General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Microhabitat (소공녀)

Microhabitat (소공녀, So-gong-nyeo) is a 2017 South Korean romance drama film, the debut feature of director and screenwriter Jeon Go-woon, about a young housekeeper in Seoul who gives up her apartment rather than give up cigarettes and whiskey when prices rise¹. The Korean title literally translates as "A Little Princess"². It premiered at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival in October 2017 and was released in South Korean theaters on March 22, 2018³^•¹.

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Jeon Go-woon, her first feature film¹
Premiere / release	World premiere at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival (October 2017); South Korean theatrical release March 22, 2018³^•¹
Running time / rating	106 minutes; rated 15+ in Korea¹
Cast	Esom (Lee Som) as Miso; Ahn Jae-hong as Han-sol; with Choi Duk-moon, Kim Jae-hwa, Kang Jin-a, and Kim Guk-hee⁴
Premise	When cigarette prices double, Miso gives up her apartment and moves between the homes of her old college bandmates⁵
Box office	59,202 admissions in Korea (Cine21); 61,258 admissions and $363,350 gross per the Korean Film Council database⁴^•⁵
Major awards	Blue Dragon Best New Director; Grand Bell Best New Director and Best Screenplay (both 2018, Jeon Go-woon)⁶

Spoilers

Plot

Miso (Esom) is a 31-year-old professional housekeeper in Seoul who earns 45,000 won per day⁷^•⁸. Her daily pleasures are a cigarette, one glass of whiskey after work, and her boyfriend Han-sol (Ahn Jae-hong), an aspiring webtoon artist⁵^•⁴. On the first day of the new year, rent rises and the government raises the cigarette price by 2,000 won while her daily wage stays the same³^•⁴.

Faced with rising costs, Miso decides the one thing she will give up is her apartment. She packs her belongings into a backpack and a carrier and begins moving from house to house among five friends from her college band days, now scattered across Seoul³. Through these visits the film sketches the lives of ordinary people: a friend facing divorce eight months into a marriage under a twenty-year apartment loan, a married couple worn down by housework, and others who have settled between success and stability⁹^•¹⁰. Han-sol, meanwhile, applies for a long-term work posting to Saudi Arabia that would let him save more than 50 million won in two years, giving up his dream of a webtoon debut¹¹.

Production and director

Jeon Go-woon graduated from Konkuk University's film department and majored in directing at the Korea National University of Arts¹². She is co-CEO of the indie production company KwangHwaMoon Cinema, which produced Sunshine Boys (2013), The King of Jokgu (2014), and The Queen of Crime (2016); after working as a producer on those films, Microhabitat was her first feature as director¹³. She has said she based the screenplay on her own experience looking for housing in Seoul⁹.

The film was produced by KwangHwaMoon Cinema and Moto, distributed by CGV Arthouse, and filmed from February 20 to March 27, 2017¹^•². Kim Tae-soo was the cinematographer, Kwon Hyun-jung composed the music, and Kim Nam-sook handled production design¹.

Themes and reception

The film frames Miso's choice as a defense of dignity rather than an act of desperation: whiskey and cigarettes are described as the two things that keep her dignity in the city, and she refuses to trade them for rent⁵^•¹⁴. The Busan festival program described it as a portrait of today's young people who are poor but determined not to lose their self-respect³. The London Korean Film Festival called Miso "a potent heroine for our time" in a debut that tackles serious themes with style and humor¹⁵, and Cornell Cinema's notes describe the film as asking what matters when trying to hold on to a sense of self under harsh economic conditions¹⁶.

Awards and festival run

Festival premiere. Microhabitat had its world premiere in the Korean Cinema Today - Vision section at the 2017 Busan International Film Festival, where it won the CGV Arthouse Award; the jury cited its "considerate humor and compassion"³^•¹⁷. It won the Audience Award at the 2017 Seoul Independent Film Festival¹.

Korean industry awards. In 2018 Jeon Go-woon won Best New Director at the Blue Dragon Film Awards, the Grand Bell (Daejong) Awards, the Buil Film Awards, and the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards, and Best Screenplay at the Grand Bell Awards and the Women in Film Korea Awards⁶^•¹. Esom won Best Actress from the Busan Film Critics Association and later Best Actress and Best Director prizes at the 2019 Wildflower Film Awards⁶^•¹⁸.

International run. At the 17th New York Asian Film Festival in 2018, the film won the Tiger Uncaged Award for Best Feature Film, the only Korean title in that year's main competition¹⁹. It screened at the Fantasia, Göteborg, and Vilnius festivals, won the jury award for best independent film at the Florence Korea Film Fest, and opened the 2018 London Korean Film Festival²⁰^•²¹^•⁵.

Legacy

The film established Jeon Go-woon and Esom as recurring collaborators: the two reunited with Ahn Jae-hong in the series LTNS (2023)²². The Korean Film Archive's cinematheque included Microhabitat in its "10 Best Movies of 2018" retrospective program in February 2019²³.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2017 to 2018 › Titles K to W

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?