdak is in Incheon.
- The places you can actually visit, and that still exist today, are the Jahamun Tunnel stairs, the Changsin-dong alleys, the Democracy Movement Memorial Hall, Myeongdong Cathedral, and the Hangang at the north end of Wonhyo Bridge — among others.
- About half of these are residential neighborhoods where people live. They are not tourist attractions. In Ihwa Mural Village, residents painted over the murals themselves in 2016.
May 2025, 32 Son-gijeong-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul.
Outside the supermarket where the Kim family came and went in Parasite, a tourist from Texas stood. The sign was still up. The door was shut. Inside, demolition was underway.
He had made the trip for nothing. And the information he’d relied on wasn’t some personal blog. It was the official Parasite tour itinerary put together by Seoul City and the Korea Tourism Organization. That page even listed the shop’s hours: 08:30 to 24:30.
This article exists to prevent exactly that kind of wasted trip. It rounds up the real Seoul locations from Korean movies — but I’ve flipped the order. Rather than what’s worth seeing, I lead with what has already vanished and what never existed to begin with.
What this article covers
Movies only. K-drama filming locations — Squid Game, Goblin, Taxi Driver — are covered in a separate article. It also covers locations inside Seoul only. Famous spots in Busan, Incheon, Gunsan, and Jeju are mentioned for one purpose alone: to point out that they are not Seoul.
Everything was checked as of September 11, 2026. Filming locations are mostly shops and homes that change fast, so it's safest to double-check right before you go.
Why Is Seoul Movie Filming Location Info Still Wrong in 2026?
Because the official sources haven’t been updated. And because fan blogs and overseas travel media keep copying those official sources word for word.
It began on February 13, 2020. Right after Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Seoul City and the Seoul Tourism Organization officially announced the “Parasite Filming Location Tour.” Four stops: the Dwaejissal Supermarket in Mapo-gu and the Gi-taek neighborhood stairs, the Jahamun Tunnel stairs in Jongno-gu, and Sky Pizza in Dongjak-gu. They promised signage, photo zones, and fan tours for domestic and international movie fans. The related page, published in December 2019, hit 60,000 views.
Five years later, here’s the result.
The Dwaejissal Supermarket shut down in May 2025. The 79-year-old owner closed it over falling profits and health problems. One of the reasons given: "tourists only took photos and never bought anything." Seoul City and Mapo-gu announced plans to turn it into a tourism asset, but the budget, infrastructure, and local-win plan never followed, and the whole thing collapsed within five years.
And the official page was never corrected. When the media covered the story in May 2025, Seoul City belatedly confirmed the closure and said it would "review the relevant materials so foreign tourists don't make wasted trips." As of September 2026, some pages still list the shop as open.
The problem is that this isn’t confined to one shop. Overseas blogs, English-language travel articles, and local tour products all cite the same original source. If the source is wrong, everything downstream is wrong. Even in 2026, paid tours that tell you to “take a photo at the Parasite supermarket” are still being sold online.
So in this article, every location is sorted into four categories.
| Label | Meaning | How this article handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Can visit | Exists now and is open to the public | Includes a map button |
| Residential | You can go, but people live there | Map button + etiquette rules required |
| Closed / demolished | Once there, now gone | No map button |
| Set | Never existed in reality | Listed separately in its own table |
Which Seoul Movie Filming Locations Can You Visit Right Now?
Six of them. All confirmed to exist as of September 2026, all free or cheap to enter, and all reachable by subway.
Jahamun Tunnel Stairs
Film Parasite (2019)
Address 219 Jahamun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul (toward Buam-dong)
Getting there About 10 minutes by bus toward Buam-dong from Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3)
This is the staircase the father and his two children climb endlessly through the downpour. It's the most reliably intact of Seoul's Parasite locations, and a photo zone has even been installed. There's one catch: from the direction the characters descend in the film, the angles don't match. The scene was actually shot from the other side of the tunnel.
Cost Free · Status Public space, residential surroundings
📍 Open in Naver MapChangsin-dong Alley
Film Parasite (2019)
Address Near 38 Jibong-ro 11-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Getting there Dongmyo Station (Lines 1 & 6) or Changsin Station (Line 6)
This is the alley the Korea Tourism Organization officially lists as a travel destination. But it isn't an exhibit. It's a working neighborhood where you can still hear sewing machines in the garment factories, and there are no restrooms or elevators. The stairs are narrow and steep.
Cost Free · Status Residential. Daytime only, keep quiet
📍 Open in Naver MapDemocracy Movement Memorial Hall
Film 1987: When the Day Comes (2017)
Address 37 Hangang-daero 71-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (Galwol-dong)
Getting there Namyeong Station (Line 1) or Sookmyung Women's Univ. Station (Line 4)
This is the old Namyeong-dong anti-communist interrogation facility. It isn't a film set — it's the building where torture actually took place, and 1987: When the Day Comes was granted permission to film there. It reopened as a museum on June 10, 2025. The M2 space requires an advance reservation on the website.
Cost Free · Hours Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00), closed Mon, Jan 1, Seollal, Chuseok · No entry under age 6 · No parking · ☎ 02-6440-8900
📍 Open in Naver MapMyeongdong Cathedral
Film 1987: When the Day Comes (2017)
Address 74 Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul (Myeongdong)
Getting there Myeongdong Station (Line 4) or Euljiro 1-ga Station (Line 2)
1987: When the Day Comes was the first Korean film granted permission to shoot inside Myeongdong Cathedral. It's still an active church holding Mass, so treat it as a place of worship, not a filming location. It sits right next to the Myeongdong shopping streets, which makes it the most accessible Seoul location on this list.
Cost Free · Office hours Tue–Sat 09:00–19:00, Sun 07:00–21:00, closed Mon
📍 Open in Naver MapWonhyo Bridge North End · Ichon Hangang Park
Film The Host (2006)
Address Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu ~ Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu
Getting there Ichon Station (Line 4) or Yongsan Station (Line 1)
This is the stage where the monster first emerges from the water and where it dies at the end. The space under the bridge was the creature's lair, and nearby stands a real drainage pipe 40 meters across. The lair's interior was a set, but the pipe's mouth is visible from outside.
Cost Free · Status Public Hangang park, open 24 hours
📍 Open in Naver MapMullae-dong Ironworks Alley
Film Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Address Mullae-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
Getting there Mullae Station (Line 2)
The climax — where a subway car derails — was shot here. Today it has become Mullae Creative Village, with cafes and workshops wedged between the ironworks. It's both a filming location and the strangest-textured neighborhood in Seoul: the sound of metal being cut and the hiss of an espresso machine come from the same alley.
Cost Free · Status Public space; many factories are at work on weekday afternoons
📍 Open in Naver Map🎬 Full list of real Korean movie filming locations in Seoul (checked 2026-09-11)
| Film | Location | Address | Nearest station | Current status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parasite (2019) | Stairs by Jahamun Tunnel | 219 Jahamun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul | Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3) + ~10 min bus | Can visit. Photo zone installed |
| Parasite (2019) | Changsin-dong alley | Near 38 Jibong-ro 11-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul | Dongmyo Station (Lines 1 & 6) / Changsin Station (Line 6) | Residential. Officially listed by the KTO |
| Parasite (2019) | Gi-taek neighborhood stairs (Buk-Ahyeon-dong stairs) | Near 3 Son-gijeong-ro 6-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul | Aeogae Station (Line 5) / Ahyeon Station (Line 2) | Residential. Stairs remain; the shop beside them closed |
| Parasite (2019) | Seongbuk-dong wealthy residential area | Near 18 Seonjam-ro 8-gil, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul | Hansung University Station (Line 4) | Public road in a private-home district. View from outside only |
| Parasite (2019) | Dwaejissal Supermarket (the film’s “Woori Supermarket”) | 32 Son-gijeong-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul | Aeogae Station (Line 5) | Closed & demolished (May 2025). Don’t go |
| Parasite (2019) | Pizza Sidae (the film’s “Sky Pizza”) | 86 Noryangjin-ro 6-gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul | Noryangjin Station (Lines 1 & 9) | 2026 operating status unconfirmed. Call ahead |
| The Host (2006) | Wonhyo Bridge north end · Ichon Hangang Park | Ichon-dong, Yongsan-gu ~ Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu | Ichon Station (Line 4) / Yongsan Station (Line 1) | Can visit. A 40 m drainage pipe exists |
| The Host (2006) | Mapo Bridge–Seogang Bridge Hangang park | Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu | Yeouinaru Station (Line 5) | Can visit. A convenience store now runs where the snack-bar set stood |
| The Host (2006) | Hangang Railway Bridge · Dongjak Bridge north end · Jamsil Bridge area | Each location | Nearest station each | Can visit |
| The Host (2006) | Bamseom | Off Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu | — | Ecological preserve. No public access |
| Okja (2017) | Guro substation area · Yanghwa Bridge · Gangbyeonbuk-ro · Sangam-dong | Guro-gu, Mapo-gu, etc. | Nearest station each | Public roads. Interior scenes were sets |
| 1987: When the Day Comes (2017) | Democracy Movement Memorial Hall (old Namyeong-dong interrogation facility) | 37 Hangang-daero 71-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul | Namyeong Station (Line 1) / Sookmyung Women’s Univ. Station (Line 4) | Can visit. Free. M2 requires advance reservation |
| 1987: When the Day Comes (2017) | Myeongdong Cathedral | 74 Myeongdong-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul | Myeongdong Station (Line 4) / Euljiro 1-ga Station (Line 2) | Can visit. Active cathedral |
| Avengers 2 (2015) | Mapo Bridge | Mapo-gu ~ Yeongdeungpo-gu | Yeouinaru Station (Line 5) / Mapo Station (Line 5) | Can visit |
| Avengers 2 (2015) | Sevit Island (the film’s U-Gin Genetics lab) | The Hangang, Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu | Sinbanpo Station (Line 9) / Express Bus Terminal Station (Lines 3·7·9) | Operating multi-purpose cultural complex |
| Avengers 2 (2015) | Mullae-dong ironworks alley | Mullae-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul | Mullae Station (Line 2) | Can visit. Now Mullae Creative Village |
| Avengers 2 (2015) | Gangnam-daero · Cheongdam Bridge · Sangam DMC | Gangnam-gu, Gwangjin-gu, Mapo-gu | Gangnam Station (Line 2) / Cheongdam Station (Line 7) / Digital Media City Station (Line 6) | Can visit |
| The Outlaws (2017) backdrop | Daerim-dong Chinatown · Daerim Jungang Market | Daerim-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu | Daerim Station (Lines 2 & 7) | Operating commercial district. A backdrop, not a filming location |
Check your subway exit before you go
I deliberately left out exit numbers I couldn't verify. Some Seoul subway stations have more than ten exits, and stepping out the wrong one can cost you an extra ten minutes crossing the road. Enter your destination in Naver Map or Kakao Map and turn on walking directions — it will show the exit number. If you can't use a map app, the tourism interpretation hotline 1330 offers multilingual directions.
Along the Hangang, Ddareungi beats the subway
The Host's locations are scattered along the river from Wonhyo Bridge to Mapo Bridge and Seogang Bridge. Walking takes about 30 minutes per stretch, but on Seoul's public bike, Ddareungi, you're there in under 10. The Hangang park bike paths have no traffic lights, so you can actually move. When Seoul City announced its Parasite course in 2020, it suggested a Ddareungi-linked route along the same lines.
Why Can't You Find That House From the Movie?
Because it was a set. Almost all of the most famous spaces in Korean cinema are sets. This table is the most important part of this article.
🎬 Places you'll never find no matter how hard you search — the set list
| Film | The place you’re looking for | The truth | Can you visit? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parasite (2019) | The Park family mansion | A fictional building that doesn’t exist. The exterior, first floor, basement, and garage were built at a Jeonju set (about 600 pyeong); the second-floor interior at the Anseong Dima set. It began as a floor plan director Bong Joon-ho drew at the script stage, set at about 200 pyeong of floor space | No. No set remains |
| Parasite (2019) | The Kim family’s semi-basement | A set. Art director Lee Ha-jun modeled it on the semi-basement he lived in as a student, building it to real semi-basement dimensions. Only the alley stairs and the supermarket were real | No |
| The Host (2006) | The monster’s sewer lair (interior) | A set. However, the real drainage pipe 40 meters across at the north end of Wonhyo Bridge exists and can be seen from outside | Interior no, exterior yes |
| Oldboy (2003) | The room where Oh Dae-su was locked up for 15 years | Paju Art Service set — the so-called “7.5th floor” concept. Lee Woo-jin’s penthouse was a Yangsu-ri set | No |
| The Outlaws (2017) | The Garibong-dong Chinatown alley | After residents objected, filming in the real Garibong-dong fell through and it was shot on a separate set. The alley you saw in the film does not exist in Seoul | No |
| The Handmaiden (2016) | The Kouzuki mansion | Not a real house — a set built by the art team | No |
| Extreme Job (2019) | Suwon Wang Galbi Tongdak | A stationery shop in Baedari, Incheon, was converted into the set, then demolished and restored to the original shop | No |
Why the Park house was a set
The two houses in Parasite are devices that express class through a single staircase. The window sizes of the Park house, the number of steps, the angle of descent into the basement — all of it was calculated to serve the story. No real house satisfies those conditions. So they built one.
For the same reason, the Kim family's semi-basement is also a set. But this one aimed for precision in the opposite direction. The art director copied the ceiling height and window height of a real semi-basement, creating the view of the camera looking up at the street from below the window.
In short: the two houses in Parasite exist nowhere, and only the alley between them is real in Seoul.
There’s one thing you can move on to instead of a place: jjapaguri. It’s a recipe invented for the film — two instant noodles, Chapaghetti and Neoguri, topped with slices of Hanwoo sirloin. Because it’s a dish rather than a location, you can buy the ingredients at any supermarket in Seoul. Not a bad backup plan when a filming-location pilgrimage comes up empty.
Which “Seoul” Locations Aren’t Actually in Seoul?
Quite a few. In particular, spots introduced as Seoul locations in English-language travel articles keep turning out to be in Busan, Incheon, Gunsan, or Jeju.
🎬 Places wrongly passed off as Seoul locations
| Film | Commonly cited location | Actual location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oldboy (2003) | Cheongjinok, Jongno, Seoul | No. The Chinese restaurant in the fried-dumpling scene is Jangseonghyang in Busan’s Choryang Chinatown. No primary source links Cheongjinok to Oldboy | Busan. Current operating status unconfirmed |
| Oldboy (2003) | The live-octopus sushi shop in Seoul | Shot in Busan. In the film, the sushi shop is called Akira | Busan |
| Extreme Job (2019) | Suwon Wang Galbi Tongdak somewhere in Seoul | It’s the stationery shop at the entrance to the Baedari used-book alley in Changyeong-dong, Dong-gu, Incheon. Baedari address: 10 Geumgok-ro, Dong-gu, Incheon | Set demolished, restored to the shop. Opens only on anniversaries |
| Train to Busan (2016) | The departure scene at Seoul Station | Set to depart from Seoul Station, but shot in Busan and Daejeon | Seoul Station is of course still visitable |
| Decision to Leave (2022) | Seoul | Main locations: Yeongnangho Lake in Sokcho, Geumjeongsan in Busan, Jeongseon in Gangwon. Seoul appears only as a backdrop composited behind climbing scenes shot at Dobongsan’s summit | Virtually no Seoul location |
| Memories of Murder (2003) | Seoul | Centered on Jinju’s Jukbong Tunnel and Jeollanam-do. No Seoul location confirmed | Not Seoul |
| Architecture 101 (2012) | Seoul | Said to be the Jeongneung area of Seongbuk-gu and a university campus, but exact addresses are unconfirmed. Seo-yeon’s house is a film-built building in Seogwipo, Jeju, now run as a cafe | Unconfirmable / Jeju |
| Christmas in August (1998) | A photo studio in Seoul | Chowon Photo Studio is in Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do. Gunsan City runs it as a tourist course | Gunsan |
| Minari (2020) | Korea | Shot in the United States | Not Korea |
| A Taxi Driver (2017) | Seoul | Centered on Gwangju, Jeonju, and Hapcheon. No Seoul location confirmed | Unconfirmable |
| My Sassy Girl (2001) | A Seoul subway station and amusement park | Couldn’t find primary sources for the specific station and park names. The often-mentioned Seoul Land is in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do — not Seoul | Unconfirmable |
The item to be most careful about in this table is Cheongjinok. It's an old haejangguk (hangover soup) spot in Jongno, and a fair number of online posts introduce it as an Oldboy location. But there's no primary source to back that up. The film's fried-dumpling scene was shot in Busan.
Cheongjinok is a fine old eatery on its own merits — but if you go because of the movie, you've gone for the wrong reason. Go for the haejangguk, and you've gone for the right one.
How Far Can You Walk the Hangang Where The Host Was Shot?
Almost all of it. The Host is the cleanest, simplest movie in this article: every location is a public Hangang park, all free, all still exactly as they were.
The centerpiece is the north end of Wonhyo Bridge. This is where the monster first crawls out of the water and where the final confrontation happens. The space under the bridge was the creature’s lair, and nearby stands a real drainage pipe 40 meters across. The lair’s interior was a set, but the pipe itself is real.
The snack bar where Gang-du worked was built on the Yeouido Hangang Park stretch between Mapo Bridge and Seogang Bridge. Being a set, it was torn down. Instead, a convenience store now operates on that very spot. It isn’t the snack bar from the film, but you can still buy a squid and look out at the river there.
They also filmed around the Hangang Railway Bridge, the north end of Dongjak Bridge, and near Jamsil Bridge. One place is off-limits: Bamseom is an ecological landscape preserve closed to the public.
The Host walking route: about 2 hours
Condensed from the route film critic Oh Dong-jin proposed: start at the north end of Wonhyo Bridge, cross to the south end, look under the bridge, come back north to walk the Mapo Bridge–Seogang Bridge stretch, then cross Seogang Bridge and return. About two hours.
Time it for dusk and it stops being a monster-movie pilgrimage and becomes simply a good Hangang walk. The Host is a 2006 film, but the concrete structures along the river haven't changed much. The charm of this course is how astonishingly intact the film's frames still are.
Director Bong Joon-ho’s other Seoul film, Okja (2017), was shot around the Guro substation, Yanghwa Bridge, Gangbyeonbuk-ro, and Sangam-dong. But since most of these are chase scenes on roads and bridges rather than specific buildings, “visiting the filming location” barely applies. Interior scenes were shot on a Seoul set.
Was 1987 Really Filmed at an Actual Torture Site?
Yes. It is not a set. 1987: When the Day Comes was granted permission to film in the old Namyeong-dong anti-communist interrogation building, which reopened as the Democracy Movement Memorial Hall on June 10, 2025 and is now open to anyone.
This place differs from everything else in this article for one reason. With other locations, the film comes first and the place comes second. Here it’s reversed: the place came first, and the film came later. In January 1987, Park Jong-cheol died in this building, and that death led to the June Democratic Uprising. The film re-enacts it.
The practical details:
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Address | 37 Hangang-daero 71-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (Galwol-dong) |
| Getting there | Namyeong Station (Line 1) or Sookmyung Women’s Univ. Station (Line 4) |
| Admission | Free |
| Hours | Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00) |
| Closed | Mondays, January 1, Seollal, Chuseok |
| Reservation | M1 needs none / M2 requires an advance reservation on the website |
| Restrictions | No entry under age 6, no parking |
| Phone | 02-6440-8900 |
Book M2 first, then plan the rest of your day. The space you saw in the film — the old interrogation rooms — is in M2. Show up without a reservation and you'll only see the M1 exhibition. It's free, so you'd assume no reservation is needed; it's actually the opposite. It's free and capacity-limited, which is precisely why you need to reserve.
One more spot: Myeongdong Cathedral. 1987: When the Day Comes was the first Korean film granted permission to shoot inside Myeongdong Cathedral. You can walk there from the Myeongdong shopping streets and it’s free. But it’s a working church where Mass is held, so before you raise your camera, look at what’s happening inside.
The film’s other locations are outside Seoul — the well-known ones are Chungmu Church in Tongyeong, Yeonhui-ne Supermarket in Seosan-dong, Mokpo, and Haeunjeongsa in Haeundae. There’s a story that the Lee Han-yeol-related scenes were shot at Yonsei University, but I couldn’t confirm a primary source, so this article skips it.
Which Parts of Seoul Did Avengers 2 Destroy?
About seven of them. The Seoul shoot for Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) is an easy list for foreign travelers — all famous public places, all easy to reach, and none of them residential alleys.
- Mapo Bridge — the opening action. Yeouinaru Station or Mapo Station (Line 5)
- Sevit Island — the film’s U-Gin Genetics lab. Sinbanpo Station (Line 9) or Express Bus Terminal Station (Lines 3·7·9). An operating multi-purpose cultural complex today
- Mullae-dong ironworks alley — the subway-car derailment climax. Mullae Station (Line 2)
- Gangnam-daero, Gangnam Station intersection — Gangnam Station (Line 2)
- Cheongdam Bridge — Cheongdam Station (Line 7)
- Sangam DMC — Digital Media City Station (Line 6)
If you have to pick just one from this list, make it Mullae-dong. The rest are places people visit regardless of the movie, but Mullae-dong is a neighborhood you’d discover precisely because of it. Ironworks and cafes share the same alleys, and workshops open their doors on weekend afternoons.
The director posted an apology video during the shoot
The Avengers 2 Seoul shoot shut down downtown roads for days. The inconvenience to residents was severe, and director Joss Whedon released an apology video over it.
That fact belongs in this article because it flips the premise of location pilgrimage. A film shoot is usually an inconvenience to the people who live in that neighborhood. The tourist who later visits may be, too. Seoul isn't a film set — it's a city of 9.5 million people.
Does That Alley From The Outlaws Exist in Seoul?
No. This movie is the most misunderstood item in this article.
The working title of The Outlaws (2017) was “The Outlaws — Garibong-dong Cruel History.” The production tried to shoot in the real Garibong-dong. Residents objected. Their reasoning:
Over the years, many films have depicted Garibong-dong as a place crawling with organized crime, spreading a false image. We’re in the middle of a regeneration project to improve the neighborhood’s image, and being exposed again as a crime-movie backdrop is a heavy burden.
Guro Police Station refused to cooperate with the shoot, and it fell through. The production said most scenes were filmed on a separate set. In other words, the alley you saw in the film does not exist in Seoul.
Don't blindly follow posts that treat Daerim-dong as the pilgrimage site for The Outlaws. The Daerim-dong Chinatown and Daerim Jungang Market in Yeongdeungpo-gu were the neighborhood that inspired the film, but they aren't the filming location. And this is a commercial district where people run businesses and live. About 40 percent of the stalls in Daerim Jungang Market are run by ethnic Koreans from China.
Consuming this neighborhood as a crime-film location is to repeat exactly what Garibong-dong residents objected to in 2017. One reason is enough to go to Daerim-dong: it's the street where you can eat northeastern Chinese food most authentically in Seoul. Malatang, hot pot, lamb skewers, hand-pulled noodles.
The Outlaws 2 through 4 are known to have centered on sets and locations around the capital area — Paju, Gwangju, Namyangju, Ilsan. No confirmed Seoul location has been identified.
How Much Can You Cover in Half a Day?
One route that starts on a Jongno hill and ends at the Hangang is plenty. Four to five hours. It skips every closed and set-only spot and includes only places confirmed to exist as of September 2026.
If it needs a name: “Bong Joon-ho’s Seoul, and 1987.”
🎬 A half-day walking course — from Jahamun Tunnel to the Hangang
| Time | Place | Travel | Time there | Point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09:30 | Leave Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3) → Jahamun Tunnel | ~10 min by bus | 30 min | The Parasite downpour stairs. Shot from the other side of the tunnel. On the retaining wall beside the stairs is the steel-letter mural “Bulhyeondeut Inwangsan,” installed in December 2021 and about 40 meters long |
| 10:15 | Buam-dong walk — Seokpajeong (Seoul Museum), Whanki Museum, Changuimun | On foot | 90 min | Seokpajeong: museum + garden ₩11,000, garden only ₩5,000. Whanki Museum ₩8,000. Plenty of old cafes |
| 12:00 | Lunch in Buam-dong | On foot | 60 min | Jahason Mandu made the 2020 Michelin Guide. Don’t just snap the stairs and leave — this is the stretch where you spend money in the neighborhood |
| 13:15 | To the Democracy Movement Memorial Hall | ~40 min by bus + subway | 60–90 min | The real torture site from 1987: When the Day Comes. Free, but M2 requires an advance reservation. Book online the day before |
| 15:00 | Namyeong Station → Yongsan Station (Line 1) or Ichon Station (Line 4) → Ichon Hangang Park · Wonhyo Bridge north end | 1 stop by subway | 60 min | The Host’s opening and ending. Under the bridge is the monster’s lair; a 40-meter drainage pipe |
| 16:00 | Mapo Bridge–Seogang Bridge section via the Hangang park bike path | On foot or by Ddareungi, 30 min | 60 min | A convenience store now sits where Gang-du’s snack bar stood in The Host. This same stretch is the Mapo Bridge of Avengers 2 |
| 17:30 | Wrap up at Yeouinaru Station (Line 5) | — | — | Sunset over the Hangang if the weather cooperates |
I deliberately left the Mapo-gu stretch out of this course. The starting point of Seoul City’s official Parasite course — the Dwaejissal Supermarket and the Gi-taek neighborhood stairs — is in Mapo, and the supermarket has closed and been demolished. Trekking all the way to Aeogae Station just to see the stairs isn’t a good use of time.
Want something shorter — just Parasite?
A 2–3 hour route works: start at Noryangjin Station, see Pizza Sidae (the film's "Sky Pizza"), take Line 1 to Dongmyo Station, walk the Changsin-dong alleys, and finish in Jongno.
Two conditions. First, Pizza Sidae's 2026 operating status is unconfirmed. Call 02-822-3082 before you set out. Depending on the source, the listed hours are 10:00–20:30 or 10:00–22:00, and the area is slated for redevelopment. Second, Changsin-dong is residential. Read the etiquette rules below first.
What Shouldn't You Do in a Residential Alley?
Taking loud photos and talking loudly. Of the Parasite locations in this article, the Jahamun Tunnel stairs, the Changsin-dong alleys, and the Buk-Ahyeon-dong stairs are all residential areas where people live. They aren’t tourist facilities. No restrooms, no elevators, no accessibility features.
Seoul holds the proof that this isn’t an abstract question of manners.
What happened in Ihwa Mural Village
The mural village in Ihwa-dong, Jongno-gu, was created in 2006 as an urban-beautification project. Tourists poured in. And residents' daily lives fell apart. Noise was measured up to 80 decibels — the level of a subway train entering a station. Littering and motorcycle noise followed. Residents filed repeated complaints with the district office, but nothing changed.
On May 15, 2016, five residents painted over the sunflower mural and the fish-stairs mural themselves. Their reason was one sentence: it had become too hard to live there. The neighborhood's 140 households split into merchants who benefited from tourism and residents who didn't — about 70 percent.
Ihwa Mural Village isn't a movie location. But it's the most precise example of what happens when a Seoul residential alley becomes a tourist destination. There's no reason the same thing couldn't happen in Changsin-dong or Buk-Ahyeon-dong.
This is also the answer to why the Dwaejissal Supermarket vanished. One of the reasons given for the closure: tourists took photos but never bought anything. For five years, visitors from around the world photographed the shopfront. The shop closed. When a filming-location pilgrimage leaves nothing behind in a neighborhood, the thing being pilgrimaged disappears with it.
The seven rules below are drawn directly from that case.
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Go only in the daytime | The Jahamun Tunnel, Changsin-dong, and Buk-Ahyeon-dong stairs are off-limits in the evening and at night — that’s when residents come home and sleep |
| Don’t photograph homes, windows, laundry, or residents’ faces | Shoot only the stairs and scenery. People live behind those windows |
| Groups of 3–4 or fewer, voices at indoor-conversation level | Noise measured in Ihwa-dong hit 80 decibels. No group photos, tripods, or drones |
| Don’t block the stairs or alleys | These are residents’ commuting and shopping routes. They’re narrow |
| Buy something at a neighborhood shop | A coffee, a bottle of water. The reason the Dwaejissal Supermarket vanished is your answer |
| Carry all your trash out | Residential alleys have no public trash cans |
| See it as a neighborhood, not a photo-op spot | Changsin-dong is still a working district where you can hear garment-factory sewing machines |
That last rule, honestly, contains the other six. Korean films shot Seoul’s alleys not because they were pretty, but because people lived there. The stairs in Parasite mean something for the same reason — they’re someone’s actual commute.
Strip away that premise, and all that’s left is a backdrop.
So What Should You See, and What Should You Give Up?
The honest conclusion: far fewer Korean-movie shops can actually be entered in Seoul than you’d think. This isn’t the K-drama situation, where cafes linger on as filming locations.
| Name | Film | Address | Nearest station | Status as of 2026-09-11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pizza Sidae (the film’s “Sky Pizza”) | Parasite (2019) | 86 Noryangjin-ro 6-gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul | Noryangjin Station (Lines 1 & 9) | No recent confirmation. Call ahead (02-822-3082) |
| Yeouido Hangang Park convenience store | Where Gang-du’s snack bar stood in The Host (2006) | Hangang Park, Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu | Yeouinaru Station (Line 5) | The snack-bar set was removed; a convenience store operates in its place |
| Dwaejissal Supermarket | Parasite (2019) | 32 Son-gijeong-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul | Aeogae Station (Line 5) | Closed (May 2025), fully demolished |
| Suwon Wang Galbi Tongdak | Extreme Job (2019) | Baedari, Changyeong-dong, Dong-gu, Incheon | — | Set removed, restored to the stationery shop. Not Seoul |
| Jangseonghyang | Oldboy (2003) | Choryang Chinatown, Busan | — | Busan. Current operating status unconfirmed |
The short list isn’t only bad news. What remains isn’t the shops but the city itself. The drainage pipe under Wonhyo Bridge is as it was in 2006. The incline of the stairs by Jahamun Tunnel is unchanged. The old Namyeong-dong interrogation building became a museum and got easier to reach, not harder. The Mullae-dong ironworks alley added cafes, but the ironworks still run.
What Korean films captured in Seoul was ultimately not the shops but the terrain. Stairs, bridge piers, tunnels, the slope of an alley. Those don’t go out of business.
Sources
- Hankyung (Korea Economic Daily), "Parasite location Dwaejissal Supermarket, promised to be made a tourist attraction, closed" (2025-05-22), checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Hankyung (Korea Economic Daily), "Exclusive: They promised to make it an attraction... the Parasite location vanishes without a trace" (2025-05-22), checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Seoul Tourism Organization, "Seoul City keeps the new-hallyu wave going with a Parasite tour course" press release, checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Seoul City "Nae Sonsane Seoul," "Parasite was filmed here! Seoul locations revealed," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Seoul City "Nae Sonsane Seoul," "One year after release, visit Parasite locations by Ddareungi," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Korea Tourism Organization, "Parasite Filming Location Tour" (English), checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Daum News, "Parasite: both the Kim house and the Park house were sets — crew Q&A," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Visit Korea (Korea Tourism Organization), "Changsin-dong Alley," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Seoul Shinmun, "Weekend exploration: visiting the Hangang where The Host was shot" (2006-08-05), checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Munhwa Ilbo, "The space of a masterpiece: the Hangang that raised The Host," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Korea Democracy Foundation, "Democracy Movement Memorial Hall visit guide," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Korea Democracy Foundation, "Visit reservation," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Seoul Shinmun, "The torture site in the film 1987, the real Namyeong-dong interrogation facility... why did police allow it first?" (2018-01-07), checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Kyunghyang Shinmun, "Our neighborhood as a crime backdrop again — Garibong-dong residents angry over a film shoot" (2017-08-09), checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Hankook Ilbo, "Extreme Job's Suwon Wang Galbi Tongdak — the shop is actually in Incheon" (2019-03-28), checked 2026-09-11 — link
- SBS Investigative File, "The other side of Ihwa-dong Mural Village," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Korean Film Council Film Korea location DB, "Baedari used-book street," checked 2026-09-11 — link
- Seoul Film Commission, "Location in Seoul — location & industry DB," checked 2026-09-11 — link