[go: up one dir, main page]

    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideToronto Int'l Film FestivalIMDb Stars to WatchSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

Microhabitat

Original title: Sogongnyeo
  • 2017
  • Not Rated
  • 1h 46m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
3.4K
YOUR RATING
Esom in Microhabitat (2017)
31-year-old Mi-so is barely getting by in Seoul. Her joys in life are: cigarettes, one glass of whiskey after work, and her poor boyfriend who dreams of becoming an artist. As cigarette prices and rent start to rise, Mi-so couch surfs with old friends while reconsidering her place in life. "Isn't life disappointing?".
Play trailer1:05
1 Video
71 Photos
DramaRomance

Whiskey and cigarettes, the only ways of keeping her dignity in this city.Whiskey and cigarettes, the only ways of keeping her dignity in this city.Whiskey and cigarettes, the only ways of keeping her dignity in this city.

  • Director
    • Jeon Go-Woon
  • Writer
    • Jeon Go-Woon
  • Stars
    • Esom
    • Ahn Jae-hong
    • Jae-Hyun Choi
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    3.4K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jeon Go-Woon
    • Writer
      • Jeon Go-Woon
    • Stars
      • Esom
      • Ahn Jae-hong
      • Jae-Hyun Choi
    • 12User reviews
    • 35Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 11 wins & 11 nominations total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:05
    Official Trailer

    Photos71

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 67
    View Poster

    Top cast9

    Edit
    Esom
    Esom
    • Mi-so
    Ahn Jae-hong
    Ahn Jae-hong
    • Han-sol
    Jae-Hyun Choi
    • Hyeon-jeong's husband
    Choi Deok-moon
    Choi Deok-moon
    • Kim Rok-yi
    Kim Guk-Hee
    • Hyeon-jeong
    • (as Kim Gook-hee)
    Kang Jin-ah
    • Moon-yeong
    Woo Sung-eun
    • Young band
    • (as Woo Seong-eun)
    Lee Sung-wook
    Lee Sung-wook
    • Dae-Yong
    Kim Ye-eun
    • Jae-kyung
    • Director
      • Jeon Go-Woon
    • Writer
      • Jeon Go-Woon
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews12

    7.43.3K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    jrwfzkknj

    Bleakly funny, oddly moving, and wonderfully observed.

    Microhabitat is quietly funny in that dry, blink-and-you'll miss it sort of way. Jeon Go-woon's debut is a subtle but assured sly satire about how utterly absurd adulthood turns out to be. The story follows Miso, played with pitch-perfect restraint by Esom, a character whose struggle to afford life's small pleasures in a world that demands too much and gives too little is all too relatable. Her choice of cigarettes and alcohol over her flat is a stark reflection of the compromises many of us make. What follows is a sofa-surfing odyssey through the crumbling dreams of her so-called friends, now the so-called 'adults'.

    Each stop is a mini-tragicomic gem. Her sister, in the glamourous corporate job, which turns out to be little more than serfdom, held together by intravenous supplements, for which she undertook a nursing qualification to administer (the most valuable training she's taken). The joyless new parents, the pitiful man-child, a 50-year-old living with his parents, who support his attempts of abduction in order to marry him off. There's bleak satire in every corner-an unflinching look at how adulthood has failed us all. Never cruel-just painfully recognisable.

    Miso's drifting detachment has hardened into something more radical. She begins to see those who've conformed as traitors-sell-outs to a broken system. Her lifestyle becomes a quiet manifesto, a rebellion against the rat race. Her freedom unsettles those who've buckled down, exposing their choices as cowardice. What begins as a story of survival turns into a powerful critique of societal norms. It's bleak, funny, and strangely empowering, leaving the audience enlightened and thoughtful.

    The third act lands with a quiet, aching finality. As Miso's boyfriend confesses he's trading his dreams for stability, the film crystallises its core heartbreak-not just that adulthood is disappointing, but that even the dreamers eventually surrender. His choice isn't cruel, just crushingly ordinary. It's the slow erosion of hope that stings most. The time jump that follows is disorienting, deliberately so. Her old bandmates speak of Miso at a funeral with the hollow nostalgia of people who've long buried their idealism. Their words are polite, rehearsed, meaningless-revealing more about their own resignation than about her. And then, in a wordless, lingering moment, we glimpse a woman-greying, solitary, and still moving forward. Whether it's truly Miso or just her ghost doesn't matter. What matters is the sense that she never gave in. In a world that wears everyone down, her continued existence feels like a quiet act of defiance.

    Microhabitat brilliantly mocks the illusions of adulthood with a knowing, bitter chuckle. Bleakly funny, oddly moving, and wonderfully observed.
    9kimsuzi08

    Everything is perfect and nothing bothers me.

    Everything is perfect and nothing bothers me. If all those who produce movies have this much sense, directing, and neatness, the world will be filled with really good films.

    I literally can't believe such a wonderful and beautiful movie can be made with $320k in production costs. It is super LIT!

    The most remarkable thing is lighting. The lighting behind the camera, which illuminates characters in a narrow space such as a dark alley or room, evokes naturalness but also makes them more adorable. However, there was no lighting in the scene of couple at dawn, and this delivers the temperature of air, which is so much colder and heavier. I really like these lighting decisions.

    The structure, script, and acting were also good. Leakless structure, editing without superfluous parts! I felt like that I read a tidy article with a fabulous topic and solution.

    It was a very enviable and respectful time for people who make fun things fun. The world is full of fun and cool stuffs, and it makes me struggling!

    Hyeon-jeong, Dae-yong, and Rok-yi's episodes were very fun and giggling, but Jung-mi's consternated me. The movie was so adept at getting the issue off the table, but I think we should highlight it.

    "I have money for a glass of whiskey and cigarettes, but no money to pay the rent."

    If I regard the former as a metaphor for the most indispensable and fundemental cost of pursuing individual happiness, yes I can agree. I don't want to force the people to give it up. However, I think it is a pretty dangerous idea to ask someone else for a favor because I'm willing to give someone a bed when he or she asks me. I would have hooked if Mi-so slept in the parks and spent the rent at an indispensable basic cost. But she decided to share the burden with others, so she didn't lose anything. Of course, Jung-mi is rich to waste in throwing good food away, so in that episode it's almost Jung-mi's fault to reject Mi-so. But I doubt that Mi-so did well.

    "Let's owe a favor to others just until I save the deposit of the house rent."

    Can't she stop pursuing her own happiness until she save the deposit?
    10zeldery

    Amazing film with one of the greatest cinematography I have ever seen

    Clean, simple but obsessive.

    That's all I would say about the gem that somehow I missed for 4 years. The film started with a soft, simple story about the girl who decided to stay at her friends' house to save up for other's important things: whiskey and cigarettes. But from that seem-to-be simple and somehow stupid idea, the film touched the deepest meaning of life, the consequences of every decisions we made in life, about the true difference that distinguish one from the others. You will find your eyes locked in the screen from the beginning to the very end.

    The acting is extremely elegant, the dialogues are touching and funny, but the best things I can say about this movie is its cinematography. No crazy 90-minute one-take, no dolly zoom or breath-taking over view from some imaginary helicopter, the cinematography of the film is perfect that I won't even look for it. A well deserved praise for the director who I believe master the art of film.

    I won't hesitate to recommend this film to anyone who truly want to understand the Eastern cultures, understand the people working under the pressure of society, and the life we really want to live, that somehow we have to find and fight for every single days of our life.
    9NajmiSelamat

    Beautiful Movie.

    This movie really make me thinking about life. The plot is simple but for some reason it can touch my heart. I also like the acting a lot. The meaning behind the story is subtle enough and I like it a lot.
    7Ladiloque

    I feel like I'm rich now

    ... even though it's not my house.

    The more I watch productions from regions whose culture hasn't been deeply influenced - until recently - by western culture, the more I'm undecided on my capacity to judge them. Had this movie been produced in Germany or the Uk I would have given it a 4-5 for its restrained gaze, farcical tone and not particularly original themes. But I'll give it a cosmopolitan benefit of the doubt.

    The film shows how willing people are to settle for less than ideal socio-economic bargains, just for inexperience or social pressures, actually ruining their lifes. And how outsiders are dissed, blamed and ultimately discriminated (though the movie doesn't show that much) for their choices.

    Unfortunately the film feels a little too surreal to my eyes: things seem forcibly represented as cute and fine and often even comical where I'd expect struggling, drama and wounds. And while I guess that may well be my bias towards realism, the result is that overall the production fell a little flat.

    The conclusion too left me cold: a more direct collision against hypocrisy and conformism would have made everything more meaningful. Instead we are left believing that outsiders aren't going to get crushed by the rest of society and will do just fine.

    A cute little fell-good movie whose social critique doesn't really hit... unless OFC the purpose wasn't hitting in the first place but a more gentle reproach.

    More like this

    Beolsae
    7.4
    Beolsae
    Honja saneun saramdeul
    6.9
    Honja saneun saramdeul
    Petite Forêt
    7.3
    Petite Forêt
    Yunhui-ege
    6.9
    Yunhui-ege
    Imgeumnimui sagunsoocheob
    6.4
    Imgeumnimui sagunsoocheob
    Daejang Kimchangsoo
    6.5
    Daejang Kimchangsoo
    Seule sur la plage la nuit
    6.8
    Seule sur la plage la nuit
    Sunny
    7.7
    Sunny
    LTNS
    7.1
    LTNS
    Nam-mae-wui yeo-reum-bam
    6.9
    Nam-mae-wui yeo-reum-bam
    Des nouilles aux haricots noirs
    8.0
    Des nouilles aux haricots noirs
    Failan
    7.5
    Failan

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The original Korean title "MisoSeosikji" literally means "a place where Mi-So (the protagonist's name) lives". The distributor was concerned about audience numbers and changed the title to "Sogongnyeo" meaning "A Little Princess" after the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ16

    • How long is Microhabitat?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 1, 2018 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • South Korea
    • Language
      • Korean
    • Also known as
      • 蟻居女孩
    • Production companies
      • Gwanghwamoon Cinema
      • Sega Sammy Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $424,025
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 46m(106 min)
    • Color
      • Color

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.