Academic literature on the topic 'Post-Millennial student'

Globally lauded for its bittersweet and wistful portrayal of millennial womanhood, Jeon Go-woon’s directorial debut, Microhabitat, depicts post university life for the urban dwelling ‘Sampo’ generation (literally the ‘three giving up generation’) as one of confined mobility, where high student loan repayments, unstable employment, and unaffordable housing keep this generation in a state of socio-economic precariousness. Surrounded by the temptations of modern, cosmopolitan city living that they can ill-afford to partake in, Mi-so and her peers are constantly bound by collective emotional trauma and the expectations of a patriarchal society to marry and start a family. As such, Microhabitat continues the local trend for critiquing gender and generational politics through popular culture and its dissenting narrative arrives at and aligns with an increasingly visible period of radical feminism, collectivism and millennial protest within South Korea. As the alarming disparity in gender representation, both on and offscreen, continues within the South Korean film industry, this chapter argues for the significance of Microhabitat beyond popular and ‘wistful’ entertainment. By evaluating the film’s representations, context and production the chapter contends that it acts as an imperative political treatise on a generation of South Korean women emerging as important radical voices from the fringes.