<A Single Spark (Aleumda-un cheongnyeon Jeon Taeil)> (1995)

Director : Park Kwang-Su
Production Company : Age of Planning
Date of Rate : 1995-11-13
Date of Theatrical Release : 1995-11-18
Running Time : 96 min.
Genre : Biographical Film

Staff :
Screenplay(Adaptation) : Lee Chang-Dong, Kim Jeong-Hwan, Lee Hyo-In
Producer : Yoo In-Taek
Director of PhotoGraphy : Yoo Young-Kil
Gaffer : Kim Dong-Ho
Music : Song Hong-Seob

Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Hong Kyeong-In, Moon Seong-Keun, Kim Seon-Jae

Synopsis

Wanted by the police for his history of student activism, Kim Youngsoo (Moon Sung-keun) is writing the biography of Jeon Taeil (Hong Kyeong-in), a worker at a clothing factory in Cheonggyecheon who opened the floodgates of the labor movement. As a fugitive on the run, Kim cannot even see his pregnant wife (Kim Seon-jae). Instead, he clings desperately to his work of reconstructing Jeon's life, using the diary Jeon's mother (Lee Joo-sil) has given him along with her eyewitness testimony. Due to his family's difficult circumstances, Jeon enters the work force early in life. Employed at a clothing factory, he begins to feel that there is something amiss with the factory's working environment, in which employees are made to operate the sewing machines throughout the night. He discovers the root of the problem by studying the labor law, and bands his coworkers together to fight for labor law compliance. However, when the situation shows no signs of improving, he commits suicide by setting himself on fire, demanding that employers comply with labor laws.

Notes

"A masterpiece that combines solemnity with ecstasy. A landmark film that successfully captures fictional reality rather than realistic fiction" (Lee Yong-kwan) A Single Spark is based on the life of young Jeon Taeil, who committed suicide by self-immolation on the thoroughfare in front of Pyounghwa Market on November 13, 1970, calling for compliance with labor laws. The topicality of the movie's subject matter triggered a huge social response even before production began, and upon its release, it not only received a critical ovation but overturned expectations to achieve box office success. In recounting the life of Jeon Taeil, who is a symbol for Korea's labor movement, A Single Spark shifts the focus from his heroic struggle and political activism to the anguish and despair experienced by the innocent and compassionate youth, and to the hope he never abandoned even at the end. Furthermore, it presents this deeply personal tale in a quiet and understated manner. By mediating the tale through the gaze of an intellectual named Kim Youngsoo, the movie compels the audience to consider Jeon's conflicts and ruminations from a self-reflexive distance. Thus, the audience comes to re-evaluate his life and death as a contemporary issue. A Single Spark tenaciously and dispassionately examines modern-day Korean history through the biography of Jeon Taeil, but it does not allow itself to be buried in this thematic preoccupation. On the contrary, it exhibits an intense engagement with questions of form. The film contrasts Jeon's story with Kim's by rendering the former in black and white and the latter in full color. In addition, it foregoes a conventional structure of development and resolution designed to drive the audience's emotions to a dramatic pitch, opting instead to present Jeon's life piece by piece through the frame narrative constituted by Kim Youngsoo's perspective. By keeping camera work and cutting to a minimum, the movie also acquires an introspective quality.

Afterword

Over 7,600 Koreans came together to found a "Jeon Taeil Film Production Committee," which raised 250,000,000 won in seed money for the film. The movie's cast, including Moon Sung-keun and Hong Kyeong-in, also contributed their entire paychecks toward the production budget.

Director Bio: Park Kwang-su (1955- )

Director Park Kwang-su explored such deeply rooted social issues as the division of the two Koreas, ideologies, the workingman, and poverty. His works which unflinchingly reflected the social reality of the times, were also known for their picturesque mise en scene and detailed cinematic flow. He was a member of Yalrasyeong, the Film Maker's Club at Seoul National University, as well as a member of the film movement which was based on socialist realism. After returning from study abroad in France, he worked as an assistant to director Lee Jang-ho and made his directorial debut with the 1988 film, Chil-su and Man-su (Chil-su wa Man-su). Afterward, he made movies such as Black Republic (Guedeuldo ulicheoleom) (1990), Berlin Report (Beleullin(Berlin) lipoteu(report)) (1991), To the Starry Island (Geu seom-e gago sipda) (1993), and A Single Spark (Aleumda-un cheongnyeon Jeon Taeil) (1995), which dealt with such themes as class conflict, the guilt-by-association system, the division of the two Koreas, the labor movement, and intellectualism - making him one of the premiere directors of the Korean New Wave. In 1993, he founded a film studio with the purpose of making independent films that were completely free from the demands of commercialism. He invested 3.5 million dollars to make a movie - The Uprising (I Jaesu-ui nan) (1999) - about I Jae-su, the man who led the Peasant Rebellion of 1901 in Jeju-do. A French-Korean collaboration, the movie showed his unwillingness to follow the cinematic trends of his time. Beginning in 1996, he sat on the board of the Busan International Film Festival as co-chairman for 3 years. And from 1998 on, he has been a tenured professor at the Visual Arts Department of the Korean National University of Arts.