Review of Microhabitat / 소공녀, directed by Jeon Go-woon

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

Something I also used this time for, and was really happy to do, was to sit down and slowly cross off movies and books on my to-watch and to-read lists. I will never ever get through all of them in my lifetime because of the sheer amount of content I want to consume, but I’ve slowly made peace with that.

At the time of typing this, I’m happy to report that I did find a job, so I’m clearing through my last few blog posts before I start being a corporate girl again. This post is going to come out later because of my editorial calendar, but at the time of watching this, I was really crossing off movies on my to-watch list. I’ve been meaning to watch Microhabitat for literal years, but I never got around to it.

So when I saw it available on my library’s Kanopy account, I decided to press play and sit down with it. I’m glad I finally did watch this though, especially considering how little time I am going to have in the near future.

Let’s get into the review!

A young woman drifts between her friends’ apartments with no purpose to her life.

Our main character in this movie is Mi-so, who, at the beginning of the movie, does have a purpose. She spends her hard earned money on cigarettes and whiskey, and hangs out with her boyfriend whenever she gets the chance. However, she is getting older, and reality is crashing on her.

Mi-so finds work as a housekeeper but is unable to afford the necessities she could easily access before. Her landlord increases the rent in her apartment, then the price of cigarettes goes up and she’s forced to use a cheaper brand in order to feed her addiction. No matter how much more work she takes on, she’s never able to make enough money.

At the end of the year, she decides she needs to do something and cut out a major part of her spending. She decides it’s going to be her rent, which isn’t the brightest decision in the world, but for now she’s going to round up all her old friend and former bandmates and ask them if she can stay.

She packs up what little she can carry around, and the first person she asks says no to hosting her. Her former keyboard play agrees to let her stay in her apartment, but her husband doesn’t like this. When the husband and friend get into an argument over it, Mi-so overhears them. When she talks to her friend, she learns that her friend is doing all the household labor and struggling with in-law expectations.

Mi-so makes a meal for her friend the next morning and then leaves. She goes to the drummer Dae-yong’s house next. His marriage has just ended so he has the room, but then Mi-so’s boyfriend expresses how uncomfortable he is with her staying with a man. She then moves out and to the next person, who is also a man, but this friend’s parents think he’s getting married to Mi-so because of this.

She ends up leaving that guy’s house too, then she goes to Jeong-mi’s home. Jeong-mi is doing well for herself and even has a large home. Turns out Mi-so helped Jeong-mi in the past and wants to repay her debt, so she tells Mi-so she can stay for as long as she wants. However, Mi-so’s boyfriend agrees to take a job in Saudi Arabia and leaves her behind.

When Mi-so brings up Jeong-mi and her’s past to her husband, it angers Jeong-mi. Mi-so loses her place in the home and is kicked out, leading her to another awful situation. With no one else to turn to, she tours apartments, but she can’t afford any of them.

A time skip then occurs and all of the bandmates gather at a funeral. They all talk about Mi-so when standing together, swapping memories and sharing about the time when she stayed with them. The movie ends with a scene showing a grey-haired woman, who looks like Mi-so, on the side of a highway and heading towards a tent on the side of the road.

Overall Thoughts

For me, this wasn’t my favorite movie, but I did find it interesting when looking at our main character in the context of contemporary Korean society. She’s not the typical Korean young person trying to gun for a competitive job, and watching her journey (however sad it might be) was a compelling story, especially when you compare it to her peers.

Even though I’m not able to relate to the situation at hand, I really felt for our protagonist and her situation. The actress does an excellent job portraying her as a bit of a lost soul, and her interactions with others are truly what makes the movie. You can see where she kind of fell off, but some of her other friends aren’t doing too well either.

So in the end not everyone who looks successful is thriving. At least Mi-so is choosing her own path, even if it is a bit self-destructive.

I say watch this one if you’re interested and can find it online. I know this is a bit harder to find in the United States because of licensing, but I was able to watch it on Kanopy. Other streaming platforms don’t have it I think, which is unfortunate because we always need more women-focused movies.

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