Microhabitat
小公女
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Rather than give up whisky and cigarettes when the rent rises, she gives up the apartment.
Miso is in her thirties and cleans other people's flats in Seoul for a daily wage. Her budget is exact: rent on a tiny room so cold that she and her boyfriend, Han-sol, give up undressing until spring; herbal medicine for the hair that is turning white too early; and the two pleasures she will not give up, cigarettes and a glass of whisky at her usual bar. Han-sol, a would-be cartoonist, lives in a factory dormitory. At the turn of 2015 her landlord raises the rent and the price of cigarettes more than doubles. Rather than give up smoking or whisky, Miso gives up the room. She packs a suitcase and a list of the five friends she once played in a band with.
Moon-yeong works so hard that she takes a glucose drip at lunch, and has no space. Hyeon-jeong, the keyboard player, welcomes her into the home she shares with her husband and his parents; the husband objects through the wall, and Hyeon-jeong admits how tired she is of cooking for them all. Dae-yong, the drummer, whose marriage has collapsed after eight months, has a spare room, but Han-sol cannot bear her staying with a man. Rok-yi, the singer, lives with parents so eager for a daughter-in-law that they set about marrying him to Miso. Jeong-mi, the guitarist, now rich and a mother, takes her in gladly, then throws her out after Miso mentions their wild years in front of Jeong-mi's husband. Han-sol, worn down, gives up drawing and signs up to work in Saudi Arabia to clear his debts; Miso, who rarely cries, weeps as they part. She looks at room after room she cannot afford.
Years later the old bandmates meet at a funeral and wonder what became of Miso; no one has been able to find her. A white-haired woman who looks like her walks through the city, and at night sits in a small tent pitched beside a road.
Starring
Esomas Miso
A housekeeper in her thirties who gives up her room rather than her cigarettes and whisky, and goes to stay with old bandmates.
Miso’s story
Miso cleans other people's flats for a daily wage and keeps her accounts to the last won: rent, herbal medicine for her greying hair, cigarettes, one glass of whisky at her bar. When the rent rises and cigarettes more than double in price, she gives up the room rather than the pleasures and sets off with a list of her old bandmates. She cooks breakfast for Hyeon-jeong before leaving, quits Dae-yong's spare room because Han-sol cannot bear it, moves on when Rok-yi's parents plan to marry her to him, and saves money at Jeong-mi's until a remark about their wild years gets her thrown out. Han-sol leaves for Saudi Arabia; no room she views is within reach. Years later her friends cannot find her. A white-haired woman who looks like her sits at night in a roadside tent.
Ahn Jae-hongas Han-sol
Miso's boyfriend, a would-be cartoonist in a factory dormitory, who leaves to work in Saudi Arabia to pay off his debts.
Han-sol’s story
Han-sol wants to be a cartoonist, works in a factory and lives in its dormitory, so his dates with Miso are cinema tickets he gets for giving blood, or evenings in her unheated room, where it is too cold to undress and they agree to wait for spring. His one hope is to afford a home for the two of them. When Miso gives up her room and goes to stay with her old bandmates, he cannot bear her staying with Dae-yong, a man, and she moves out. Worn down by their spartan life, he gives up drawing and volunteers for a job in Saudi Arabia that will pay off his student debts in a couple of years. They part, and he leaves.
Kim Gook-heeas Jeong Hyeon-jeong
The band's former keyboard player, now cooking for her husband and in-laws, who welcomes Miso warmly.
Lee Sung-wookas Han Dae-yong
The former drummer, left alone with a spare room and his shame after an eight-month marriage.
Choi Deok-moonas Kim Rok-yi
The band's former singer, who lives with parents determined to marry him off, if possible to Miso.
Kim Jae-hwaas Choi Jeong-mi
The former guitarist, now a well-off mother in a large house, who takes Miso in and then throws her out.
Why it matters
Microhabitat is about housing, and about who gets to decide what counts as necessary. Miso's choice looks absurd until the film shows the alternatives: a friend on a drip at lunch, a wife cooking for her in-laws, a man alone with the shame of a marriage that lasted eight months, a family eager to marry off their son, a rich mother who calls having a child the one suffering in life before correcting herself to blessing. Rents rise, cigarettes double in price, and the friends who played by the rules have homes but not much else. Jeon Go-woon has said she wanted to reflect a feminism of her own in the film, and Miso is a woman who will not apologise for small pleasures. It won the top feature award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival. It leaves her white-haired in a tent by the road, apparently still herself, and does not say whether that is freedom or its price.