The film A Single Spark tells two stories, one based on the real historical figure of Jeon Taeil, who set himself on fire in 1970 to protest against unfair labor laws, and the other on character Kim Youngsoo, who is writing a bibliography about Jeon. There are parallels between Youngsoo and Jeon throughout the movie, with both having been strongly involved in protesting against something they felt needed to be changed. In this way, the story of Jeon Taeil can be told in a unique manner that allows viewers to connect with his passionate ideals in a new way. Rather than just seeing him as a hero of the labor movement, we get to see his struggles and development along the way. We also get to see Jeon's past through the lenses of Youngsoo's eyes, little by little. The parallels mentioned previously, as well as the piecing together of Jeon's background through another character’s point of view, causes the viewers to realize that the story of the past also applies to the future. The issues that existed back then have not disappeared in the modern times, emphasized by how Youngsoo is a fugitive from the police due to his history of student activism. Even in ‘present’ Korea, people are being oppressed and prosecuted for trying to stand up for what they are passionate about.
Film utilizes black-and-white scenes in order to show flashbacks to the individual (Jeon Taeil) that the protagonist, Kim Youngsoo is writing a bibliography about. Immediately, viewers understand that the vintage, colorless sequences represent Jeon’s story while the modern scenes depict Youngsoo’s in the present. When the film switches to Jeon, the scenes look slightly more blurry overall as well, as if trying to illustrate a long ago past. At first the abrupt changes between clear and colorful and black-white and fuzzy were a little jarring to watch. But given the frequency of how many flashbacks there are in the movie, it would have been confusing to watch and distinguish between the past and present if not for this difference. On another note, at the very beginning of the movie, it shows a short scene of Jeon holding up a lighter to a book which gives viewers a glimpse of what’s to come. Also at the scene where Jeon and his friends are crowded around a bonfire at a beach, there is a sudden close-up of the crackling fire while a worker is talking about the unenforced Labor Laws. This foreshadows the fact that Jeon will later set himself on fire publicly, as a protest against this lack of enforcement, and set off that single spark.
Korean Cinema Professor Steven Chung Jun Seong Ahn
A Single Spark (1995)
When the name Tae-Il Jeon appears, people simply characterizes him as a work who just killed himself, a glorious student in Korea, or a role model for nowadays students. I wasn’t hundred percent positive with who he was. But I think he really over exaggerated by firing his body in the age of twenty two just because of going against the Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act. Killing himself can’t be seen positive.
Since Tae-Il had a poor childhood, not only he was vulnerable from his father’s violence but also Tae-Il’s mother and brother. As he grew up, he didn’t feel comfortable about the world going around by money. How did he realize these thoughts even though he didn’t continue his education by stopping his middle school? He should have understand by witnessing the deteriorated labor around his environment and a huge effort. He followed what his factory manager told him, and gradually realized what is right and wrong. Maybe that’s why he put tremendous effort on ‘Babohwe,’ a community of young foundations. His everyday harsh work of 14 hours per day and lack of freedom and cleanliness in the factory led Tae-Il to walk forward against the Labor Act.
Tae-Il wanted Korean citizens to acknowledge irrationality and contamination of what he fights against. “I will throw away and kill myself. I will sacrifice my weak existence.” This is one of Tae-Il’s quotes in his diary. What I’ve mentioned in the above, he has sacrificed his life to the society in a very young age, and that act was a fight against was he had been treated. From that point, workers progressively raised their voices to the society and thing got better. I was fool to make a thoughtless decision about Tae-Il, and this movie changed my thought about him. He is definitely a huge iconic model to the labors in Korea.
"A Single Spark" is a film that centers around the lives of two men during two separate time periods: Jeon Tae-Il, a man who bravely protested the unfair labor conditions of factories, and Kim Yong-Su, a man who devoted his time and risked his safety in order to write a book depicting the astonishing events surrounding Tae-Il. One very significant and arguably typical way of showing the jump between time periods is the switch between color and black and white film. In one instance, we are put into Yong-Su's quiet life hiding away from authority, and the next instance, we are in Tae-Il's life, fighting for the rights of factory workers. Rather than relying on transitions that make it seem as if we are traveling back and forth from a flashback to the present, the use of quick cuts in between colored and black and white shots allow the film to display smooth transitions between these separate lives. In this way, the audience is able to actively engage with both lives. By filming this way, the director successfully establishes the similarities and growth between a time when industrialization was still considered to be in its early stages (during Tae-Il's time) and a few years later when the industry had time to react to such protests (Yong-Su's time).
One pivotal scene in the film occurred when Tae-Il left the factory in order to work in the mountains; he decided to dig a grave for himself in the rain and laid in it. The scene shifted to an extreme long shot of Tae-Il walking away from the mountains. Here, the director used a voiceover of Tae-Il expressing his wish to return to the factory and his newly established will to sacrifice himself for this cause that has basically taken over his heart and mind. This effectively expresses the tenacity behind Tae-Il's will that inevitably leads to his decision to light himself on fire.
In Park Kwang-su’s 1995 film, “A Single Spark,” I not only saw a story of tension, I felt one as well. The sudden and frequent shifting of scenes left me on edge throughout the entire film and always a little confused as to what exactly was happening. The consistent change between color to black and white film also added to this feeling as I simply started to get frustrated at the plot line and the ways in which the director chose to create the film. The plot was very hard for me to follow towards the end of the movie and it left me uninterested. I believe that the story the movie was trying to tell would be quite interesting, if only it was told in a different manner without stressful editing and filming.
There are specific moments directly embedded in the plotline, however, that literally relieve some built up tension. The first of which is the scene where the female character drops the entire basket of fruit down the street in her struggle against two men. The fruits are quite clearly symbolic of the oppressed being freed of their working conditions and entrapment. As the fruit happily bounces down the street after escaping their intended fate, so will the workers when they gain the labor rights that are truly theirs. In the same light, the men free themselves of their clothing and any worries associated with society when they swim nude on the beach. It is the ultimate freedom and a direct revolt against the norms of society. These two scenes, along with others throughout the film, helped to relieve the tension and stress that was being built up through film and editing techniques.
The movie, "A Single Spark," illustrates the lives of the people during the time of hard and unfair labor practices. The film starts off with a master view of the street demonstration in order to emphasize the crowdedness, the violent atmosphere, and the big signs that the people held. The beginning of the film gives a general, broad view of the laborers participating in such a union to alter their work lives. The colored scene gradually changes into a black and white scene and the movie alternates back and forth in order to highlight the difference between the past and the present and to suggest that the labor demonstration is still an ongoing issue. The gradual change to a black and white scene shows a man holding a lighter and for the first time, the audience is exposed to a close shot of it. The close shot of such an object hints that it would play a major role throughout the movie and it does appear again towards the end of the movie when Tae-Il burns himself to death using the lighter. Zooming is also used when the man tells his family about how no one cared in the factory even though one woman coughed blood. Zooming in of his face after his speaking of the event suggested that he came up with an idea or is motivated to take an action that audiences ourselves yet do not know of. In the movie, instead of a close shot or medium shot of an individual, master shot with two and three shots are used to stress the interaction and the communication among the many laborers. Even in the scene where the protagonist speaks about the labor laws during the campfire, the camera points at the people sitting around in a circle and only shows the speaking man's back in order to emphasize the reaction of the laborers, not one individual's action.
The movie overall was a slow film with no rapid cuts or use of various angles and shots in one scene. Instead, the director tried to make the transformation from one scene to another smoother rather than being abrupt and straight to the point. For instance, in every instance when the scene changes, an individual is never captured right away. Rather, panning is used to gradually move the audience's sight from an object or a background to an individual. For example, panning is used to direct the audience's sight from a plant to the man or from the view of the roof to a walking protagonist in order to have a smooth transformation. Since it is a movie with slow progress and development, most of the sounds are from the actual people from the movie talking, making the audio part of the movie to be primarily diagetic. However, in few of the scenes, piano sounds could also be heard, an example of a nondiagetic sound. The piano sound helps set the mood for the sad atmosphere. Overall, the movie did a nice job on portraying the work lives of the people and how the unfair labor regulations have affected them both mentally and physically. However, it could have been better if it had incorporated more various camera techniques in order to make the movie seem more dynamic and engaging.
“A Single Spark” is a highly impressive film that very well depicts the labor conflicts during the peak of President Park Chung-hee’s administration. The film is notable for realistically describing the poor labor conditions during the 1970s, using appropriate settings. The movie’s setting and the depiction of the sewing factory is honest and frankly shows how inadequate the factory conditions were back then. For instance, not only is there a long line of child workers waiting to use a few available toilets, but also the children need to get infrequent permission from their boss to even use the bathroom. Also, the boss who calls himself to once have been an army medic gives chemical shots to make the children work for longer without falling asleep. To mention more, these children rarely get one or two days of break per month, work 16 hours a day, and are always exposed to unhealthy dust. It is clear from these details that the bosses abused the child labor system and forced the children to work in harsh conditions that sometimes even led to death (like the girl who died from tuberculosis). Basing on these facts, it is understandable to the audience that the labor unions were desperately needed for these workers in order to improve their working conditions.
Another significant element of “A Single Spark” is the influence of overtaking background score. At the very beginning of the movie, we see protesters demonstrating at the military dictatorship. During this scene, it is impressive how the score melody progressively takes over the film’s overall sound, as the protesters’ noises gradually diminish. The sad melody of the score seems to highlight the extreme emotions reached by the passionate protesters, who are finally tired of oppressive tyranny. Likewise, at the climactic scene where Jeon Tae-il sets himself on fire and runs out to the street, similar effect can be seen. At first, you hear some people’s scream and noises as they watch burning Jeon-Tae-il, but similar gloomy score as before gradually takes over, and at the end all other sounds are muted except for the background score. Here again, Park Kwang-su is trying to accentuate the sad moment Jeon Tae-il is burning to death, and at the same time point out the importance of labor laws to the desperate laborers during the time – namely Jeon Tae-il, who has directly seen the cruelty of factory bosses and the death of a factory girl who caught tuberculosis.
The movie “A Single Spark” addresses the accusation of deteriorated environment of the labor under the dictatorship of that era through the frustrated young man, Tae-Il Jun. The Yong-Su sided story is in colored, but the story of Jun Tae Il filmed in black and white which resembles the noir film in the past. Both of the stories progress back and forth as a flashback of memorizing Jun Tae Il. Although two stories filmed in different ways, they share one thing. Overall, the camera director exaggerates the contradiction of light and darkness. Yong-Su walks from the lighted Pyung-Hwa market street to the darkness of the building of factory. He keeps crossing from light to the dark freely. Additionally, He uses to hide himself in the darkness greatly. He always keeps escaping from the chasing policeman and lives in the basement which does not have any light. However, the desk lamp where he writes about Tae-Il Jun, significance the hope which directs him and people to brightened future. Also, it emphasizes that Yong-Su strongly believes that there would be more democratic occurs throughout people who read the book of Jun Tae-Il as he published. Moreover, when Tae-Il turns on the desk lamp as his family sleep, the contradiction of light and darkness helps me to focus on his facial expression which depicts his determined attitude before his burning himself to death on the next day. The exaggerated contradictions of light and darkness in the factory and the place where Yong-Su hidden show the irrationality of the society in that era which many people denounced at it. Personally, the last few minutes of the films impressed me because of the two scenes. First one is the scene of Jun Tae Il’s burning himself to death. His facial expression and action image me how he outcries even without his actual screaming sound of its. Also, the scene steadily changes to the color version which seems like that denouncing at the irrational reality occurs on and on until nowadays. Also, a scene that Jun Tae-Il holds the book of his life whom Yong-Su finds at the street of where Jun Tae-Il died, tells me that Yong-Su’s intention of producing the young people as post of Jun Tae Il progresses steadily in successful.
A Single Spark was an interesting movie that I would have enjoyed more if I had not been confused at first. The first few scenes were like series of jump shots (the protest, the lighter, and then the guy at the desk) that had me questioning how exactly the main focal point of the movie was going to be presented. Especially with the opening scene in the middle of the protest, I felt as though the audience was immediately engulfed into a climax point of the film as the dramatic music played on. Even after the explanation that Yong-su gave, I felt that Tae-Il’s story line could have gone further in depth as well as Yong-su’s. Such as when Tae-Il was on the mountain side chiseling away, the lack of dialogue and the amount of time that flew by held more questions than answers to why he was there in the first place or even returning back to the sweat shop at all. I can only assume that this was the point that he realized that he would have to sacrifice himself for the other workers and any type of positive change in their industry? As for the layout of the film, the shadows and lighting played a large role in how the characters were presented throughout the movie. We often saw Yong-su intentionally placed within the shadows of the rooms to further express his current state of hiding from the government. Even in the first clip that he was introduced in, we see his body engulfed by the darkness that could symbolize all the trouble and problems he’s trying to avoid. Only the single light coming from his desk shines as though the completion of this book is his only means of escape and the hope that is inspiring him to continue.
In A Single Spark, director Park Kwang Su tells the story of Jeon Tae Il, a tailor who fought for better working conditions who eventually burned himself to death as a final act of protest against unenforced labor laws, and the action his sacrifice inspired. Park tells this story through two different timelines that switch constantly throughout the film. Jeon Tae Il's timeline is primarily in black and white, while the protagonist, Kim Yong Su, who's writing a book about Jeon Tae Il's activism, is in color. There were three scenes in which Tae Il's timeline were in color, which I feel signify very important parts of the film. The first scene was a sort of dream sequence almost, in which Yong Su sees Tae Il in front of him and it leads into a outdoor path. This scene is shot with a handheld camera as opposed to the frequent static long shots presumably taken on a camera on some sort of tripod, and this handheld camerawork with the slight shaking makes it feel almost as though the audience were looking at Tae Il walk into the distance through Yong Su's eyes/perspective. The dreamlike quality is emphasized in the scene when Tae Il digs what seems like a grave for himself and lies down with the narration talking about how he's waking up now from a dream and going back to the city to fight against injustice in the factories.
The second scene is the one in which Tae Il lights himself on fire as his last protest. It's the only scene in which there is no interaction with Yong Su, but it's still in color. The slow motion camerawork as well as the close up shots all come together to emphasize the significance of Tae Il's actions. Most of the film is cast under a lot of shadows, and a large portion is in black and white, despite the timelines between color and black and white are only 5 years apart. The black and white kind of signifies a period in the film as well as historically, where hopes for better working conditions is bleak. These protests take place during Park Chunghee's authoritarian regime, and the black and white emphasizes a kind of dark outlook, like if you were to try to protest you would just be crushed under the weight of the government. Because this scene is in color, it signifies a new hope that this sacrifice would push for more action and real changes to occur. The fact that Yong Su's timeline is shot all in color also signifies that the hope that Tae Il's sacrifice sparked was going strong and his actions were not done in vain.
The third scene, which is also the closing scene of the film, consists of Yong Su going back to the market area in which Tae Il burned himself, and seeing someone holding the biographical book he wrote about Tae Il. The close up shot of the man holding Yong Su's book cuts to a long shot of the man from behind, who then turns and is revealed to be Tae Il. Although this didn't actually happen considering it takes place 5 years after Tae Il's death, it ties up the film very well as though it's Tae Il's final message to Yong Su, who spent much time hiding from authority and writing the biography. It's like Tae Il's thank you to Yong Su for not letting people forget his death and what he was fighting for up until the end. Ending the film with Tae Il holding the book about his activism starkly contrasts the last scene in which he was holding a book in the market square. While the earlier scene represented a drastic sacrifice made out of desperation for change, the final color scene is almost peaceful in its composition, which makes me think of it as Tae Il gaining some sort of closure in the afterlife. While the struggle for workers' rights is still very real, and there are still many obstacles to overcome, Yong Su's book is a huge step forward in the movement.
While I managed to read the powerful message about rebellion and reform in the 70s of Korea in A Single Spark, I still thought that the movie was a bit slow, even more so than Sopyonje. It may just be my personal taste or my particular mood today, but I felt that that the movie had more potential than what was shown today on screen. I am reading review and review of praise for the movie, so I'm getting the feeling that I may be missing something, but my opinion remains nevertheless that such a compelling story deserved a movie with a little more bang. Or perhaps it is the overall composure and reservedness throughout the movie that offset the immolation of Tae-il that had such an impact on audiences. I can't be sure, but for be a sense of urgency was lacking in the movie. Generally that urgency pushes a story forward. I felt that the melodrama of the film, while it did help audiences emotionally attach themselves to the characters, was overdone (which according to Abelmann is not something characteristic of Korean). I did however appreciate the obvious and almost oversimplified method the director chose to distinguish between the story of Young-soo and Tae-il. In the first few minutes of the movie I was confused as to why the director would choose to make such a decision. It seemed irrelevant at first. But as the story unfolds we see that the change from color to black and white and back signifies changing times, changing stories, even changing attitudes. I'm sure it's not one of the most advanced techniques seen in the movie-making business, but the consistency of having scenes change colors to mark a change from Young-soo to Tae-il was refreshing compared to the confusing scene changes seen in movies such as Epitaph.
In the movie "A Single Spark," I thought the camera work was very nice. There were several far shots in this movie that showed the scenery while characters were moving about, such as the beginning shot that showed the masses of people in the demonstration. I also thought there were many long takes, such as the one near the beginning of Jeon Tae Il lighting the lighter and burning the book. A scene that stood out to me was one in which Kim Yong-su was just walking down an alleyway in his neighborhood. Although nothing significant happens in this scene at all, it stuck out to me because the colors in the scene made it look more like a beautiful painting than real buildings in a movie. This is completely insignificant in the movie, but it stood out to me nonetheless. I liked how the shift between the present, color world, and the past, black and white world, became more and more abrupt, especially when they started to flow together, such as when Yong-su was in the factory and turned for us to see Tae Il. The scene follows Tae Il to a dirt path (in color), until he turns around and then the screen goes back to black and white. I thought this was a very smooth and interesting transition, as it shows both Yong-su's perspective as he is researching about Tae Il's life, as well as Tae Il's perspective when he left the factory life to work in the mountains. This smooth transition also occurs when Tae Il and the factory boys are meeting in the factory basement and then someone knocks on the door. When they turn towards the door, it goes back to color into Yong-su's world. I thought these transitions were done smoothly and nicely. Another thing I noticed in this film was the music. Oftentimes during the demonstration scenes, the chanting and chattering of the people would gradually fade out to the music, which was generally sad sounding. I thought this was a nice way to show these scenes because the actual sounds of the people at the demonstration aren't needed here. Instead, the somber music is enough to show us the mood of the moment.
A Single Spark is a highly emotional and provoking film that is prevalent in South Korea's troubled modern history. After the military dictatorships were cast down and real democracy was put in place, the controversial events could finally be portrayed and shown nationally. The film deals with terrible conditions workers faced, criticism of the military-run government, and the sacrifice of one man for a cause he believed in and died for. The film's cinematography uses color for Yong-Su, while black and white is used for Tae-Il. The transition between the two in the latter half of the film is very seamless and casts a special effect on the two characters' perspectives. Although the film was very thought-provoking and influential towards me, at times the pace could be incredibly slow, and involved some extreme long takes that reminded me of Sopyonje. I enjoyed the film and learning about a period of time in South Korea I did not really know about, and as we can see today, Tae-Il's sacrifice wasn't in vain.
A very unique feature, which I found interesting in this film, is the director’s use of both black and white and colour shots within the film to separate the two stories and at the same time bring out how the two stories are related. This kind of cinematography that the director, Park Kwang-Su, used introduced the audience to Jeon Tae-Il’s life biography as a labour activist. The film did not proceed like other standard biographical documentary way but was made known to the audience through the eyes of Kim Yong-Su, who is a writer writing Jeon Tae-Il’s biography. In a way, Kim Yong-Su and his wife seem to be following in Jeon Tae-Il’s footsteps as Kim Yong-Su’s wife is also organizing a union in the factory that she works at to fight for labour rights. I personally felt that the misc-en-scene of the garment factory in Jeon Tae-Il’s time that was portrayed was very vivid and really emphasized the cramped and bad working conditions of the garment factory. There was a certain level of attention given to all these details to successfully bring out the audience’s sympathy for these workers and to evoke in the audience the sense of wanting to fight together with Jeon Tae-Il.
By juxtaposing the lives of Jeon Tae-Il and Kim Yong-Su using constant switches between the coloured and black and white shots, it has also emphasized that nothing has changed in the five years after Jeon Tae-Il committed suicide as an extreme act of protest. Another distinct feature of the film was the use of long shots during scenes that include empty streets. It somehow signified the never-ending or long route to be taken in order to fight for labour rights. In these long shots, the streets also seemed to be still, which also reflected the state that nothing has changed after five years and factory workers are still being exploited and repressed. The shot where Jeon Tae-Il lit himself on fire was also very vivid, especially since it was a very painful way of ending one’s life. Generally, I felt that this film was effective in depicting the lives of the garment factory workers during the 1960s and showing the kinds of sufferings and repression that they had to go through.
The film, A Single Spark, helped to reflect how the labors in the past have been treated unfairly. It revolved around two men who exist in different time period. The director make it even more interesting by filming Kim Yong Su, a person who is risked his life to write a bibliography for Jeon Taeli. Jeon Taeli, a labor activist and a brave man, who risk himself to obtain the rights for workers and protest against the long hours and terrible working conditions of factories. In order to differentiate with the past and the present and to attract the attention of the audience into the both the lives of Kim Yong Su and Jeon Taeli, the director makes use of black and white filter screen to depict the character, Jeon Taeli in the past and colored screen to depict the present, Kim Yong Su. The screen of the past appears to be more blurring as compared to the screen of the present which help the audience to quickly understand whether the story is showing about the past or present.
At the beginning of the movie, the director showed Jeon Taeli burning a book with lighter and extreme long scenes with a heat up atmosphere of people holding big signs protesting and rioting. The director also makes use of extreme long shots of streets which help to depict a long and tedious process of what Kim Yong Su and Jeon Taeli are facing. The most memorable scene of the movie would probably be the scene where Jeon Taeli burn himself with fire and walked along the streets to sarcrifise himself and stand strongly against the unfair working conditions for the factories labors. The director filmed a close up scene of Jeon Taeli’s face in the fire to show the desire of Jeon Taeli in wanting to gain the rightful labor conditions for the people.
A Single Spark, a 1995 film by director Park Kwang-Su, is about a labor activist name Jeon Tae-il who starts a movement to abolish the harsh conditions of laborers. Based on a true story, the film goes back in history when Jeon Tae-il was lobbying for labor movements, and also moves back to the present time when a biographer named Kim Youngsoo is writing a biography about him. The film is paced very slowly, which was very tedious to watch; however, after seeing the film, I was emotionally touched with the Jeon Tae-il figure; its touching how a 22 year old tried everything to abolish the harsh conditions of labor and how he had to use self-immolation in the end. I think to truly appreciate this film, one must understand the history and period of Park Chung-Hee’s presidency. Additionally, this film contains many traits from the older generation such as a greater sense of hierarchy between the younger and older people and also a greater extent of socioeconomic discrimination. Aside from the story, director Park Kwang-Su does an excellent job in his camera works.
To present audiences with the back and forth periods, Park Kwang-Su uses both color and black-and-white scenes throughout the film. When color scenes are shown, it represents the time period when Kim Youngsoo is trying to write a biography of Jeon Tae-il. And in contrast, the black-and-white scenes represents the time period of Jeon Tae-il. Furthermore, Park Kwang-Su uses this theme to emphasize the similarities between Jeon Tae-il and Kim Youngsoo as they are both labor activists. The director uses mostly dark scenes; I think he wanted to express the sort of “depression” laborers had faced during that time. High-angle shots are also used numerous times throughout the film; there is a scene where Youngsoo and his wife is walking and as they walk the camera is getting higher and eventually above the subjects. One scene that is most recalling to me is the scene at the beach where the boys and girls who work at the tailoring factory goes swimming; here the director uses a long take as they start dancing and singing and until they go running naked to swim. Another camera technique worth mentioning is panning; one scene where panning is used is in the tailoring factory where the camera pans 360 degrees. Although there are no truly impressive scene like some other films, A Single Spark contains many of the basic and various diverse techniques of camera works.
Although the content of A Single Spark was interesting, I feel that it did not communicate the story of Jeon Tae-il as well as it could have. After watching the film, I’m assuming that it was based on a true story. The incorporation of what looked to be actual protests in the opening of the film as well as other setting informative details like the Vietnam war talk on the radio helped express the reality of the film. As someone who doesn’t know much about Korean history, I wish it had functioned less as a historical account and instead drawn more from the perspective of Jeon Tae-il. It seemed to give a very factual account of what happened, but I wanted to know more about their personal thoughts—Jeon Tae-il, in particular.
The dual storyline of Jeon Tae-il and Kim Yong-su was an interesting approach to illustrate the life of Jeon Tae-il. However, if Park Kwang-su’s objective was to tell the story of Jeon Tae-il, I don’t think the use of two stories is beneficial. I see how Kim Yong-su’s narrative coincided with Jeon Tae-il’s story because of the protests going on and the girls wanting to start a union, but I think it made the film unnecessarily complicated and confusing. There were so many aspects of it that were left unanswered at the end of the film, too. What happened to the pregnant girlfriend? What happened to their hopes to create a union? But then again, that might be the point—that the battle like the battle Jeon Tae-il went through was still happening.
A Single Spark is based on the life of young Jeon Taeil, who committed suicide by self-immolation on the main road in front of Pyounghwa Market, calling for compliance with labor laws. Jeon Taeil is a symbol for Korean’s labor movement and the film focuses Jeon’s heroic struggle and political activism to the anguish and despair experienced by the innocent and compassionate youth. The background of the film, in 1975, was fully dismal and depressed by the despotic government lead by Park Jung-hee. Outwardly, Korea was democratic state where the changes occur rapidly. Even the film signifies the present social issue which is unended to this day. After the suicide of Jeon Taeil, serious and huge labor movement started to flow. By mediating the story through the view of an intellectual named Kim Youngsoo, the film makes the audience to consider Jeon Taeil’s conflicts and deliberation from a self-reflexive distance. So, the audience could re-evaluate Jeon’s life and death as a contemporary issue. Personally, the impressive quote of the film Single Spark was ‘We are not a machine.’ which convey human deserve to live like a human not like a machine. As watching the film, I could feel Jeon Taeil’s eager about the definition of law which loses the ability to stand beside of powerless people. Owing to Jeon’s sacrifices, labor law slowly changed and process to set the regular regulation, Korea is still struggling with the irrationality. And film offers to the other generation to actively move to achieve the perfect victory toward the society’s irrationality like Jeon Taeil did.
“A Single Spark” directed by Park Kwang-su tells the story of Jeon Tae-il, a worker at a clothing factory who was a part of the labor movement, through the use of his character Kim Yong-su. As Kim Yong-su writes about Jeon Tae-il’s impact on the labor movement so that his efforts are not forgotten, Director Park effectively intertwines the present and past of Kim Yong-su and Jeon Tae-il through the use of shifting from colored scenes to black-and-white scenes. As the film goes on, the transition between the past and the present is completely seamed together as shown in scenes when Kim Yong-su is looking along the hallway of the clothing factory and it naturally shifts into Jeon Tae-il’s view of that same factory. By shifting through these past and present scenes, I felt that the director effectively showed how the conditions of the working place were still not completely changed and how people were still needed to fight for better conditions.
The scenes that most popped out to me were the scenes that the director purposely made color even though Jeon Tae-il was shown. The first one that I noticed was when Kim Yong-su turns around in his new living quarters and sees Jeon Tae-il, and the camera follows Jeon Tae-il as he walks outside and there is a still shot in which the audience sees Jeon Tae-il continue to walk into the background as if it is still in Kim Yong-su's perspective and the scene is still in color. This made me think that not only are we walking alongside Jeon Tae-il, but Kim Yong-su is also walking along Jeon Tae-il’s life as he writes his book. Another scene that I noticed that was in color in the past was when Jeon Tae-il, in his final act of protest, burns himself alive. That scene was so impactful with the use of slow-motion, and close-up on Jeon Tae-il’s face to show his expression of defiance, of perseverance, of why he’s willing to die for this cause. The fire surrounding him had very bright colors that accentuated this meaning, to show that his hope that the labor movement would continue and that his efforts were not useless.The shift to Kim yong-su in the middle of this scene made me think that Kim Yong-su is one of those people who is making sure that Jeon Tae-il's efforts are not forgotten and useless. The final scene that really got to me, which I’m sure many noticed, was at the end, when there is a young man holding onto the book that Kim Yong-su was able to finish, but when the man turns around, we see that it is Jeon Tae-il. I wasn’t sure what exactly the director was going for by putting this scene in, but it wrapped up a sense of closure in me as an audience member knowing that Kim Yong-su succeeded, and that by “seeing” Jeon Tae-il in person, it’s inadvertently telling us that Jeon Tae-il is grateful, that his efforts have not been forgotten, and that there is a sense of mutual understanding between the two men who in their own way fought for the sake of better labor conditions.
Park Kwang-Su’s A Single Spark plays with the film’s color aesthetic as a device to separate time and space, but also to mend the pieces together in the end. The movie starts off with a long take of workers protesting and advocating for their rights. This scene is shot in a normal color aesthetic, as the picture is of what would be seen through a normal human eye. After the first scene, the viewer is brought later into a scene of Tae-il Tae-il selling umbrellas. This scene is shot in black and white. In addition, the scene is shot from a downward tilted angle, so that the viewer is looking at Tae-il from an aerial viewer. Hence, the viewer is brought into the world of the past, of Tae-il. The black and white monochromatic film further enhances the nostalgia of the past. In contrast, another scene in normal color depicts a similar situation of when Kim Yong-Su buys an umbrella for a guard from a little boy. The different color schemes help to differentiate the time period of the two scenes. The scene also helps to suggest that Tae-il’s sacrifice was worth something as the little boy selling umbrellas in the present is treated nicely by Yong-Su, whereas Tae-il was treated badly by the woman he sold an umbrella to. Lastly, the last scene suggests that Tae-il’s sacrifice was ultimately worth it. In a slow-motion clip, Tae-il finally is brought to the present day as he is pictured in color. The flames that encase his body are a vibrant red, and the viewer can see the color of his clothes and skin. Tae-il almost resembles a Phoenix bird. A Phoenix bird symbolizes something that can be cyclically reborn and regenerated. In a way, because Tae-il sacrifices himself, he immortalizes himself because he makes an impact on the civil rights of workers. Furthermore, this idea is seen in the scene where Tae-il and Yong-su are both in the same spot on a bus. The color aesthetic is different, but the previous scene where the color is the same conveys that the sacrifice Tae-il made can protrude to the present.
In the film "A Single Spark," the story of Tae-il Jeon and the one of the author who is writing a biography of Tae Il are incorporated together. The two different characters are from two different time periods, yet sharing some similarities. First of all, they are both sympathetic and humanitarian. Tae Il, from the beginning of his work at PyeongYang market, feels so sorry for the children and coworkers who suffer from the horrible working conditions at the factory. He volunteers to help with work that he was not assigned to for those workers who are sick and tries to take care of other young workers like his brothers and sisters. Similarly, Young Su also is a benign person who wants to help those who are weak. This is illustrated in the scene where he buys an umbrella from a young boy in the street to give it to a policeman who is standing in rain. In fact, the umbrella functions as an object that connects Young Su to Tae Il, as that was what he was selling in the beginning of the film. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Tae Il and Young Su both believe in their responsibility to take an action for a good cause. Tae Il is able to find another job after he gets fired from the company. However, he feels in his heart the need to return to the factory and to stand for those suffering workers against the companies. This is the primary purpose of his ultimate action to burn himself in public. In parallel, Young Su is determined to write Tae Il's life story and publish it despite of his unstable, unfavorable living circumstances. He is not even able to see his lover. Nevertheless, he still wants other Koreans to hear and recognize the sacrifice of such a brave, benevolent young man, and he continues with his research and writing about Tae Il. In the end, after the biography gets published, the ending scene shows Tae Il holding Young Su's book to convey the close relationship and the connection they have. Filming technique wise, the director utilizes the color to distinguish each story of different generations: the old one in gray and the more current one in color. Furthermore, there are many shots that were screened from the view of the characters. This is for the purpose of inviting the audience to the scene and to help engage them better with the setting and the situation.
In the film, Single Spark, by Park Kwang Su, the main setting is shown through demonstration shot of opening scene. The demonstration in this particular scene somewhat resembles that of Jun Tae Il, the protagonist. The film mainly focused on how Jun Tae Il tried to help the labors who are in harsh conditions by giving up everything he has. The director Park, Kwang Su tries to tell the Jun’s story by having an author follow Jun’s past. The audience can see that even though Jun killed himself to improve labor conditions, people still go on strike and demonstrations against government’s law. The suicide of Jun is foreshadowed by the scene where Jun digs a hole at the imprisonment mine pit and lies in it. As the narration of the film reads, “… it was very dark time and there seems to be no hope…”, the film itself was represented in very dark mood.
The effects of the scenes shifted to black and white when it was showing the past which is story of Jun Tae Il. When the author, who is wanted by the police authority, goes into a room to talk to his acquaintance, a tracking was used to shoot the shot. This particular scene looked as if the camera itself was a point of view of another person peeking through the window. I liked this technique very much because it shows emotional state of the author very well since he is wanted by the police, there could be many eyes on him. I notice that that not many scenes are angled straight either horizontally or vertically. It seems like this was intentionally used to show disorientation of such time.
The movie A Single Spark was a revealing film that unveiled tragic sufferings of the common people during the “glorified” period of high economic growth of Korea. The audience must understand the historical background of the story’s setting to fully appreciate the movie. After the Korean War, South Korea was categorized as a “hopeless” country by the world. However, South Korea proved the world wrong with its unprecedented high economic growth. Under Park Chung-hee, South Korea developed rapidly and showed the world “the Miracle on the Han River.” His administration was all about fast growth and radical change--later evidenced by the Yushin Constitution. While chaebols, conglomerates, and the riches enjoyed the years of high growth, the poor and the common people of Korea suffered working in a society that cared nothing but results. The movie brings the story of the common workers, the backbones, of Korean economy to the surface. The factory workers who bared horrible working conditions were the true engines behind the Korea’s economic growth. Activists like Jeon Tae-il that fought for the rights of the workers were the true heroes. This movie was interesting as it illustrated the story of these “forgotten” heroes of the Korea’s economic success.
Through research, I found out that character Jeon Tae-il was a real person who fought for workers’ rights. It made me appreciate the movie more. Although the story of the movie was interesting, the movie’s choices in using the black and white screen to portray the story of Jeon Tae-il and providing a little evidence to the audience to believe his strong motivation for burning himself were disappointing. Of course, the black and white screen made it easy for the audience to distinguish between the past and the present, but it also created a distance between the audience and Jeon Tae-il’s story. His story was not a long ago; it is a story of Korea’s workers and the problems that many of our parents’ generation dealt with. The black and white screen created sensation that his story was something of the long past when the event was relevant to our parents’ generation. Furthermore, the movie did not have a strong buildup of suspensions and events that led Jeon Tae-il to burn himself. Perhaps, more scenes of his emotional stress and determination towards claiming the workers’ rights would have helped to persuade the audience of Jeon Tae-il’s inevitable choice and strong motivation for burning himself. However, the plights of factory workers were clearly shown in the movie highlighting the irony--the relationship between increased wealth of the nation and degradation of the factory workers from exploitation by the riches. Also, the society’s double standard-the riches were right and the poor were wrong-was evident when the corrupted Ministry of Labor continuously ignored the factory workers’ complain. In conclusion, the movie showed the struggles of factory workers who contributed greatly to the country’s economic growth and the workers’ rights behind the period of seemingly glamorous period of high economic growth.
The film A Single Spark, directed by Park Kwang-su, chronologizes the life of Jeon Tae-Il, who protested against the poor labor conditions through self-immolation. By narrating the tale through Kim Yong-su's view, the film engages the audience to consider Tae-Il's conflicted situation. With constant changes from black and white screens to color screens, the film successfully flashbacks Yong-su and Tae-Il's lives while focusing specifically on the portrayal of Tae-Il's work. In recounting his life, the theme shifts from political activism and heroic struggle to anguish and despair experienced by the youth in the 70s. From Yong-su's point of view, the audience can see this incident as a contemporary issue. The film examines modern Korean history through the biography of Jeon Tae-Il; however, unlike other boring biographical documentaries, the film explores through Kim's perspective, shifting from his past to his present days. The details of Tae-Il's life are shown piece by piece in an unconventional way. Also, the close shots of the book and the father's statement that the law should put all of those type of people [the boss] in jail foreshadow Tae-Il's future. After saying that the factory girl had a TB, but the boss didn't care, the camera focused on Tae-Il for a while to show that this "spark" led Tae-Il to do labor strikes.
The film, ‘A single spark’ vividly portrays the inhumane working conditions of garment factory workers during the Park Jung hee regime.
An interesting symbol in the film is the plant that ‘wakes up later than others’. Near the beginning, Jung-soon, whilst observing the plants, remarks that ‘the one in the end is like a person who drinks tea while everyone else drinks coffee; in spite of the equal conditions, it grows much slower’. In a sense, this alludes to the life of Jeon Tae-il, whose lonely journey to labor rights was severely oppressed by the callous, unconcerned government of the Park Jung-hee era. In his time, Jeon Tae-il received minimal support and had to find a way to promulgate the dire working conditions of Pyung-hwa market to the public who remained largely ignorant.
This serves to illustrate the main point of the film, Jeon Tae-il and his people were even left behind by those who were oppressed. In Park Jung-hee’s era the minjung movement started to take-off and the public were deeply concerned about extreme disparity between the rich and the poor. However, the film shows that the protests held by Jeon Tae-il clearly lacked support, with the number of participants meager at best. In a way, it can be said that Jeon Tae-il and his people were outsiders even to the group of the oppressed known as the minjung. He had no choice but to set himself on fire to attract the much-needed attention of the public.
It should be noted that the film utilizes extreme long shot to foretell Jeon Tae-il’s plight. For instance, extreme long shot is used when Jeon Tae-il, upon vowing to gain labor rights for the garment factory workers, makes his way back to the Pyung-hwa market. Like in the film Seo pyeon-jae, the shot displays Jeon Tae-il walking along the long, empty road implying the harsh and lonely road ahead.
In addition, there were scenes that clearly illustrated the fact that the working conditions of labors were pitifully low even after the death of Jeon Tae-il, that life is same as it ever was. An example of this is the juxtaposition made between Jeon Tae-il and the boy selling umbrella. Like Jeon Tae-il, the young boy is forced to streets trying to sell umbrella to make a living. More conspicuously, the transition from color to black and white illustrates the fact that changes have yet to take place. For example, near the beginning of the film (which is filmed in color) when Kim Young-soo goes to the garment factory, he sees that the people there still endure harsh work as well as poor working conditions. The next scene transits to the past (signaled by black and white) to make a point that the present is not so much different from the past; the working conditions were as unbearable as it was in the past.
Gwang-soo Park's movie, "A Single Spark" revealed the darkest era of Korean politics under Park Chung-hee's absolute control. This highly political movie enlightened me how controlled Koreans were and the society lacked humanity for better economy. Even though I have learned and read a lot about the Miracle of Han, and how people suffered to achieve the glorifying Korea, the movie gave me a shock to realise Korea was indeed rise from corruption and hopeless monarchy. The child labor, uneducated civilians, ruthless upper class and powerful political leaders: I was stunned that all of the components of third world country happened in Korea just couple of decades ago. However, the movie also illustrates the brightness side of Korea: the youth of country. As the direct translation of Korean title says, 'Beautiful Young man, Jeon Tae-il,' the energetic young men and women throughout the movie lightened up the atmosphere and left room for hope. Students' demonstration and Samdong's protests against the unfair labor environment not only represent the fearless and proactive characteristics of social activists, but also persuade the audience to empathy the Tae-il's crew. Eventually, those events maximises audience's sympathetic emotions toward Tae-il when he lit fire on him to abolish labor abuse.
The seamless transition of time when the perspective changes from Young-soo to Tae-il connects their life. Both characters suffer under the absolute control of government and actively look for rebellion. As Young-soo learns more about Tae-il's life through Tae-il's mother, his situation also get worsen and his inner conflict deepened. He has to hide from the government and tries to protect Jung-sun and his child. As Tae-il's story meets obstacles, Young-soo goes through moments of getting caught or Jung-sun gets endangered. The parallel of these two characters compose tensed feeling throughout the movie and explored when Tae-il set on fire and the next scene, Tae-il walking with Young-soo's book about him. The story does not end with their win or manifesto of both characters; however, the connection becomes more clear when Tae-il appears with Young-soo's book. The movie perhaps wanted to celebrate to all the brave people who fought for human's right during the horribly oppressed time.
A Single Spark is about the life of labor protestor Tae-il during the repressive regime of Park Chung Hee. The film is characterized by the many track shots of the fire. This fire represents the sacrifice of Tae-il who committed self-immolation in protest of the harsh working conditions of factory workers. I believe Tae-il used fired because fire is something that captures people’s attention. After being ignored due to his low status, setting himself on fire was the only way he would be able to get people to listen to his words and struggles. A particularly striking image during the film was when Tae-il dug a hole in the ground and laid in it. It looked like he was building his own grave and laying down in it signified his acceptance of his impending death. That’s when I knew that his death towards the end of the film was imminent. It was somewhat similar to a scene in Christmas in August when Jung won takes a picture of himself showing that he was accepting his imminent death towards the end of the film.
The film also had many flashbacks to the past in black and white showing Tae-il’s life. Although the event took place five years from the start of the movie, the use of black and white was suppose to represent different times and older ideals. However, as you view the events in the movie even with Tae-il’s sacrifice you realize that not much changed in terms of worker’s conditions. The workers are still struggling to build a union to build better worker’s conditions and still face police brutality and suppression from the chaebol. I would go as far as saying that this not only represents Korea’s problem as an emerging industrialized nation but all the fast growing industrialized nations in present day who face inhumane working conditions to fuel the nation’s economy and line the pocketbooks of rich business men who view them as replaceable working machine rather than respectable humans.
In "A Single Spark", two different men’ life stories are portrayed throughout the film: one real historical figure and one fictional. The fictional charater, Kim Yong-su is writing a biographical book about this historical figure, Jeon Tae-il, who fights against the unfair treatment of labor. Kim Yong-su is wanted by police since he has been in the student demonstration before. Therefore, he finds a sense of kinship from Jeon and he wants to find the reason of his existence throughout discovering and writing about this heroic figure who burns himself to express his will of changing the unfair labor system. The scenes alternate continuously between Jeon’s and Kim’s life so the flashback and the current; those scenes are differentiated by alternation of black& white and the colored screen. Most of the time when Jeon appears in the screen, it is black and white since it is kind of past of the time. However, if Jeon is illusioned by Kim’s thought then it is still colored. For example, the ending scene of the film where Kim sees a guy on the street carrying his book and turns back, Jeon’s face appears but the screen is still in color. The distinction of camera method is very affective since it makes readers easier to see which is which.
I personally did not really like too frequent alternation of two men’s lives since it made some confusions and made me think that they exists at the same time or telling a whole different stories at the same time. I feel like transition is not very smooth but rather too abrupt. Also, it would be more impressive if the scene where Jeon burns himself is more elaborated. I feel like it happened too suddenly and shortly that I wasn’t that emotionally provoked to that scene even though that was the climax of the story. Except those parts, this movie is very well made especially considering that this was made in 1995.
A single spark directed by Gwan-su Park in 1995. This film have two stories of intercuts, one in black and white, one in color. It is biographical film about Tae-il Jeon protested labor conditions and he committed suicide by self-immolation on the front of PyungHwa Market. He tries to demonstrate and change the distorted labor law. He buys a law book that shows the expectation that Jeon Tae-il tries to have labor movement. He effort to change bad labor conditions; tries to find government help, make a association, and talks to reports to notice this problems to the people. Kim Yong-su, who is an intellectual hiding person from Park Chung Hee’s repressive regime. He and his pregnant girl friend Shin jung-sun, in1975, try to write on the book about Jeon Tae il’s life story as a labor movement. I think this film tries to remind people the process of revised the labor law. Audience could feel that the labors, in 1970, experiences miserable labor conditions and it needs one’s scarification for changing this terrible situation. This movie is the first use of digital sounds and shows the story with flashback that audience would know the historical facts.
Single Spark depicts lives of two men who are resisting against the large current. They both protest against the factory owners and the government for the sake of the workers' rights and humanitarian working conditions. However, their journey constantly meets harsh obstacles and failures, as they are the members of the minority who are cast away from the society.
The cameras of the Single Spark reflects how the characters are powerless individuals who are just part of the surrounding environment. In many of the scenes, the camera doesn't follow the characters. Rather, the characters need to either walk in to the frame or adjust their position to properly show their faces.
Many of the times, when the important character is speaking, the audience can't see the speaker's face right away when he or she is speaking. While the viewers can hear the speaker's voice, the character often either steps in into the frame few seconds late or talks while he or she is facing away from the camera. Sometimes, while the character speaks, the camera doesn't even include the character into the shot. Rather, it shows certain objects, such as a book or TV, from the character's surrounding environment. The character needs to step into the frame to fit itself into the screen to be shown. Furthermore, the movie choses to show certain events in long shots, engulfing the figure within the environment as part of the background. When the female activist was being harassed in front of her house, the scene is shown in long shot from the bottom of the hill. From that point of view, the viewer can't even see the characters' faces as the street is too dark to see anything other than silhouettes.
The fact that the characters need to work themselves into the frame of the inconsiderate camera, reflects the conditions of the two main characters who need to actively work against the inconsiderate factories and the government.
One of two things that I found interesting in Single Spark was firstly, the non-diegetic sound of what seemed to be a heartbeat, right in the beginning of the film. Remembering what was said about the importance of the very first scene, I tried to think of what the sound might mean. We hear it before we see anything. It might be preempting the sound of the drums of the protesters in the first scene to bring attention to its’ importance. I would like to think that it is the sound of the Tae Il’s heart to see justice for the factory workers and his life which is the subject of this film.
The other thing of interest to me was the use of hard lighting and strong shadows in this film. One time we see Mr. Kim at the factory a high angle shot is used from above a staircase and looks at him but the he is against the backlight and is portrayed as a black silhouette. After that we see him in the factory listening in on the girls behind a wall and slowly moving into the shadow out of the camera’s eye. It puts him in very mysterious light, that he is a figure who is seen and yet not. He is also always in the dark. To the authorities he is a shadow, the never lay their hands on him.
The obvious use between color and black and white in this film helped show which story was being talked about; I thought this was a clever way to not only know what story was being focused on, but the differences as well as similarities between the two stories. Although the two stories are only five years apart, a lot was different yet related. Some working conditions in the present seemed to improved compared to the Pyonghwa factory in Jung TaeIl's time. Yet, the "present" story still consisted of problems JungTaeIl was fighting for. Unions were still discouraged and authority was a threat and unhelpful for the general public, especially factory workers. While the use of color and black and white was supposed to give different stories, the parts when Taeil appeared in the present and when the stories built off one another and when Taeil -on-fire was in color represented the ironic overlapping between the past and present. This quality represents that nothing really progressed after Taeil's sacrifice—while his story was almost forgotten--and the Korean society was still in shambles.
A scene that stook out to me the most was when Taeil dug a coffin in the rain and just laid inside of it—this illustrates the dehumanization present in all the characters of the stories. Throughout the whole story, no character was "alive." The two lovers in the present story are not allowed to freely love each other; they technically do not even "exist" because they were not recorded in the Korean census. The labor workers obviously did not sleep, eat, nor go to the bathroom like healthy and normal people do. They are injected with mysterious medicine that make them blind and inable to function properly; the workers were dehumanized as soon as they started working in the factories. Taeil in the coffin shows that none of them are treated like humans anymore; their souls are gone and only their bodies are left to suffer in cruel reality.
Daniel Rhee A Single Spark When experiencing anything in black and white, I automatically think of the past. Especially being a child of a generation that celebrates high quality in color, it is hard to witness anything in black and white. In Park Kwang-Suk's A Single Spark, the film constantly flashes back between the present and past. The present, portrayed in color, is about the life of a political activist named Kim Yong-Su who is trying to help his lover win against an oppressive garment factory company. Similar to Yong-Su, the past is portrayed in black and white with Jeon Tae-Il as the main character who is also trying to fight against an oppressive garment factory. While watching the film, I was never sure on whether or not the flashbacks to Jeon Tae-Il's life were being narrated through Yong-Su's book or if there were just two parallel stories being told. Even when the movie ended, I was still unsure on what point of view that story was being told in. All together, I was a little confused as to what the point of the film was. I understood that this piece was made to bring light to the horrible working conditions of factories during Park Chung Hee's military regime, but I was unable to piece together what the significance of the storyline was. More than a "movie", it felt as if I was watching a dramatic interpretation of a documentary. The two stories in the film were very similar but one thing that was different was that Yong-Su was trying to help his lover's quarrel with her factory by publicizing Tae-Il's past attempt to bring better working conditions to garment factory he worked at. With that said, I felt like the movie could have been paced better. At times, I felt like some background music would put more emotion because the film was too dry for my taste. With such little music and a slow pace, I never felt attached to the movie because even though the situation of the story is horrible, I never personally experienced it, which ultimately made me indifferent to the film. If there was more exigency to the situation and more fast paced scenarios, I would have potentially felt more attached to the film.
We all know that the current president of Korea, Park Geun Hye, is the daughter of the nation’s former ‘dictator’ Park Chung Hee. Her determination was highlighted from the very beginning due to this aspect and the fact that she was going to become the first female president of South Korea. I don’t really know much about Korean politics, but the movie certainly made me wonder how people could be accepting of her presidency. From a naïve American student’s perspective, it seems absurd to consider electing the daughter of a man who once focused solely on building a foundation of economic development through industrialization and neglected people’s rights to democracy. By stating this, I am not trying to come off as offensive to anyone reading this response. However because A Single Spark had greatly portrayed the lives of those who encountered severe physical and mental damage through excessive labor, I could not but sympathize their situation.
On the other hand, I was able to make connections to another class I’m currently taking at Yonsei – Global Health & Sociological Perspectives. Among the various global health related topics discussed, the working conditions of the Maquiladora Women seemed rather similar to the factory environment depicted in the movie. The case study on the Mexican women indicated that “time spent in factories greatly affects workers’ health due to exposure to toxic substances, poor ventilation and lighting, hazardous equipment and ergonomic stress associated with repetitive assembly-line motions and body positions.” (Gambrill 1981) These features definitely seemed to resemble the conditions women face in the movie. The most extreme scene that illustrates this is when a girl diagnosed with tuberculosis coughs too much blood and eventually gets fired.
Often times, we are exposed to how little the difficulties of working class is paid attention to. Yet we only seem to associate with the problem when the discussion is raised. Once enough conversation and research is conducted, there isn't much approach towards actually solving the issue. Even with myself, as I am once again alluding to the topic of poor labor conditions, I am embarrassed to recognize my lack of effort in realistically helping out those underprivileged individuals. Simply put, I just wish there was an answer to all of this.
The movie "A Single Spark" makes use of film color in effective ways. Throughout the movie, Yong-Su is filmed in color, while Jeon-Tae-Il is filmed in black&white. These different portrayals of different protagonists hold visual significance as well as symbolic significance. The visual effect that B&W screen brings is a sense of reminiscence. This sense of reminiscence could only be established as colored screen coexists in the film. It further implies different time frames and their sequences. The symbolic value of the B&W screen is also significant. Due to its lack of colors, the B&W screen inevitably yields a dark atmosphere. Jeon-Tae-Il struggles as many other laborers. It could be called Dark Age if you will. Furthermore, it could also be viewed as lack of hope, which is emphasized in the movie. Jeon-Tae-Il is viewed through B&W screen and only after he burns himself with fire, the B&W screen fades away and turns into a colored screen. The burning of Jeon-Tae-Il gives colors to the film or hope to his fellow workers. The film features two different narrators who do not seem to share direct contact, at least to the extent the film features. Yong-Su is filmed in color and it is presumably after the death of Tae-Il. The tragic and ironic part, and maybe the message of the movie is that they both experience oppression. Even after they have hope, they are still oppressed. There seems to be no change in a way. Nonetheless, people are now willing to fight for their rights. Tae-Il was indeed a spark that led to a big fire. The movie features not only workers' labor condition, but also women's hardships. They specifically mention about a day off for a menstrual cycle and furthermore a woman pioneers in founding a labor union in her workplace. This gender struggle is illustrated along with the labor struggle. As Korea has been in a turmoil of changes in gender expectations, the gender struggle may be often illustrated in many Korean films. The film accommodates frequent use of close-up shots. When the interviewees appear on screen, they are all taken in close-up shots. In addition, Yong-Su and Tae-Il are very often viewed in close-up shots. These close-up shots function to convey emotions. I, however, personally found these close-up shots (especially featuring Yong-Su) emotionally plain and even apathetic for some scenes. Yong-Su rarely expresses his emotion fully enough. This might have been intended yet it personally came to me as dry scenes. The narrations in "A Single Spark" as a whole play an important role in establishing an atmosphere of the film. At first, the narration often sounds like a memoir. Near the end of the film, Tae-Il's voice takes over the narration, telling his determination to win the fight. Here the narration sounds very poetic. As the narration shifts in its tone, the film escalates in emotion and tension, which later explode and bring a catharsis as Tae-Il burns himself.
Before I watched the film, "A Single Spark," all I knew about Jeon Taeil was that he committed suicide. So I had negative image about him and never thought what made him to kill himself as a young age. However, while I was watching the movie, I felt sorry that my ignorance dishonored his sacrifice. I misunderstood that he committed suicide for his own good, but the truth is that he set himself on fire as a way of protest for all of the abused laborers. One of the reasons why we're learning history is not to make same mistakes or to be even single step better. However, what happened in 1970s is still repeated nowadays. The well educated people knew how the laborers were treated and it's not right, but they didn't speak out untill a single spark happened. Unfortunately, it's still happens in our current society. This movie made me to think, what if I were Jeon Taeil would I speak out and do something? Maybe I would be one of the young girls who has been abused and suffered from TB and think this is my reality. The movie "A Single Spark" was one of the most impressive movies and I enjoyed it.
Though a biopic, I was sometimes pulled out of the moment because at several instances I felt like I was watching propaganda, an experience I do not enjoy at all. (In fact, “until 1998 it was illegal for labor to involve itself in politics” (Cumings), so perhaps this movie was indeed intended as a form of pro-labor ‘propaganda’). This feeling first struck me during the scene in which Tae-Il tells his parents of the horrors he has recently witnessed at the factory, to which his father responds matter-of-factly: “these people should be in jail. It wouldn’t be like this if the law were enforced”. When Tae-Il’s mother recounts Tae-Ils generosity towards the girls to Kim Yong-Su, Park Chung-Hee/US criticism, likening Tae-Il to a religious martyr…these are just some of the other instances in which information or opinions felt like they were being fed to us. During such instances, various characters (often, not even visible) make statements, but instead of occurring during conversation where they could be refuted, the director chooses to present the anecdotes of suffering and censure of bureaucratic failure in monologues. As a result, we become talked to, instead of 3rd party viewers who may form their own opinion based on unfolding events. Such moments are effective in stirring pathos, but at the same time I bristle when it feels like the director is trying to tell me how to think and interpret events. I can surmise the message “the regime was terrible” without being expressly told so.
In contrast, convincing the audience of the corruption at the leadership level was much better and convincingly accomplished through allowing us to watch it. Rather than wholly blame the patriarchal order, in a rather egalitarian manner, both men and women in leadership are implicated in ignoring and mistreating the working class (e.g. the older (male) factory owners and the female city official both represent corrupt leaders). As a result, this movie becomes less about gender, and truly focuses the main theme around leadership and universal labor rights. Watching and hearing the campus become a quasi-battle field to me is a much more powerful way of convincing me that the regime was overly suppressive. Tinting many scenes in a blue hue or playing depressive music were for me much more effective in emotionally aligning myself with the workers, than have the director tell me I should. Also effective in tying the stories together, was the reoccurring blue umbrella because it evoked a certain sense of nostalgia and even irony that it young Tae-Il’s story should repeat with the little boy. For my personal reaction, these are the instances in which the movie was successful.
Christine Kim Honestly, I can't say this movie was my favorite out of all the movies we watched in class. However, I do really appreciate this movie as a whole very much. It is clear that the director put a lot of effort and detail in this movie. It came off to me that the movie isn't just for entertainment, but to state a clear message. This is a movie with purpose.
A general theme I received from this movie is that "effort is not wasted". If you see now, work conditions have proved drastically. It all starts with one spark to ignite a forest fire movement. Every effort makes the fire grow bigger. I thought the close up shot of the fire was very neat. It added emphasis on group movement and passion.
A Single Spark really illustrates Korea during the time of communism. You can only read and learn so much about the horrible work conditions. But having that visual really moves you and allows you to feel emotion. The harmful injections and workers dying of TB showed the norm of everyday work life in Korea during that time period.
Clearly what makes this movie so unique is that the film is both black and white and color. Now I'd like to say, I would not appreciate if every movie made a flashback in black&white. However, this movie really made it work. It's not even a character's memory. The past and present in the movie serves as compare and contrast. There were scenes with the same setting, but different time period. The difference in color showed how much time pass and how much progress has been made. We can see that the "present time" in the movie was still struggling. However, progress is still progress no matter how small it may seem. This movie truly made me thankful for all the people in the past who selflessly fought for our rights and couldn't live to see this day.
“A Single Spark” is a film of persecution of society which is directed by Gwang-Soo Park in 1995. Korean laborers in 1970s worked in a very harsh and harmful condition and reality. The film explicitly portrays the circumstances that many Korean laborers experienced back in 1970s. Tae-il Jeon who burnt himself to death is the main leader of the labor movement is described in a viewpoint of Young-Soo Kim in the film. Kim is a writer of Tae-il Jeon’s bibliography and he is inspired by Jeon’s passionate, strongly motivated and self-sacrificed actions for many laborers. The scenes of Kim’s circumstances and the flashback of Jeon’s story go back and forth throughout the film. Both Kim and Jeon seem to share some of their life situations in common and Kim gets obsessed with Jeon while reminiscing Jeon’s life and passion. Since both of their stories overlap in the film, it might have been hard to distinguish which story each scene is portraying. However, by using black-and-white shots for Jeon and colored shots for Kim, the director Park made it easier for the audiences to distinguish the stories. A form of describing Jeon’s life in the viewpoint of Kim, a kind of closed camera angle, and restrained camera shots contributed to the director Park’s attempt to illustrate the harsh, harmful and terrible labor conditions in Korea. Park also uses foreshadowing that Jeon is going to fire himself with the book of the labor laws by depicting the scenes of bonfire, an oil barrel, and his charismatic expressions on his face.
After watching the film, remarkable impression lingers in my mind. Because it is a true story, it makes me think Jeon as a very compassionate, devoted, and enthusiastic leader and hero. Also, he is only in his early age like 20 when he burnt himself to death, but was able to have such courage and passion just for the laborers. I think this film might provoke a motivation and passion for younger generations to actually do and fulfill their goals and dreams without just staying in thoughts. Just act it out like Jeon did. Jeon changed the idea and the law that did not seem to be changed in Korea. 1970s is only about 40 years ago and Korea could possibly experience this great change in working condition and laborer’s rights not long time ago. It was the efforts of people like Jeon which entirely changed the labor conditions and laws in Korea. A last ending scene which portrays a man, probably a laborer, holding the bibliography of Jeon, and Kim looking at the man may be attempted to suggest that there is going to be people like Jeon who will change Korea in the future.
June WIe The film 'A Single Spark'was a film that showed the labor conflicts that Korea had dealt with during the time period when the protagonist Jeon Tae-Il was fighting the labor conflict. The main character is a writer named Kin Young-Soo who secretly writes the biography of Jeon Tae-Il's life. The film begins with crowds of protesters on a busy street. I thought this showed some foreshadwing for the problems that were going to occur throughout the movie. Soon after they show the crowds of protestors they show Jeon Tae-Il in black and white with a close up of the lighter and the flame going towards a book. This forshadowed for the ending where he ultimately lights himself on fire and screams that humans are not machines. Throughout the movie I couldn't help but feel sympathy for each character. Not only Jeon Tae-Il but the man who was busy secretly writing his biography;Kim Young-soo and his pregnant wife who gets harrassed and beaten due to her involvement with union making. It was my first time seeing a movie that goes back and forth from black and white to color as much as "A Single Spark' did. This fascinated me and was part of the reason that I looked more at the editing and filming of this movie than most movies I have watched in the past. The black and white was clearly the past and the color was the present. Black and white had always been registered as something from the past in my mind so luckily the movie was not confusing because of that. I thought that there were so many parrallels between Jeon Tae-Il and Kim Young-soo that sometimes what did confuse me was how the film was being portrayed in terms of who was telling Jeon's story? Was it just the movie or was it Kim's writing? I thought that the back and forth between color and black and white also showed that the labor conflict had not ended even when Kim was writing the biography despite Jeon's suicidal actions.
In the film A Single Spark, I often found myself thinking about the role of females in the film and the labor movement. It sounds blunt and negative, but women in the film aren’t really there to make change. And if they are, Director Park Kwang Su ultimately uses them to cement the patriarchal superiority of the males. For instance, Yong-San’s wife is a strong female character who wants to start a union, but her efforts are futile. One scene that comes to mind is when the wife encounters her boss and his assistant outside of her home. The whole scene devotes itself to building the tension between the female worker and the male employer; specifically, the long take of the peaches rolling down the street embodies the inevitable failure of her efforts with the union. Just as the chance of collecting the fruit dwindles as they roll further down the hill, the chance of the strike’s success fades as well. Although the men’s attempts to capture the public eye were unsuccessful until Choe Tae-Il’s self-immolation, the only woman in the film that tried to fight back ultimately failed.
In addition to this, Director Park Kwang-Su further explores the patriarchal system through the way women are presented in the film. Throughout A Single Spark, women are essentially powerless. This is exemplified in the power differential between the shop floor foreman and the female employees. For example, the foreman has control over almost every aspect of his female employees. He is the one who gives them permission to go to the bathroom or go home. He is the one who injects shots into the girls if they’re falling asleep, even if it endangers the girls’ health. His actions dictate the fate of their livelihoods. The women cannot do anything about it because his authority is so deeply established not only in the title of his job, but also his gender. Through this, Park effectively shows the patriarchal limits imposed on women at that time.
This film Single Spark uses the contrast of white and black to convey the labor movement in Korea, which took place at the time. The director achieves this by showing Tae-Il (in black and white) and the organisers who continued to work in the 90s (in color). One interesting point is that there was numerous instances where there was a swift but smooth transition between the black white and color, which is intended by the director to parallel the times and show that there is actually little difference between back then and in the 90s. This is true because in both time periods, the workers do not have a strong voice and right, while majority of the population share the mutual feeling. Another key color in the movie is blue. This color blue in the 90s period demonstrates that there is no solace in escaping the black and white world of the past. There was many cohesion of the color of the scene with the coupling of music. For example, a wide camera shot of the initial introduction of the sweatshop unshelled the hallways, presenting multiple blue hues of color, and this was comprised along with the melancholy music. By doing this, I believe the director has created a modern film while still being able to focus on issues that were significant from the past.
The movie ‘A single Spark’ was based on real event that happened in Korea. That was when South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world and was undeveloped unlike these days. The story was true story about Tae-il Jeon who was 22 working as a tailor in the factory. Most of laborers in the factory was suffering from low incomes even working all night in the miserable environment. Tae-il felt a lot of grievance and was the one who tried to let the others know about the Labor Standard Act which was to get the rights back of the workers by suicide. The film mostly shows the flashbacks of Young Su Kim to Tae il Jeon. Interesting thing is that the director shoots the story of Young su with color and Tae-il’s story with monochrome. It does make the audiences to notice that Young su is in the present and Tae il is in the past. The both scenes show connections and contradictions very well. Especially, when showing the scenes in the past, it uses very strong contrasts. This effect does show the audiences to feel the miserable reality of the workers of that period. When the film gets to almost the ending of the movie, there is the only one scene where it shows the past scene with colors. Tae-il put oil all over his body and burn himself, shouting “Observe the Labor Standard Act! We are not machines!”. Why did the director put this scene with colors? I feel like the director might not want to separate the present with the past. Additionally, each stories and perspectives of Young su and Tae il also shows connections together. The scene where Tae-il is having secret discussion with his friends in the secret place, he is surprised by the sound of knocking the door and says, “Mother!” The right next scene is Tae-il’s mother coming into the boiler room where Young su is staying and Young su greets her. These two scenes were connected very smoothly by Tae-il’s mother, in other words, the two different periods is connected like they are in the same period of time. Moreover, when the scene that Young su is sitting on the night train the camera gradually moves to the other directions, and when it comes back, it shows Tae-il suddenly. Even the stories of Young su was shoot with colors, and the stories of Tae-il was shoot in black and white, the audience is not likely to feel awkwardness because Young su was in the night train with dark background. Throughout the film, I could really feel the efforts of Tae-il Jeon, and people also should not forget his great achievement that even changed our country.
The movie, “A Single Spark” is a story of a boy named ‘Tae-il Jeon’ who lived like a single spark in 1970’s. Korea in 1970’s was under President Park. It was very dictatorial. Tae-Il is a man who argued about the unfairness of the law of labour in Korea. This movie talks about this young man’s voice and the unfair society. The most impressive scene in this movie is the ending. Tae Il burns himself to death. Some people would say that his decision was quite rash. However, in 1970s, as this movie was shown, nobody was listening Tae Il’s voice. His death was the only way he could attract people’s attention and the only way he could appeal the seriousness of the problem of working condition. The society where Tae Il was living in was hopeless. Hopeless means no reason to live. By committing suicide, Tae Il tried to be a hope to the society. On the other hand, Young Soo’s hope was Tae Il and his baby along with Jeoung Soon. Tae Il from Young Soo’s memory is a hope to make changes to the society. Young Soo’s baby is his motivation to make a better society. This is why Young Soo tried to see his baby and his wife before his final work of writing his book. Young Soo wants his family to live in a better place and his baby to work in a better working condition. After he published his book, now he becomes a hope to others who read his book.
When Young-Soo thinks about Tae-Il, whole scenes are in black and white. It clearly distinguishes Young-Soo’s story and Tae-Il’s story. Also, for Young Soo’s story, it is in first person’s point of view. For Tae-Il’s story, it is in third person’s point of view. Audience would feel that they are watching Tae-Il’s life at a distance. These distinguish of camera works help audience to understand this movie easily.
A Single Spark by Park Gwang-su is about labor and human rights activist Jeon Tae-il, who immolated himself in November of 1970 at age 22. The great thing about this movie is the Mise-en-scene because it depicts realistically the miserable situation during the dictatorship under the president Park Jeong-hee. This film is a well-made movie in a way that it illustrates the set of the 1970s Korea even though it was made in 1995.
The director and the camera look at Tae-il with warmth and respect. When Yong-su apparently sees Tae-il in the boiler room, Park is trying to tie together the past and the present. The shot of Tae-il looking down the path and looking back shows that the "past" represented by Tae-il acknowledges the viewer aka the "present". The changing of color shots to black and white ones also enhance the distinction drawn between past and present. This scene represents Park's feeling that he wants to walk on the same path and follow his trail.
As I described above, the distinction between black and white and color shots show the differences between past and present. However, Park decides to bring Tae-il, primarily displayed as a black and white character, into the color world. This technique, used in the final sequence, is effective because it finally stitches together the past and present and shows that even though Tae-il physically died for a cause, his impact on the state of labor laws in Korea are felt to this day.
“A Single Spark” depicts with realism about sensitive social issue of labor law. It portrays the difficulties the Korean society faced during the rapid industrialization, when South Korea was ruled by a military force and was in a turmoil. The tone of the movie is a heavy depression one, where the atmosphere seems gloomy, and it rains quite often. The rain symbolizes the dark, depressing environment where the characters live in. One scene in particular that has a lasting impression is when Tae Il is coming out of the building after a meeting with the inspector, where a woman comes out and then goes back into the building to seek haven from the rain. Yet, Tae Il goes into the rain, without his umbrella, in a black and white scene. His umbrellas that he sells in the beginning symbolizes his shelter and roof, a way to make money. However, when he leaves that world, he is thrust into a darker world of abuse. Yong Su, in the future, is in a way a reincarnation of Tae Il, even walking in the rain without an umbrella, when the young boy tries to sell him one. He too, leaves the umbrella, to seek a conclusion to the mess and disorder of the present. He even has to keep himself away from his pregnant wife, to continue his struggle and fight. Both characters, are running away from hardships brought on by the outside, but still face those same hardships in the end, in a way that is not directly confrontational. Both are being diplomatic in their approaches, and both care too much for what they believe in, that they continue their journeys. One can strike the parallels between the two characters. Yet, since society and culture are both different in the timelines, the end conclusion for both are different, yet the struggles are similar. Director Park Kwang-su plays extensively with shadow and light throughout “A Single Spark.” Consistently, scenes are shrouded in darkness except for one limited area of light. Certainly one of the most notable scenes using this technique are the scenes with the lighters; focus is then centralized on the flame, which is accentuated by the slow-motion with which it is lit and manipulated by the figure in the scene. Additionally, light often streams out from a doorway serving as a frame inside a frame, while the rest of the space remains dark. Furthermore, faces were often hidden fully or partially in shadow, covered completely by a newspaper or umbrella, blurred, or not shown. The widespread usage of shadow, darkness, and high contrast adds to the weight and heaviness of the film’s content; it draws out the anguish of the laborers and adds power to A Single Spark’s moving depiction of torturous labor conditions and the seemingly hopeless fight for justice and humane treatment for workers. Although "A Single Spark" is in a way an antique in Korean cinema, it makes strides as a modern depiction of social struggles in Korean society throughout not only the story lines or narrations, but also the style or camera techniques.
The film, A Single Spark, depicted the life of Jeon Taeil, a real heroic figure who committed suicide by burning himself to death in protest of the poor working conditions in South Korean factories. Shocked by the death of Jeon Taeil, Youngsoo Kim writes a bibliography about Jeon Taeil. The process of which he follows Jeon's trace is portrayed as the form of flashback documentary film.
The director's use of color and black-and-white, and camera movement was very interesting. He made constant switches between color and black-and-white which differentiated the time period between past and present; Jeon Taeil's life as black-and-white and the moment of writing bibliography as colored. Kwangsoo Park managed these transitions very well and made easier for audience to understand the flow of the story. The director used the extreme longs shots and close shot to highlight some important scenes in the film. For instance, the director used the extreme long shot of empty street and Jeon Taeil's way to Pyung-hwa market which implied that there are still more way to go for and that it would take a long time for the victorious moment to come. The close shot of Jeon Taeil's face during his suicide was also very impressive. Jeon Taeil demanded for due rights for all the labors even when he was dying out of fire. We were all able to feel his dedication and desire for healthy working environment. Throughout the movie, the camera movement such as the long shot and the close shot amplified the Jeon Taeil's sacrifice for all.
In the film “A Single Spark,” there are two time periods that are utilized to depict the events. Jeon Tae Il’s life, the worker’s activists who burned himself to protest the horrendous working conditions in the factory, are shown in a grainy black and white footage, and Kim Yong Su the author of Jeon Tae Il’s biography are being shown in color. One of the best characteristics of this film was its smooth transitions between the two time periods, with scenes that interlocked with one other and seamlessly integrated into the plot without breaking the flow of the film. The audience isn’t jolted with sudden cuts and takes which assists in conveying the message of the film in a precise and definite method. The long shot of Tae Il digging his grave and lying down in it foreshadows his honorable death as he is voluntarily willing to lay down his life for the good of improving working conditions. The close up shot of his face as he lights himself on fire clearly depict his fierce determination about the cause, and the audience can intensely feel his struggle as he makes this decision.
During the color footages, when the workers were dumped in a rural, waste-land area it embodies what workers mean to the factory and how they are seen: as disposable trash that could simply be thrown away without consideration for their nature as human beings. They were carelessly kidnapped and left in the wasteland, like worn-out machines that had out-lived their usage. Its important to note that when he set himself on fire at the end of the film the fire was shown in color for the first time in the black and white footage of the past. This is symbolic because the first glimpse of color represents a new beginning for the workers. The colors black and white have mundane qualities and no lively aspects. The colors red and orange are extremely vibrant and fierce and it demands the attention of the audience when set against the black and white footage. In the same way, the worker’s plight has come to the full attention of society, demanding changes and forcing their voice to be heard.
I grew up in Korea so I heard about this movie a lot and I knew that Jeon Tae il is a legendary figure in Korea. I also heard that this movie got lots of award and highly rated when first released. So I expected a lot, but the movie is quite disappointing. The biggest feature of the movie is its constant time changing. The stories of Yongsu was shot in colors and the stories of Tae il was shot in black and white and the stories of Tae il and Yongsu kept alternating during the movie. I think the director used this sequence to connect Yonsu and Taeil and to imply that the situation had not changed a lot in spite of Tae il's sacrifice. But to me, it is quite confusing and hard to concentrate on the movie. I heard that after Jeon Til il's sacrifice there was lots of changes in labor condition. However, it is so sad that still lots of unfair conditions remain in Korean society. The prices of products has risen dramatically during years and but the average incomes did not increased a lot. I went to Japan 2 months a ago, and I was surprised because the prices of products are not expensive than Korea. Rather I thought that Korea's prices of goods are more expensive. I think this movie still suggests a lot for Korean society.
This movie with the documentary-like footage effectively describes one worker's tragic life ending with his final action of suicide. As a meaningful report about a hard and poor period in Korea, this movie focuses on showing workers' never-ending labor under the painful circumstances. Starting with representing arduous life of Jeon Tae-il's family, this movie minutely draws how Jeon protests against government hypocrisy. While he works in a factory for clothes, he gradually realizes that working environment of factory has a big problem to be fixed since all employers should work all day long and all night. Jeon's life are filmed in black and white, and it vividly depicts the way Jeon finds out the root of problems occurring in the factory. While Jeon studies various laws for the fair rules required for the operation of factory, shadow and lighting play important roles highlighting Jeon's enlightened vision of equality and fight for the human rights. This part may be used to maximize Jeon's distress and desperation followed by his failure to improve workers' status. The climax of this movie the last part where Jeon commits to suicide with a fire. This part should give the audience a great impression about how much Jeon's death was brave. Also, this movie uses this climax scene to represent how unfair and cruel the regulation of usual factory in Korea was. This movie shows how painful and difficult the workers' life while Korea was considerably developed. Even though this movie is quite slow that it makes some audiences to be bored, I think this movie is a good source to understand Korean developmental era under the authoritarian regime learning how important one's fight for justice.
The film, A Single Spark, explained me to reflect how the laborers in the past had been paid unfairly. Kim Young Su is a person who writes a bibliography for Jeon Taeil and is in dangerous situation because of writing a bibliography for Jeon Taeil. Jeon Taeil is a person who states fair labor law to all the laborers. He is a very brave person and satisfice himself to address labor law even though he is risked and does not get payment at all. Jeon Taeil couldn’t endure that labor law was still unfair, so he decided to burn himself to death in order to inform that laborers were struggling and to obtain the right labor law. After he passed away, labor associations are made and spread out a lot and labor law is changed more fair than before as well.
I very respect Jeon Taeil because he was very young person who satisfices himself for workers to obtain the right labor law. During watching the film, I could feel workers’ rage and how the world was going on unfairly to workers. The film’s sound and shots make characters apparently. Especially, the piano sound helps to set the film’s mood for the tragic and sad atmosphere. I really enjoyed watching the film and could know that period’s mood.
Melody Chi 7-31-13 Korean Cinema YISS, Summer 2013 Prof. Steven Chung Movie Response #4: A Single Spark
PART 1 OF 2:
The movie begins with scenes of anti-government protestors marching in support of pension and governmental policy reform. Many of these scenes are shot using medium shots, and all are in black and white. These scenes, which the audience later discovers are flashbacks to a period a bit earlier than the present temporal space that the narrator/protagonist occupies, smoothly transition into scenes of the present by the continued use of drab, dark colors in the portrayal of the present setting and characters’ appearances. For example, in the first scene in which they are both together, both the protagonist (a rebel who writes anti-government texts) and his wife Jung-soon are dressed in navy, black, or gray pea coats and pants. Likewise, the background of their meeting place is a dirt road lined with rows of worn-out, gray shanty houses. This blurs the line between past and present, promoting the negative idea that the present is simply a copy of the past that is continuously and hopelessly being acted out; no change has happened or is currently happening.
Despite the attempt to use of black and white versus color in scenes to establish and contrast distinct past or present temporal locations, this idea that the present is exactly the same as the past is reiterated by the similarity between Tae-Il’s house and the protagonist’s house from the very beginning of the movie. First, both areas are constantly portrayed as shadowed and constrained. For example, there are several scenes throughout the movie in which we, the audience, see the protagonist staring at us from behind a grate or barred windows (such as those in the front window of his rented house). These obstructions are reminiscent of the bars of a prison cell, which clearly represents captivity, helplessness, and a restriction of movement. In addition, the protagonist is often shown as being located in shadow, such as when he hides from the government census worker in the dark corner of his room or works on his book in a shadowed basement after Jung-soon is arrested. Likewise, Tae-Il’s house is represented as small, cramped, and restrictive through the use of close-up shots in which Tae-Il takes up most of the space in the frame, while the rest of the space is shadowed and crammed with his other family members. The protagonist and Tae-Il’s constrained positions emphasize the fact that the government still possesses control over Korean society and its citizens in the present.
However, by the end of the film, it is suggested that this relationship has been turned around: the past has been retaken, reclaimed, and redefined by the present, in which change (forward movement) has begun to occur. For instance, in the final scene of the film, an image of Tae-Il is displayed as walking down a road away from where the protagonist sits observing young revolutionaries reading his anti-government book relating Tae-Il’s story. This scene is shot using a medium shot, which brings the film full circle; the first scenes of the movie are displayed using medium shots, and this last scene mirrors them in this way. However, while the first scenes’ use of medium shots that captured the crowds of protestors promoted the revolutionaries as nameless (homogenous) and rather insignificant as individuals despite their great numbers, the end scene uses a medium shot (with Tae-Il’s image located in the middle of the frame) to grant attention and thus an identity to Tae-Il, while also including a view of him in the crowd to express his role as the Everyman. Also, the last scene (in which Tae-Il is first shown as walking away while carrying the protagonist’s book until he ultimately stops to look back at the protagonist) transitions from black and white to color, which is also accompanied by sunlight. In a direct reversal of the effect created by the overwhelming use of dark colors and shadows in the beginning of the film, the past (represented by the black and white scenes) is here being reclaimed by the present (symbolized by the use of color in the scene), in which widespread revolution has begun sprouting.
Sojung Lee
ReplyDeleteThe film A Single Spark tells two stories, one based on the real historical figure of Jeon Taeil, who set himself on fire in 1970 to protest against unfair labor laws, and the other on character Kim Youngsoo, who is writing a bibliography about Jeon. There are parallels between Youngsoo and Jeon throughout the movie, with both having been strongly involved in protesting against something they felt needed to be changed. In this way, the story of Jeon Taeil can be told in a unique manner that allows viewers to connect with his passionate ideals in a new way. Rather than just seeing him as a hero of the labor movement, we get to see his struggles and development along the way. We also get to see Jeon's past through the lenses of Youngsoo's eyes, little by little. The parallels mentioned previously, as well as the piecing together of Jeon's background through another character’s point of view, causes the viewers to realize that the story of the past also applies to the future. The issues that existed back then have not disappeared in the modern times, emphasized by how Youngsoo is a fugitive from the police due to his history of student activism. Even in ‘present’ Korea, people are being oppressed and prosecuted for trying to stand up for what they are passionate about.
Film utilizes black-and-white scenes in order to show flashbacks to the individual (Jeon Taeil) that the protagonist, Kim Youngsoo is writing a bibliography about. Immediately, viewers understand that the vintage, colorless sequences represent Jeon’s story while the modern scenes depict Youngsoo’s in the present. When the film switches to Jeon, the scenes look slightly more blurry overall as well, as if trying to illustrate a long ago past. At first the abrupt changes between clear and colorful and black-white and fuzzy were a little jarring to watch. But given the frequency of how many flashbacks there are in the movie, it would have been confusing to watch and distinguish between the past and present if not for this difference. On another note, at the very beginning of the movie, it shows a short scene of Jeon holding up a lighter to a book which gives viewers a glimpse of what’s to come. Also at the scene where Jeon and his friends are crowded around a bonfire at a beach, there is a sudden close-up of the crackling fire while a worker is talking about the unenforced Labor Laws. This foreshadows the fact that Jeon will later set himself on fire publicly, as a protest against this lack of enforcement, and set off that single spark.
Korean Cinema
ReplyDeleteProfessor Steven Chung
Jun Seong Ahn
A Single Spark (1995)
When the name Tae-Il Jeon appears, people simply characterizes him as a work who just killed himself, a glorious student in Korea, or a role model for nowadays students. I wasn’t hundred percent positive with who he was. But I think he really over exaggerated by firing his body in the age of twenty two just because of going against the Enforcement Decree of the Labor Standards Act. Killing himself can’t be seen positive.
Since Tae-Il had a poor childhood, not only he was vulnerable from his father’s violence but also Tae-Il’s mother and brother. As he grew up, he didn’t feel comfortable about the world going around by money. How did he realize these thoughts even though he didn’t continue his education by stopping his middle school? He should have understand by witnessing the deteriorated labor around his environment and a huge effort. He followed what his factory manager told him, and gradually realized what is right and wrong. Maybe that’s why he put tremendous effort on ‘Babohwe,’ a community of young foundations. His everyday harsh work of 14 hours per day and lack of freedom and cleanliness in the factory led Tae-Il to walk forward against the Labor Act.
Tae-Il wanted Korean citizens to acknowledge irrationality and contamination of what he fights against. “I will throw away and kill myself. I will sacrifice my weak existence.” This is one of Tae-Il’s quotes in his diary. What I’ve mentioned in the above, he has sacrificed his life to the society in a very young age, and that act was a fight against was he had been treated. From that point, workers progressively raised their voices to the society and thing got better. I was fool to make a thoughtless decision about Tae-Il, and this movie changed my thought about him. He is definitely a huge iconic model to the labors in Korea.
(Julie) Jiong Yi Huang
ReplyDelete"A Single Spark" is a film that centers around the lives of two men during two separate time periods: Jeon Tae-Il, a man who bravely protested the unfair labor conditions of factories, and Kim Yong-Su, a man who devoted his time and risked his safety in order to write a book depicting the astonishing events surrounding Tae-Il. One very significant and arguably typical way of showing the jump between time periods is the switch between color and black and white film. In one instance, we are put into Yong-Su's quiet life hiding away from authority, and the next instance, we are in Tae-Il's life, fighting for the rights of factory workers. Rather than relying on transitions that make it seem as if we are traveling back and forth from a flashback to the present, the use of quick cuts in between colored and black and white shots allow the film to display smooth transitions between these separate lives. In this way, the audience is able to actively engage with both lives. By filming this way, the director successfully establishes the similarities and growth between a time when industrialization was still considered to be in its early stages (during Tae-Il's time) and a few years later when the industry had time to react to such protests (Yong-Su's time).
One pivotal scene in the film occurred when Tae-Il left the factory in order to work in the mountains; he decided to dig a grave for himself in the rain and laid in it. The scene shifted to an extreme long shot of Tae-Il walking away from the mountains. Here, the director used a voiceover of Tae-Il expressing his wish to return to the factory and his newly established will to sacrifice himself for this cause that has basically taken over his heart and mind. This effectively expresses the tenacity behind Tae-Il's will that inevitably leads to his decision to light himself on fire.
In Park Kwang-su’s 1995 film, “A Single Spark,” I not only saw a story of tension, I felt one as well. The sudden and frequent shifting of scenes left me on edge throughout the entire film and always a little confused as to what exactly was happening. The consistent change between color to black and white film also added to this feeling as I simply started to get frustrated at the plot line and the ways in which the director chose to create the film. The plot was very hard for me to follow towards the end of the movie and it left me uninterested. I believe that the story the movie was trying to tell would be quite interesting, if only it was told in a different manner without stressful editing and filming.
ReplyDeleteThere are specific moments directly embedded in the plotline, however, that literally relieve some built up tension. The first of which is the scene where the female character drops the entire basket of fruit down the street in her struggle against two men. The fruits are quite clearly symbolic of the oppressed being freed of their working conditions and entrapment. As the fruit happily bounces down the street after escaping their intended fate, so will the workers when they gain the labor rights that are truly theirs. In the same light, the men free themselves of their clothing and any worries associated with society when they swim nude on the beach. It is the ultimate freedom and a direct revolt against the norms of society. These two scenes, along with others throughout the film, helped to relieve the tension and stress that was being built up through film and editing techniques.
The movie, "A Single Spark," illustrates the lives of the people during the time of hard and unfair labor practices. The film starts off with a master view of the street demonstration in order to emphasize the crowdedness, the violent atmosphere, and the big signs that the people held. The beginning of the film gives a general, broad view of the laborers participating in such a union to alter their work lives. The colored scene gradually changes into a black and white scene and the movie alternates back and forth in order to highlight the difference between the past and the present and to suggest that the labor demonstration is still an ongoing issue. The gradual change to a black and white scene shows a man holding a lighter and for the first time, the audience is exposed to a close shot of it. The close shot of such an object hints that it would play a major role throughout the movie and it does appear again towards the end of the movie when Tae-Il burns himself to death using the lighter. Zooming is also used when the man tells his family about how no one cared in the factory even though one woman coughed blood. Zooming in of his face after his speaking of the event suggested that he came up with an idea or is motivated to take an action that audiences ourselves yet do not know of. In the movie, instead of a close shot or medium shot of an individual, master shot with two and three shots are used to stress the interaction and the communication among the many laborers. Even in the scene where the protagonist speaks about the labor laws during the campfire, the camera points at the people sitting around in a circle and only shows the speaking man's back in order to emphasize the reaction of the laborers, not one individual's action.
ReplyDeleteThe movie overall was a slow film with no rapid cuts or use of various angles and shots in one scene. Instead, the director tried to make the transformation from one scene to another smoother rather than being abrupt and straight to the point. For instance, in every instance when the scene changes, an individual is never captured right away. Rather, panning is used to gradually move the audience's sight from an object or a background to an individual. For example, panning is used to direct the audience's sight from a plant to the man or from the view of the roof to a walking protagonist in order to have a smooth transformation. Since it is a movie with slow progress and development, most of the sounds are from the actual people from the movie talking, making the audio part of the movie to be primarily diagetic. However, in few of the scenes, piano sounds could also be heard, an example of a nondiagetic sound. The piano sound helps set the mood for the sad atmosphere.
Overall, the movie did a nice job on portraying the work lives of the people and how the unfair labor regulations have affected them both mentally and physically. However, it could have been better if it had incorporated more various camera techniques in order to make the movie seem more dynamic and engaging.
“A Single Spark” is a highly impressive film that very well depicts the labor conflicts during the peak of President Park Chung-hee’s administration. The film is notable for realistically describing the poor labor conditions during the 1970s, using appropriate settings. The movie’s setting and the depiction of the sewing factory is honest and frankly shows how inadequate the factory conditions were back then. For instance, not only is there a long line of child workers waiting to use a few available toilets, but also the children need to get infrequent permission from their boss to even use the bathroom. Also, the boss who calls himself to once have been an army medic gives chemical shots to make the children work for longer without falling asleep. To mention more, these children rarely get one or two days of break per month, work 16 hours a day, and are always exposed to unhealthy dust. It is clear from these details that the bosses abused the child labor system and forced the children to work in harsh conditions that sometimes even led to death (like the girl who died from tuberculosis). Basing on these facts, it is understandable to the audience that the labor unions were desperately needed for these workers in order to improve their working conditions.
ReplyDeleteAnother significant element of “A Single Spark” is the influence of overtaking background score. At the very beginning of the movie, we see protesters demonstrating at the military dictatorship. During this scene, it is impressive how the score melody progressively takes over the film’s overall sound, as the protesters’ noises gradually diminish. The sad melody of the score seems to highlight the extreme emotions reached by the passionate protesters, who are finally tired of oppressive tyranny. Likewise, at the climactic scene where Jeon Tae-il sets himself on fire and runs out to the street, similar effect can be seen. At first, you hear some people’s scream and noises as they watch burning Jeon-Tae-il, but similar gloomy score as before gradually takes over, and at the end all other sounds are muted except for the background score. Here again, Park Kwang-su is trying to accentuate the sad moment Jeon Tae-il is burning to death, and at the same time point out the importance of labor laws to the desperate laborers during the time – namely Jeon Tae-il, who has directly seen the cruelty of factory bosses and the death of a factory girl who caught tuberculosis.
Byeong Wan Kim
The movie “A Single Spark” addresses the accusation of deteriorated environment of the labor under the dictatorship of that era through the frustrated young man, Tae-Il Jun. The Yong-Su sided story is in colored, but the story of Jun Tae Il filmed in black and white which resembles the noir film in the past. Both of the stories progress back and forth as a flashback of memorizing Jun Tae Il. Although two stories filmed in different ways, they share one thing. Overall, the camera director exaggerates the contradiction of light and darkness. Yong-Su walks from the lighted Pyung-Hwa market street to the darkness of the building of factory. He keeps crossing from light to the dark freely. Additionally, He uses to hide himself in the darkness greatly.
ReplyDeleteHe always keeps escaping from the chasing policeman and lives in the basement which does not have any light. However, the desk lamp where he writes about Tae-Il Jun, significance the hope which directs him and people to brightened future. Also, it emphasizes that Yong-Su strongly believes that there would be more democratic occurs throughout people who read the book of Jun Tae-Il as he published. Moreover, when Tae-Il turns on the desk lamp as his family sleep, the contradiction of light and darkness helps me to focus on his facial expression which depicts his determined attitude before his burning himself to death on the next day. The exaggerated contradictions of light and darkness in the factory and the place where Yong-Su hidden show the irrationality of the society in that era which many people denounced at it. Personally, the last few minutes of the films impressed me because of the two scenes. First one is the scene of Jun Tae Il’s burning himself to death. His facial expression and action image me how he outcries even without his actual screaming sound of its. Also, the scene steadily changes to the color version which seems like that denouncing at the irrational reality occurs on and on until nowadays. Also, a scene that Jun Tae-Il holds the book of his life whom Yong-Su finds at the street of where Jun Tae-Il died, tells me that Yong-Su’s intention of producing the young people as post of Jun Tae Il progresses steadily in successful.
Hannah Choi
A Single Spark was an interesting movie that I would have enjoyed more if I had not been confused at first. The first few scenes were like series of jump shots (the protest, the lighter, and then the guy at the desk) that had me questioning how exactly the main focal point of the movie was going to be presented. Especially with the opening scene in the middle of the protest, I felt as though the audience was immediately engulfed into a climax point of the film as the dramatic music played on. Even after the explanation that Yong-su gave, I felt that Tae-Il’s story line could have gone further in depth as well as Yong-su’s. Such as when Tae-Il was on the mountain side chiseling away, the lack of dialogue and the amount of time that flew by held more questions than answers to why he was there in the first place or even returning back to the sweat shop at all. I can only assume that this was the point that he realized that he would have to sacrifice himself for the other workers and any type of positive change in their industry?
ReplyDeleteAs for the layout of the film, the shadows and lighting played a large role in how the characters were presented throughout the movie. We often saw Yong-su intentionally placed within the shadows of the rooms to further express his current state of hiding from the government. Even in the first clip that he was introduced in, we see his body engulfed by the darkness that could symbolize all the trouble and problems he’s trying to avoid. Only the single light coming from his desk shines as though the completion of this book is his only means of escape and the hope that is inspiring him to continue.
Janet Tang
ReplyDeleteIn A Single Spark, director Park Kwang Su tells the story of Jeon Tae Il, a tailor who fought for better working conditions who eventually burned himself to death as a final act of protest against unenforced labor laws, and the action his sacrifice inspired. Park tells this story through two different timelines that switch constantly throughout the film. Jeon Tae Il's timeline is primarily in black and white, while the protagonist, Kim Yong Su, who's writing a book about Jeon Tae Il's activism, is in color. There were three scenes in which Tae Il's timeline were in color, which I feel signify very important parts of the film. The first scene was a sort of dream sequence almost, in which Yong Su sees Tae Il in front of him and it leads into a outdoor path. This scene is shot with a handheld camera as opposed to the frequent static long shots presumably taken on a camera on some sort of tripod, and this handheld camerawork with the slight shaking makes it feel almost as though the audience were looking at Tae Il walk into the distance through Yong Su's eyes/perspective. The dreamlike quality is emphasized in the scene when Tae Il digs what seems like a grave for himself and lies down with the narration talking about how he's waking up now from a dream and going back to the city to fight against injustice in the factories.
The second scene is the one in which Tae Il lights himself on fire as his last protest. It's the only scene in which there is no interaction with Yong Su, but it's still in color. The slow motion camerawork as well as the close up shots all come together to emphasize the significance of Tae Il's actions. Most of the film is cast under a lot of shadows, and a large portion is in black and white, despite the timelines between color and black and white are only 5 years apart. The black and white kind of signifies a period in the film as well as historically, where hopes for better working conditions is bleak. These protests take place during Park Chunghee's authoritarian regime, and the black and white emphasizes a kind of dark outlook, like if you were to try to protest you would just be crushed under the weight of the government. Because this scene is in color, it signifies a new hope that this sacrifice would push for more action and real changes to occur.
The fact that Yong Su's timeline is shot all in color also signifies that the hope that Tae Il's sacrifice sparked was going strong and his actions were not done in vain.
The third scene, which is also the closing scene of the film, consists of Yong Su going back to the market area in which Tae Il burned himself, and seeing someone holding the biographical book he wrote about Tae Il. The close up shot of the man holding Yong Su's book cuts to a long shot of the man from behind, who then turns and is revealed to be Tae Il. Although this didn't actually happen considering it takes place 5 years after Tae Il's death, it ties up the film very well as though it's Tae Il's final message to Yong Su, who spent much time hiding from authority and writing the biography. It's like Tae Il's thank you to Yong Su for not letting people forget his death and what he was fighting for up until the end. Ending the film with Tae Il holding the book about his activism starkly contrasts the last scene in which he was holding a book in the market square. While the earlier scene represented a drastic sacrifice made out of desperation for change, the final color scene is almost peaceful in its composition, which makes me think of it as Tae Il gaining some sort of closure in the afterlife. While the struggle for workers' rights is still very real, and there are still many obstacles to overcome, Yong Su's book is a huge step forward in the movement.
While I managed to read the powerful message about rebellion and reform in the 70s of Korea in A Single Spark, I still thought that the movie was a bit slow, even more so than Sopyonje. It may just be my personal taste or my particular mood today, but I felt that that the movie had more potential than what was shown today on screen. I am reading review and review of praise for the movie, so I'm getting the feeling that I may be missing something, but my opinion remains nevertheless that such a compelling story deserved a movie with a little more bang. Or perhaps it is the overall composure and reservedness throughout the movie that offset the immolation of Tae-il that had such an impact on audiences. I can't be sure, but for be a sense of urgency was lacking in the movie. Generally that urgency pushes a story forward. I felt that the melodrama of the film, while it did help audiences emotionally attach themselves to the characters, was overdone (which according to Abelmann is not something characteristic of Korean).
ReplyDeleteI did however appreciate the obvious and almost oversimplified method the director chose to distinguish between the story of Young-soo and Tae-il. In the first few minutes of the movie I was confused as to why the director would choose to make such a decision. It seemed irrelevant at first. But as the story unfolds we see that the change from color to black and white and back signifies changing times, changing stories, even changing attitudes. I'm sure it's not one of the most advanced techniques seen in the movie-making business, but the consistency of having scenes change colors to mark a change from Young-soo to Tae-il was refreshing compared to the confusing scene changes seen in movies such as Epitaph.
Karen Lam
ReplyDeleteIn the movie "A Single Spark," I thought the camera work was very nice. There were several far shots in this movie that showed the scenery while characters were moving about, such as the beginning shot that showed the masses of people in the demonstration. I also thought there were many long takes, such as the one near the beginning of Jeon Tae Il lighting the lighter and burning the book.
A scene that stood out to me was one in which Kim Yong-su was just walking down an alleyway in his neighborhood. Although nothing significant happens in this scene at all, it stuck out to me because the colors in the scene made it look more like a beautiful painting than real buildings in a movie. This is completely insignificant in the movie, but it stood out to me nonetheless.
I liked how the shift between the present, color world, and the past, black and white world, became more and more abrupt, especially when they started to flow together, such as when Yong-su was in the factory and turned for us to see Tae Il. The scene follows Tae Il to a dirt path (in color), until he turns around and then the screen goes back to black and white. I thought this was a very smooth and interesting transition, as it shows both Yong-su's perspective as he is researching about Tae Il's life, as well as Tae Il's perspective when he left the factory life to work in the mountains. This smooth transition also occurs when Tae Il and the factory boys are meeting in the factory basement and then someone knocks on the door. When they turn towards the door, it goes back to color into Yong-su's world. I thought these transitions were done smoothly and nicely.
Another thing I noticed in this film was the music. Oftentimes during the demonstration scenes, the chanting and chattering of the people would gradually fade out to the music, which was generally sad sounding. I thought this was a nice way to show these scenes because the actual sounds of the people at the demonstration aren't needed here. Instead, the somber music is enough to show us the mood of the moment.
Ryan Chang
ReplyDeleteA Single Spark is a highly emotional and provoking film that is prevalent in South Korea's troubled modern history. After the military dictatorships were cast down and real democracy was put in place, the controversial events could finally be portrayed and shown nationally. The film deals with terrible conditions workers faced, criticism of the military-run government, and the sacrifice of one man for a cause he believed in and died for. The film's cinematography uses color for Yong-Su, while black and white is used for Tae-Il. The transition between the two in the latter half of the film is very seamless and casts a special effect on the two characters' perspectives. Although the film was very thought-provoking and influential towards me, at times the pace could be incredibly slow, and involved some extreme long takes that reminded me of Sopyonje. I enjoyed the film and learning about a period of time in South Korea I did not really know about, and as we can see today, Tae-Il's sacrifice wasn't in vain.
A Single Spark (1995), Park Kwang-Su
ReplyDeleteA very unique feature, which I found interesting in this film, is the director’s use of both black and white and colour shots within the film to separate the two stories and at the same time bring out how the two stories are related. This kind of cinematography that the director, Park Kwang-Su, used introduced the audience to Jeon Tae-Il’s life biography as a labour activist. The film did not proceed like other standard biographical documentary way but was made known to the audience through the eyes of Kim Yong-Su, who is a writer writing Jeon Tae-Il’s biography. In a way, Kim Yong-Su and his wife seem to be following in Jeon Tae-Il’s footsteps as Kim Yong-Su’s wife is also organizing a union in the factory that she works at to fight for labour rights. I personally felt that the misc-en-scene of the garment factory in Jeon Tae-Il’s time that was portrayed was very vivid and really emphasized the cramped and bad working conditions of the garment factory. There was a certain level of attention given to all these details to successfully bring out the audience’s sympathy for these workers and to evoke in the audience the sense of wanting to fight together with Jeon Tae-Il.
By juxtaposing the lives of Jeon Tae-Il and Kim Yong-Su using constant switches between the coloured and black and white shots, it has also emphasized that nothing has changed in the five years after Jeon Tae-Il committed suicide as an extreme act of protest. Another distinct feature of the film was the use of long shots during scenes that include empty streets. It somehow signified the never-ending or long route to be taken in order to fight for labour rights. In these long shots, the streets also seemed to be still, which also reflected the state that nothing has changed after five years and factory workers are still being exploited and repressed. The shot where Jeon Tae-Il lit himself on fire was also very vivid, especially since it was a very painful way of ending one’s life. Generally, I felt that this film was effective in depicting the lives of the garment factory workers during the 1960s and showing the kinds of sufferings and repression that they had to go through.
Felicia Chay
A Single Spark
ReplyDeleteThe film, A Single Spark, helped to reflect how the labors in the past have been treated unfairly. It revolved around two men who exist in different time period. The director make it even more interesting by filming Kim Yong Su, a person who is risked his life to write a bibliography for Jeon Taeli. Jeon Taeli, a labor activist and a brave man, who risk himself to obtain the rights for workers and protest against the long hours and terrible working conditions of factories. In order to differentiate with the past and the present and to attract the attention of the audience into the both the lives of Kim Yong Su and Jeon Taeli, the director makes use of black and white filter screen to depict the character, Jeon Taeli in the past and colored screen to depict the present, Kim Yong Su. The screen of the past appears to be more blurring as compared to the screen of the present which help the audience to quickly understand whether the story is showing about the past or present.
At the beginning of the movie, the director showed Jeon Taeli burning a book with lighter and extreme long scenes with a heat up atmosphere of people holding big signs protesting and rioting. The director also makes use of extreme long shots of streets which help to depict a long and tedious process of what Kim Yong Su and Jeon Taeli are facing. The most memorable scene of the movie would probably be the scene where Jeon Taeli burn himself with fire and walked along the streets to sarcrifise himself and stand strongly against the unfair working conditions for the factories labors. The director filmed a close up scene of Jeon Taeli’s face in the fire to show the desire of Jeon Taeli in wanting to gain the rightful labor conditions for the people.
Joey Tay Hui Lin
Tae Kyu Kim
ReplyDeleteA Single Spark
A Single Spark, a 1995 film by director Park Kwang-Su, is about a labor activist name Jeon Tae-il who starts a movement to abolish the harsh conditions of laborers. Based on a true story, the film goes back in history when Jeon Tae-il was lobbying for labor movements, and also moves back to the present time when a biographer named Kim Youngsoo is writing a biography about him. The film is paced very slowly, which was very tedious to watch; however, after seeing the film, I was emotionally touched with the Jeon Tae-il figure; its touching how a 22 year old tried everything to abolish the harsh conditions of labor and how he had to use self-immolation in the end. I think to truly appreciate this film, one must understand the history and period of Park Chung-Hee’s presidency. Additionally, this film contains many traits from the older generation such as a greater sense of hierarchy between the younger and older people and also a greater extent of socioeconomic discrimination. Aside from the story, director Park Kwang-Su does an excellent job in his camera works.
To present audiences with the back and forth periods, Park Kwang-Su uses both color and black-and-white scenes throughout the film. When color scenes are shown, it represents the time period when Kim Youngsoo is trying to write a biography of Jeon Tae-il. And in contrast, the black-and-white scenes represents the time period of Jeon Tae-il. Furthermore, Park Kwang-Su uses this theme to emphasize the similarities between Jeon Tae-il and Kim Youngsoo as they are both labor activists. The director uses mostly dark scenes; I think he wanted to express the sort of “depression” laborers had faced during that time. High-angle shots are also used numerous times throughout the film; there is a scene where Youngsoo and his wife is walking and as they walk the camera is getting higher and eventually above the subjects. One scene that is most recalling to me is the scene at the beach where the boys and girls who work at the tailoring factory goes swimming; here the director uses a long take as they start dancing and singing and until they go running naked to swim. Another camera technique worth mentioning is panning; one scene where panning is used is in the tailoring factory where the camera pans 360 degrees. Although there are no truly impressive scene like some other films, A Single Spark contains many of the basic and various diverse techniques of camera works.
Although the content of A Single Spark was interesting, I feel that it did not communicate the story of Jeon Tae-il as well as it could have. After watching the film, I’m assuming that it was based on a true story. The incorporation of what looked to be actual protests in the opening of the film as well as other setting informative details like the Vietnam war talk on the radio helped express the reality of the film. As someone who doesn’t know much about Korean history, I wish it had functioned less as a historical account and instead drawn more from the perspective of Jeon Tae-il. It seemed to give a very factual account of what happened, but I wanted to know more about their personal thoughts—Jeon Tae-il, in particular.
ReplyDeleteThe dual storyline of Jeon Tae-il and Kim Yong-su was an interesting approach to illustrate the life of Jeon Tae-il. However, if Park Kwang-su’s objective was to tell the story of Jeon Tae-il, I don’t think the use of two stories is beneficial. I see how Kim Yong-su’s narrative coincided with Jeon Tae-il’s story because of the protests going on and the girls wanting to start a union, but I think it made the film unnecessarily complicated and confusing. There were so many aspects of it that were left unanswered at the end of the film, too. What happened to the pregnant girlfriend? What happened to their hopes to create a union? But then again, that might be the point—that the battle like the battle Jeon Tae-il went through was still happening.
Caitlin Omai
A Single Spark is based on the life of young Jeon Taeil, who committed suicide by self-immolation on the main road in front of Pyounghwa Market, calling for compliance with labor laws. Jeon Taeil is a symbol for Korean’s labor movement and the film focuses Jeon’s heroic struggle and political activism to the anguish and despair experienced by the innocent and compassionate youth. The background of the film, in 1975, was fully dismal and depressed by the despotic government lead by Park Jung-hee. Outwardly, Korea was democratic state where the changes occur rapidly. Even the film signifies the present social issue which is unended to this day. After the suicide of Jeon Taeil, serious and huge labor movement started to flow. By mediating the story through the view of an intellectual named Kim Youngsoo, the film makes the audience to consider Jeon Taeil’s conflicts and deliberation from a self-reflexive distance. So, the audience could re-evaluate Jeon’s life and death as a contemporary issue.
ReplyDeletePersonally, the impressive quote of the film Single Spark was ‘We are not a machine.’ which convey human deserve to live like a human not like a machine. As watching the film, I could feel Jeon Taeil’s eager about the definition of law which loses the ability to stand beside of powerless people. Owing to Jeon’s sacrifices, labor law slowly changed and process to set the regular regulation, Korea is still struggling with the irrationality. And film offers to the other generation to actively move to achieve the perfect victory toward the society’s irrationality like Jeon Taeil did.
Julia Wong
ReplyDelete“A Single Spark” directed by Park Kwang-su tells the story of Jeon Tae-il, a worker at a clothing factory who was a part of the labor movement, through the use of his character Kim Yong-su. As Kim Yong-su writes about Jeon Tae-il’s impact on the labor movement so that his efforts are not forgotten, Director Park effectively intertwines the present and past of Kim Yong-su and Jeon Tae-il through the use of shifting from colored scenes to black-and-white scenes. As the film goes on, the transition between the past and the present is completely seamed together as shown in scenes when Kim Yong-su is looking along the hallway of the clothing factory and it naturally shifts into Jeon Tae-il’s view of that same factory. By shifting through these past and present scenes, I felt that the director effectively showed how the conditions of the working place were still not completely changed and how people were still needed to fight for better conditions.
The scenes that most popped out to me were the scenes that the director purposely made color even though Jeon Tae-il was shown. The first one that I noticed was when Kim Yong-su turns around in his new living quarters and sees Jeon Tae-il, and the camera follows Jeon Tae-il as he walks outside and there is a still shot in which the audience sees Jeon Tae-il continue to walk into the background as if it is still in Kim Yong-su's perspective and the scene is still in color. This made me think that not only are we walking alongside Jeon Tae-il, but Kim Yong-su is also walking along Jeon Tae-il’s life as he writes his book. Another scene that I noticed that was in color in the past was when Jeon Tae-il, in his final act of protest, burns himself alive. That scene was so impactful with the use of slow-motion, and close-up on Jeon Tae-il’s face to show his expression of defiance, of perseverance, of why he’s willing to die for this cause. The fire surrounding him had very bright colors that accentuated this meaning, to show that his hope that the labor movement would continue and that his efforts were not useless.The shift to Kim yong-su in the middle of this scene made me think that Kim Yong-su is one of those people who is making sure that Jeon Tae-il's efforts are not forgotten and useless. The final scene that really got to me, which I’m sure many noticed, was at the end, when there is a young man holding onto the book that Kim Yong-su was able to finish, but when the man turns around, we see that it is Jeon Tae-il. I wasn’t sure what exactly the director was going for by putting this scene in, but it wrapped up a sense of closure in me as an audience member knowing that Kim Yong-su succeeded, and that by “seeing” Jeon Tae-il in person, it’s inadvertently telling us that Jeon Tae-il is grateful, that his efforts have not been forgotten, and that there is a sense of mutual understanding between the two men who in their own way fought for the sake of better labor conditions.
Park Kwang-Su’s A Single Spark plays with the film’s color aesthetic as a device to separate time and space, but also to mend the pieces together in the end. The movie starts off with a long take of workers protesting and advocating for their rights. This scene is shot in a normal color aesthetic, as the picture is of what would be seen through a normal human eye. After the first scene, the viewer is brought later into a scene of Tae-il Tae-il selling umbrellas. This scene is shot in black and white. In addition, the scene is shot from a downward tilted angle, so that the viewer is looking at Tae-il from an aerial viewer. Hence, the viewer is brought into the world of the past, of Tae-il. The black and white monochromatic film further enhances the nostalgia of the past. In contrast, another scene in normal color depicts a similar situation of when Kim Yong-Su buys an umbrella for a guard from a little boy. The different color schemes help to differentiate the time period of the two scenes. The scene also helps to suggest that Tae-il’s sacrifice was worth something as the little boy selling umbrellas in the present is treated nicely by Yong-Su, whereas Tae-il was treated badly by the woman he sold an umbrella to. Lastly, the last scene suggests that Tae-il’s sacrifice was ultimately worth it. In a slow-motion clip, Tae-il finally is brought to the present day as he is pictured in color. The flames that encase his body are a vibrant red, and the viewer can see the color of his clothes and skin. Tae-il almost resembles a Phoenix bird. A Phoenix bird symbolizes something that can be cyclically reborn and regenerated. In a way, because Tae-il sacrifices himself, he immortalizes himself because he makes an impact on the civil rights of workers. Furthermore, this idea is seen in the scene where Tae-il and Yong-su are both in the same spot on a bus. The color aesthetic is different, but the previous scene where the color is the same conveys that the sacrifice Tae-il made can protrude to the present.
ReplyDeleteAmanda Kim
EunMyoung Lee
ReplyDeleteIn the film "A Single Spark," the story of Tae-il Jeon and the one of the author who is writing a biography of Tae Il are incorporated together. The two different characters are from two different time periods, yet sharing some similarities. First of all, they are both sympathetic and humanitarian. Tae Il, from the beginning of his work at PyeongYang market, feels so sorry for the children and coworkers who suffer from the horrible working conditions at the factory. He volunteers to help with work that he was not assigned to for those workers who are sick and tries to take care of other young workers like his brothers and sisters. Similarly, Young Su also is a benign person who wants to help those who are weak. This is illustrated in the scene where he buys an umbrella from a young boy in the street to give it to a policeman who is standing in rain. In fact, the umbrella functions as an object that connects Young Su to Tae Il, as that was what he was selling in the beginning of the film. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Tae Il and Young Su both believe in their responsibility to take an action for a good cause. Tae Il is able to find another job after he gets fired from the company. However, he feels in his heart the need to return to the factory and to stand for those suffering workers against the companies. This is the primary purpose of his ultimate action to burn himself in public. In parallel, Young Su is determined to write Tae Il's life story and publish it despite of his unstable, unfavorable living circumstances. He is not even able to see his lover. Nevertheless, he still wants other Koreans to hear and recognize the sacrifice of such a brave, benevolent young man, and he continues with his research and writing about Tae Il. In the end, after the biography gets published, the ending scene shows Tae Il holding Young Su's book to convey the close relationship and the connection they have.
Filming technique wise, the director utilizes the color to distinguish each story of different generations: the old one in gray and the more current one in color. Furthermore, there are many shots that were screened from the view of the characters. This is for the purpose of inviting the audience to the scene and to help engage them better with the setting and the situation.
In the film, Single Spark, by Park Kwang Su, the main setting is shown through demonstration shot of opening scene. The demonstration in this particular scene somewhat resembles that of Jun Tae Il, the protagonist. The film mainly focused on how Jun Tae Il tried to help the labors who are in harsh conditions by giving up everything he has. The director Park, Kwang Su tries to tell the Jun’s story by having an author follow Jun’s past. The audience can see that even though Jun killed himself to improve labor conditions, people still go on strike and demonstrations against government’s law. The suicide of Jun is foreshadowed by the scene where Jun digs a hole at the imprisonment mine pit and lies in it. As the narration of the film reads, “… it was very dark time and there seems to be no hope…”, the film itself was represented in very dark mood.
ReplyDeleteThe effects of the scenes shifted to black and white when it was showing the past which is story of Jun Tae Il. When the author, who is wanted by the police authority, goes into a room to talk to his acquaintance, a tracking was used to shoot the shot. This particular scene looked as if the camera itself was a point of view of another person peeking through the window. I liked this technique very much because it shows emotional state of the author very well since he is wanted by the police, there could be many eyes on him. I notice that that not many scenes are angled straight either horizontally or vertically. It seems like this was intentionally used to show disorientation of such time.
Sangbin Park
ReplyDeleteResponse: A Single Spark
The movie A Single Spark was a revealing film that unveiled tragic sufferings of the common people during the “glorified” period of high economic growth of Korea. The audience must understand the historical background of the story’s setting to fully appreciate the movie. After the Korean War, South Korea was categorized as a “hopeless” country by the world. However, South Korea proved the world wrong with its unprecedented high economic growth. Under Park Chung-hee, South Korea developed rapidly and showed the world “the Miracle on the Han River.” His administration was all about fast growth and radical change--later evidenced by the Yushin Constitution. While chaebols, conglomerates, and the riches enjoyed the years of high growth, the poor and the common people of Korea suffered working in a society that cared nothing but results. The movie brings the story of the common workers, the backbones, of Korean economy to the surface. The factory workers who bared horrible working conditions were the true engines behind the Korea’s economic growth. Activists like Jeon Tae-il that fought for the rights of the workers were the true heroes. This movie was interesting as it illustrated the story of these “forgotten” heroes of the Korea’s economic success.
Through research, I found out that character Jeon Tae-il was a real person who fought for workers’ rights. It made me appreciate the movie more. Although the story of the movie was interesting, the movie’s choices in using the black and white screen to portray the story of Jeon Tae-il and providing a little evidence to the audience to believe his strong motivation for burning himself were disappointing. Of course, the black and white screen made it easy for the audience to distinguish between the past and the present, but it also created a distance between the audience and Jeon Tae-il’s story. His story was not a long ago; it is a story of Korea’s workers and the problems that many of our parents’ generation dealt with. The black and white screen created sensation that his story was something of the long past when the event was relevant to our parents’ generation. Furthermore, the movie did not have a strong buildup of suspensions and events that led Jeon Tae-il to burn himself. Perhaps, more scenes of his emotional stress and determination towards claiming the workers’ rights would have helped to persuade the audience of Jeon Tae-il’s inevitable choice and strong motivation for burning himself. However, the plights of factory workers were clearly shown in the movie highlighting the irony--the relationship between increased wealth of the nation and degradation of the factory workers from exploitation by the riches. Also, the society’s double standard-the riches were right and the poor were wrong-was evident when the corrupted Ministry of Labor continuously ignored the factory workers’ complain. In conclusion, the movie showed the struggles of factory workers who contributed greatly to the country’s economic growth and the workers’ rights behind the period of seemingly glamorous period of high economic growth.
Miwon Kim
ReplyDeleteThe film A Single Spark, directed by Park Kwang-su, chronologizes the life of Jeon Tae-Il, who protested against the poor labor conditions through self-immolation. By narrating the tale through Kim Yong-su's view, the film engages the audience to consider Tae-Il's conflicted situation. With constant changes from black and white screens to color screens, the film successfully flashbacks Yong-su and Tae-Il's lives while focusing specifically on the portrayal of Tae-Il's work. In recounting his life, the theme shifts from political activism and heroic struggle to anguish and despair experienced by the youth in the 70s. From Yong-su's point of view, the audience can see this incident as a contemporary issue. The film examines modern Korean history through the biography of Jeon Tae-Il; however, unlike other boring biographical documentaries, the film explores through Kim's perspective, shifting from his past to his present days. The details of Tae-Il's life are shown piece by piece in an unconventional way. Also, the close shots of the book and the father's statement that the law should put all of those type of people [the boss] in jail foreshadow Tae-Il's future. After saying that the factory girl had a TB, but the boss didn't care, the camera focused on Tae-Il for a while to show that this "spark" led Tae-Il to do labor strikes.
Seung Hyun Koh (2013841663)
ReplyDeleteThe film, ‘A single spark’ vividly portrays the inhumane working conditions of garment factory workers during the Park Jung hee regime.
An interesting symbol in the film is the plant that ‘wakes up later than others’. Near the beginning, Jung-soon, whilst observing the plants, remarks that ‘the one in the end is like a person who drinks tea while everyone else drinks coffee; in spite of the equal conditions, it grows much slower’. In a sense, this alludes to the life of Jeon Tae-il, whose lonely journey to labor rights was severely oppressed by the callous, unconcerned government of the Park Jung-hee era. In his time, Jeon Tae-il received minimal support and had to find a way to promulgate the dire working conditions of Pyung-hwa market to the public who remained largely ignorant.
This serves to illustrate the main point of the film, Jeon Tae-il and his people were even left behind by those who were oppressed. In Park Jung-hee’s era the minjung movement started to take-off and the public were deeply concerned about extreme disparity between the rich and the poor. However, the film shows that the protests held by Jeon Tae-il clearly lacked support, with the number of participants meager at best. In a way, it can be said that Jeon Tae-il and his people were outsiders even to the group of the oppressed known as the minjung. He had no choice but to set himself on fire to attract the much-needed attention of the public.
It should be noted that the film utilizes extreme long shot to foretell Jeon Tae-il’s plight. For instance, extreme long shot is used when Jeon Tae-il, upon vowing to gain labor rights for the garment factory workers, makes his way back to the Pyung-hwa market. Like in the film Seo pyeon-jae, the shot displays Jeon Tae-il walking along the long, empty road implying the harsh and lonely road ahead.
In addition, there were scenes that clearly illustrated the fact that the working conditions of labors were pitifully low even after the death of Jeon Tae-il, that life is same as it ever was. An example of this is the juxtaposition made between Jeon Tae-il and the boy selling umbrella. Like Jeon Tae-il, the young boy is forced to streets trying to sell umbrella to make a living. More conspicuously, the transition from color to black and white illustrates the fact that changes have yet to take place. For example, near the beginning of the film (which is filmed in color) when Kim Young-soo goes to the garment factory, he sees that the people there still endure harsh work as well as poor working conditions. The next scene transits to the past (signaled by black and white) to make a point that the present is not so much different from the past; the working conditions were as unbearable as it was in the past.
Woo Yeon Park
ReplyDeleteGwang-soo Park's movie, "A Single Spark" revealed the darkest era of Korean politics under Park Chung-hee's absolute control. This highly political movie enlightened me how controlled Koreans were and the society lacked humanity for better economy. Even though I have learned and read a lot about the Miracle of Han, and how people suffered to achieve the glorifying Korea, the movie gave me a shock to realise Korea was indeed rise from corruption and hopeless monarchy. The child labor, uneducated civilians, ruthless upper class and powerful political leaders: I was stunned that all of the components of third world country happened in Korea just couple of decades ago. However, the movie also illustrates the brightness side of Korea: the youth of country. As the direct translation of Korean title says, 'Beautiful Young man, Jeon Tae-il,' the energetic young men and women throughout the movie lightened up the atmosphere and left room for hope. Students' demonstration and Samdong's protests against the unfair labor environment not only represent the fearless and proactive characteristics of social activists, but also persuade the audience to empathy the Tae-il's crew. Eventually, those events maximises audience's sympathetic emotions toward Tae-il when he lit fire on him to abolish labor abuse.
The seamless transition of time when the perspective changes from Young-soo to Tae-il connects their life. Both characters suffer under the absolute control of government and actively look for rebellion. As Young-soo learns more about Tae-il's life through Tae-il's mother, his situation also get worsen and his inner conflict deepened. He has to hide from the government and tries to protect Jung-sun and his child. As Tae-il's story meets obstacles, Young-soo goes through moments of getting caught or Jung-sun gets endangered. The parallel of these two characters compose tensed feeling throughout the movie and explored when Tae-il set on fire and the next scene, Tae-il walking with Young-soo's book about him. The story does not end with their win or manifesto of both characters; however, the connection becomes more clear when Tae-il appears with Young-soo's book. The movie perhaps wanted to celebrate to all the brave people who fought for human's right during the horribly oppressed time.
Tina Nguyen
ReplyDeleteA Single Spark is about the life of labor protestor Tae-il during the repressive regime of Park Chung Hee. The film is characterized by the many track shots of the fire. This fire represents the sacrifice of Tae-il who committed self-immolation in protest of the harsh working conditions of factory workers. I believe Tae-il used fired because fire is something that captures people’s attention. After being ignored due to his low status, setting himself on fire was the only way he would be able to get people to listen to his words and struggles. A particularly striking image during the film was when Tae-il dug a hole in the ground and laid in it. It looked like he was building his own grave and laying down in it signified his acceptance of his impending death. That’s when I knew that his death towards the end of the film was imminent. It was somewhat similar to a scene in Christmas in August when Jung won takes a picture of himself showing that he was accepting his imminent death towards the end of the film.
The film also had many flashbacks to the past in black and white showing Tae-il’s life. Although the event took place five years from the start of the movie, the use of black and white was suppose to represent different times and older ideals. However, as you view the events in the movie even with Tae-il’s sacrifice you realize that not much changed in terms of worker’s conditions. The workers are still struggling to build a union to build better worker’s conditions and still face police brutality and suppression from the chaebol. I would go as far as saying that this not only represents Korea’s problem as an emerging industrialized nation but all the fast growing industrialized nations in present day who face inhumane working conditions to fuel the nation’s economy and line the pocketbooks of rich business men who view them as replaceable working machine rather than respectable humans.
Somin Seong
ReplyDeleteIn "A Single Spark", two different men’ life stories are portrayed throughout the film: one real historical figure and one fictional. The fictional charater, Kim Yong-su is writing a biographical book about this historical figure, Jeon Tae-il, who fights against the unfair treatment of labor. Kim Yong-su is wanted by police since he has been in the student demonstration before. Therefore, he finds a sense of kinship from Jeon and he wants to find the reason of his existence throughout discovering and writing about this heroic figure who burns himself to express his will of changing the unfair labor system. The scenes alternate continuously between Jeon’s and Kim’s life so the flashback and the current; those scenes are differentiated by alternation of black& white and the colored screen. Most of the time when Jeon appears in the screen, it is black and white since it is kind of past of the time. However, if Jeon is illusioned by Kim’s thought then it is still colored. For example, the ending scene of the film where Kim sees a guy on the street carrying his book and turns back, Jeon’s face appears but the screen is still in color. The distinction of camera method is very affective since it makes readers easier to see which is which.
I personally did not really like too frequent alternation of two men’s lives since it made some confusions and made me think that they exists at the same time or telling a whole different stories at the same time. I feel like transition is not very smooth but rather too abrupt. Also, it would be more impressive if the scene where Jeon burns himself is more elaborated. I feel like it happened too suddenly and shortly that I wasn’t that emotionally provoked to that scene even though that was the climax of the story. Except those parts, this movie is very well made especially considering that this was made in 1995.
A single spark directed by Gwan-su Park in 1995. This film have two stories of intercuts, one in black and white, one in color. It is biographical film about Tae-il Jeon protested labor conditions and he committed suicide by self-immolation on the front of PyungHwa Market. He tries to demonstrate and change the distorted labor law. He buys a law book that shows the expectation that Jeon Tae-il tries to have labor movement. He effort to change bad labor conditions; tries to find government help, make a association, and talks to reports to notice this problems to the people. Kim Yong-su, who is an intellectual hiding person from Park Chung Hee’s repressive regime. He and his pregnant girl friend Shin jung-sun, in1975, try to write on the book about Jeon Tae il’s life story as a labor movement. I think this film tries to remind people the process of revised the labor law. Audience could feel that the labors, in 1970, experiences miserable labor conditions and it needs one’s scarification for changing this terrible situation. This movie is the first use of digital sounds and shows the story with flashback that audience would know the historical facts.
ReplyDeleteChankyung Jung
Dong Min Shin
ReplyDeleteSingle Spark depicts lives of two men who are resisting against the large current. They both protest against the factory owners and the government for the sake of the workers' rights and humanitarian working conditions. However, their journey constantly meets harsh obstacles and failures, as they are the members of the minority who are cast away from the society.
The cameras of the Single Spark reflects how the characters are powerless individuals who are just part of the surrounding environment. In many of the scenes, the camera doesn't follow the characters. Rather, the characters need to either walk in to the frame or adjust their position to properly show their faces.
Many of the times, when the important character is speaking, the audience can't see the speaker's face right away when he or she is speaking. While the viewers can hear the speaker's voice, the character often either steps in into the frame few seconds late or talks while he or she is facing away from the camera. Sometimes, while the character speaks, the camera doesn't even include the character into the shot. Rather, it shows certain objects, such as a book or TV, from the character's surrounding environment. The character needs to step into the frame to fit itself into the screen to be shown. Furthermore, the movie choses to show certain events in long shots, engulfing the figure within the environment as part of the background. When the female activist was being harassed in front of her house, the scene is shown in long shot from the bottom of the hill. From that point of view, the viewer can't even see the characters' faces as the street is too dark to see anything other than silhouettes.
The fact that the characters need to work themselves into the frame of the inconsiderate camera, reflects the conditions of the two main characters who need to actively work against the inconsiderate factories and the government.
Gloria Chang
ReplyDeleteOne of two things that I found interesting in Single Spark was firstly, the non-diegetic sound of what seemed to be a heartbeat, right in the beginning of the film. Remembering what was said about the importance of the very first scene, I tried to think of what the sound might mean. We hear it before we see anything. It might be preempting the sound of the drums of the protesters in the first scene to bring attention to its’ importance. I would like to think that it is the sound of the Tae Il’s heart to see justice for the factory workers and his life which is the subject of this film.
The other thing of interest to me was the use of hard lighting and strong shadows in this film. One time we see Mr. Kim at the factory a high angle shot is used from above a staircase and looks at him but the he is against the backlight and is portrayed as a black silhouette. After that we see him in the factory listening in on the girls behind a wall and slowly moving into the shadow out of the camera’s eye. It puts him in very mysterious light, that he is a figure who is seen and yet not. He is also always in the dark. To the authorities he is a shadow, the never lay their hands on him.
The obvious use between color and black and white in this film helped show which story was being talked about; I thought this was a clever way to not only know what story was being focused on, but the differences as well as similarities between the two stories. Although the two stories are only five years apart, a lot was different yet related. Some working conditions in the present seemed to improved compared to the Pyonghwa factory in Jung TaeIl's time. Yet, the "present" story still consisted of problems JungTaeIl was fighting for. Unions were still discouraged and authority was a threat and unhelpful for the general public, especially factory workers. While the use of color and black and white was supposed to give different stories, the parts when Taeil appeared in the present and when the stories built off one another and when Taeil -on-fire was in color represented the ironic overlapping between the past and present. This quality represents that nothing really progressed after Taeil's sacrifice—while his story was almost forgotten--and the Korean society was still in
ReplyDeleteshambles.
A scene that stook out to me the most was when Taeil dug a coffin in the rain and just laid inside of it—this illustrates the dehumanization present in all the characters of the stories. Throughout the whole story, no character was "alive." The two lovers in the present story are not allowed to freely love each other; they technically do not even "exist" because they were not recorded in the Korean census. The labor workers obviously did not sleep, eat, nor go to the bathroom like healthy and normal people do. They are injected with mysterious medicine that make them blind and inable to function properly; the workers were dehumanized as soon as they started working in the factories. Taeil in the coffin shows that none of them are treated like humans anymore; their souls are gone and only their bodies are left to suffer in cruel reality.
^ Jasmine Tat
DeleteDaniel Rhee
ReplyDeleteA Single Spark
When experiencing anything in black and white, I automatically think of the past. Especially being a child of a generation that celebrates high quality in color, it is hard to witness anything in black and white. In Park Kwang-Suk's A Single Spark, the film constantly flashes back between the present and past. The present, portrayed in color, is about the life of a political activist named Kim Yong-Su who is trying to help his lover win against an oppressive garment factory company. Similar to Yong-Su, the past is portrayed in black and white with Jeon Tae-Il as the main character who is also trying to fight against an oppressive garment factory.
While watching the film, I was never sure on whether or not the flashbacks to Jeon Tae-Il's life were being narrated through Yong-Su's book or if there were just two parallel stories being told. Even when the movie ended, I was still unsure on what point of view that story was being told in. All together, I was a little confused as to what the point of the film was. I understood that this piece was made to bring light to the horrible working conditions of factories during Park Chung Hee's military regime, but I was unable to piece together what the significance of the storyline was. More than a "movie", it felt as if I was watching a dramatic interpretation of a documentary. The two stories in the film were very similar but one thing that was different was that Yong-Su was trying to help his lover's quarrel with her factory by publicizing Tae-Il's past attempt to bring better working conditions to garment factory he worked at. With that said, I felt like the movie could have been paced better. At times, I felt like some background music would put more emotion because the film was too dry for my taste. With such little music and a slow pace, I never felt attached to the movie because even though the situation of the story is horrible, I never personally experienced it, which ultimately made me indifferent to the film. If there was more exigency to the situation and more fast paced scenarios, I would have potentially felt more attached to the film.
Dong Eun (Agnes) Lee
ReplyDeleteWe all know that the current president of Korea, Park Geun Hye, is the daughter of the nation’s former ‘dictator’ Park Chung Hee. Her determination was highlighted from the very beginning due to this aspect and the fact that she was going to become the first female president of South Korea. I don’t really know much about Korean politics, but the movie certainly made me wonder how people could be accepting of her presidency. From a naïve American student’s perspective, it seems absurd to consider electing the daughter of a man who once focused solely on building a foundation of economic development through industrialization and neglected people’s rights to democracy. By stating this, I am not trying to come off as offensive to anyone reading this response. However because A Single Spark had greatly portrayed the lives of those who encountered severe physical and mental damage through excessive labor, I could not but sympathize their situation.
On the other hand, I was able to make connections to another class I’m currently taking at Yonsei – Global Health & Sociological Perspectives. Among the various global health related topics discussed, the working conditions of the Maquiladora Women seemed rather similar to the factory environment depicted in the movie. The case study on the Mexican women indicated that “time spent in factories greatly affects workers’ health due to exposure to toxic substances, poor ventilation and lighting, hazardous equipment and ergonomic stress associated with repetitive assembly-line motions and body positions.” (Gambrill 1981) These features definitely seemed to resemble the conditions women face in the movie. The most extreme scene that illustrates this is when a girl diagnosed with tuberculosis coughs too much blood and eventually gets fired.
Often times, we are exposed to how little the difficulties of working class is paid attention to. Yet we only seem to associate with the problem when the discussion is raised. Once enough conversation and research is conducted, there isn't much approach towards actually solving the issue. Even with myself, as I am once again alluding to the topic of poor labor conditions, I am embarrassed to recognize my lack of effort in realistically helping out those underprivileged individuals. Simply put, I just wish there was an answer to all of this.
The movie "A Single Spark" makes use of film color in effective ways. Throughout the movie, Yong-Su is filmed in color, while Jeon-Tae-Il is filmed in black&white. These different portrayals of different protagonists hold visual significance as well as symbolic significance.
ReplyDeleteThe visual effect that B&W screen brings is a sense of reminiscence. This sense of reminiscence could only be established as colored screen coexists in the film. It further implies different time frames and their sequences.
The symbolic value of the B&W screen is also significant. Due to its lack of colors, the B&W screen inevitably yields a dark atmosphere. Jeon-Tae-Il struggles as many other laborers. It could be called Dark Age if you will. Furthermore, it could also be viewed as lack of hope, which is emphasized in the movie. Jeon-Tae-Il is viewed through B&W screen and only after he burns himself with fire, the B&W screen fades away and turns into a colored screen. The burning of Jeon-Tae-Il gives colors to the film or hope to his fellow workers.
The film features two different narrators who do not seem to share direct contact, at least to the extent the film features. Yong-Su is filmed in color and it is presumably after the death of Tae-Il. The tragic and ironic part, and maybe the message of the movie is that they both experience oppression. Even after they have hope, they are still oppressed. There seems to be no change in a way. Nonetheless, people are now willing to fight for their rights. Tae-Il was indeed a spark that led to a big fire.
The movie features not only workers' labor condition, but also women's hardships. They specifically mention about a day off for a menstrual cycle and furthermore a woman pioneers in founding a labor union in her workplace. This gender struggle is illustrated along with the labor struggle. As Korea has been in a turmoil of changes in gender expectations, the gender struggle may be often illustrated in many Korean films.
The film accommodates frequent use of close-up shots. When the interviewees appear on screen, they are all taken in close-up shots. In addition, Yong-Su and Tae-Il are very often viewed in close-up shots. These close-up shots function to convey emotions. I, however, personally found these close-up shots (especially featuring Yong-Su) emotionally plain and even apathetic for some scenes. Yong-Su rarely expresses his emotion fully enough. This might have been intended yet it personally came to me as dry scenes.
The narrations in "A Single Spark" as a whole play an important role in establishing an atmosphere of the film. At first, the narration often sounds like a memoir. Near the end of the film, Tae-Il's voice takes over the narration, telling his determination to win the fight. Here the narration sounds very poetic. As the narration shifts in its tone, the film escalates in emotion and tension, which later explode and bring a catharsis as Tae-Il burns himself.
Jieun Yoon
ReplyDeleteA Single Spark
Before I watched the film, "A Single Spark," all I knew about Jeon Taeil was that he committed suicide. So I had negative image about him and never thought what made him to kill himself as a young age. However, while I was watching the movie, I felt sorry that my ignorance dishonored his sacrifice. I misunderstood that he committed suicide for his own good, but the truth is that he set himself on fire as a way of protest for all of the abused laborers.
One of the reasons why we're learning history is not to make same mistakes or to be even single step better. However, what happened in 1970s is still repeated nowadays. The well educated people knew how the laborers were treated and it's not right, but they didn't speak out untill a single spark happened. Unfortunately, it's still happens in our current society.
This movie made me to think, what if I were Jeon Taeil would I speak out and do something? Maybe I would be one of the young girls who has been abused and suffered from TB and think this is my reality. The movie "A Single Spark" was one of the most impressive movies and I enjoyed it.
Charlotte Fitzek
ReplyDeleteThough a biopic, I was sometimes pulled out of the moment because at several instances I felt like I was watching propaganda, an experience I do not enjoy at all. (In fact, “until 1998 it was illegal for labor to involve itself in politics” (Cumings), so perhaps this movie was indeed intended as a form of pro-labor ‘propaganda’). This feeling first struck me during the scene in which Tae-Il tells his parents of the horrors he has recently witnessed at the factory, to which his father responds matter-of-factly: “these people should be in jail. It wouldn’t be like this if the law were enforced”. When Tae-Il’s mother recounts Tae-Ils generosity towards the girls to Kim Yong-Su, Park Chung-Hee/US criticism, likening Tae-Il to a religious martyr…these are just some of the other instances in which information or opinions felt like they were being fed to us. During such instances, various characters (often, not even visible) make statements, but instead of occurring during conversation where they could be refuted, the director chooses to present the anecdotes of suffering and censure of bureaucratic failure in monologues. As a result, we become talked to, instead of 3rd party viewers who may form their own opinion based on unfolding events. Such moments are effective in stirring pathos, but at the same time I bristle when it feels like the director is trying to tell me how to think and interpret events. I can surmise the message “the regime was terrible” without being expressly told so.
In contrast, convincing the audience of the corruption at the leadership level was much better and convincingly accomplished through allowing us to watch it. Rather than wholly blame the patriarchal order, in a rather egalitarian manner, both men and women in leadership are implicated in ignoring and mistreating the working class (e.g. the older (male) factory owners and the female city official both represent corrupt leaders). As a result, this movie becomes less about gender, and truly focuses the main theme around leadership and universal labor rights. Watching and hearing the campus become a quasi-battle field to me is a much more powerful way of convincing me that the regime was overly suppressive. Tinting many scenes in a blue hue or playing depressive music were for me much more effective in emotionally aligning myself with the workers, than have the director tell me I should. Also effective in tying the stories together, was the reoccurring blue umbrella because it evoked a certain sense of nostalgia and even irony that it young Tae-Il’s story should repeat with the little boy. For my personal reaction, these are the instances in which the movie was successful.
Charlotte Fitzek
Christine Kim
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I can't say this movie was my favorite out of all the movies we watched in class. However, I do really appreciate this movie as a whole very much. It is clear that the director put a lot of effort and detail in this movie. It came off to me that the movie isn't just for entertainment, but to state a clear message. This is a movie with purpose.
A general theme I received from this movie is that "effort is not wasted". If you see now, work conditions have proved drastically. It all starts with one spark to ignite a forest fire movement. Every effort makes the fire grow bigger. I thought the close up shot of the fire was very neat. It added emphasis on group movement and passion.
A Single Spark really illustrates Korea during the time of communism. You can only read and learn so much about the horrible work conditions. But having that visual really moves you and allows you to feel emotion. The harmful injections and workers dying of TB showed the norm of everyday work life in Korea during that time period.
Clearly what makes this movie so unique is that the film is both black and white and color. Now I'd like to say, I would not appreciate if every movie made a flashback in black&white. However, this movie really made it work. It's not even a character's memory. The past and present in the movie serves as compare and contrast. There were scenes with the same setting, but different time period. The difference in color showed how much time pass and how much progress has been made. We can see that the "present time" in the movie was still struggling. However, progress is still progress no matter how small it may seem. This movie truly made me thankful for all the people in the past who selflessly fought for our rights and couldn't live to see this day.
Gloria Lee
ReplyDelete“A Single Spark” is a film of persecution of society which is directed by Gwang-Soo Park in 1995. Korean laborers in 1970s worked in a very harsh and harmful condition and reality. The film explicitly portrays the circumstances that many Korean laborers experienced back in 1970s. Tae-il Jeon who burnt himself to death is the main leader of the labor movement is described in a viewpoint of Young-Soo Kim in the film. Kim is a writer of Tae-il Jeon’s bibliography and he is inspired by Jeon’s passionate, strongly motivated and self-sacrificed actions for many laborers. The scenes of Kim’s circumstances and the flashback of Jeon’s story go back and forth throughout the film. Both Kim and Jeon seem to share some of their life situations in common and Kim gets obsessed with Jeon while reminiscing Jeon’s life and passion. Since both of their stories overlap in the film, it might have been hard to distinguish which story each scene is portraying. However, by using black-and-white shots for Jeon and colored shots for Kim, the director Park made it easier for the audiences to distinguish the stories. A form of describing Jeon’s life in the viewpoint of Kim, a kind of closed camera angle, and restrained camera shots contributed to the director Park’s attempt to illustrate the harsh, harmful and terrible labor conditions in Korea. Park also uses foreshadowing that Jeon is going to fire himself with the book of the labor laws by depicting the scenes of bonfire, an oil barrel, and his charismatic expressions on his face.
After watching the film, remarkable impression lingers in my mind. Because it is a true story, it makes me think Jeon as a very compassionate, devoted, and enthusiastic leader and hero. Also, he is only in his early age like 20 when he burnt himself to death, but was able to have such courage and passion just for the laborers. I think this film might provoke a motivation and passion for younger generations to actually do and fulfill their goals and dreams without just staying in thoughts. Just act it out like Jeon did. Jeon changed the idea and the law that did not seem to be changed in Korea. 1970s is only about 40 years ago and Korea could possibly experience this great change in working condition and laborer’s rights not long time ago. It was the efforts of people like Jeon which entirely changed the labor conditions and laws in Korea. A last ending scene which portrays a man, probably a laborer, holding the bibliography of Jeon, and Kim looking at the man may be attempted to suggest that there is going to be people like Jeon who will change Korea in the future.
June WIe
ReplyDeleteThe film 'A Single Spark'was a film that showed the labor conflicts that Korea had dealt with during the time period when the protagonist Jeon Tae-Il was fighting the labor conflict. The main character is a writer named Kin Young-Soo who secretly writes the biography of Jeon Tae-Il's life. The film begins with crowds of protesters on a busy street. I thought this showed some foreshadwing for the problems that were going to occur throughout the movie. Soon after they show the crowds of protestors they show Jeon Tae-Il in black and white with a close up of the lighter and the flame going towards a book. This forshadowed for the ending where he ultimately lights himself on fire and screams that humans are not machines. Throughout the movie I couldn't help but feel sympathy for each character. Not only Jeon Tae-Il but the man who was busy secretly writing his biography;Kim Young-soo and his pregnant wife who gets harrassed and beaten due to her involvement with union making.
It was my first time seeing a movie that goes back and forth from black and white to color as much as "A Single Spark' did. This fascinated me and was part of the reason that I looked more at the editing and filming of this movie than most movies I have watched in the past. The black and white was clearly the past and the color was the present. Black and white had always been registered as something from the past in my mind so luckily the movie was not confusing because of that. I thought that there were so many parrallels between Jeon Tae-Il and Kim Young-soo that sometimes what did confuse me was how the film was being portrayed in terms of who was telling Jeon's story? Was it just the movie or was it Kim's writing? I thought that the back and forth between color and black and white also showed that the labor conflict had not ended even when Kim was writing the biography despite Jeon's suicidal actions.
Stacey Hahn
ReplyDeleteIn the film A Single Spark, I often found myself thinking about the role of females in the film and the labor movement. It sounds blunt and negative, but women in the film aren’t really there to make change. And if they are, Director Park Kwang Su ultimately uses them to cement the patriarchal superiority of the males. For instance, Yong-San’s wife is a strong female character who wants to start a union, but her efforts are futile. One scene that comes to mind is when the wife encounters her boss and his assistant outside of her home. The whole scene devotes itself to building the tension between the female worker and the male employer; specifically, the long take of the peaches rolling down the street embodies the inevitable failure of her efforts with the union. Just as the chance of collecting the fruit dwindles as they roll further down the hill, the chance of the strike’s success fades as well. Although the men’s attempts to capture the public eye were unsuccessful until Choe Tae-Il’s self-immolation, the only woman in the film that tried to fight back ultimately failed.
In addition to this, Director Park Kwang-Su further explores the patriarchal system through the way women are presented in the film. Throughout A Single Spark, women are essentially powerless. This is exemplified in the power differential between the shop floor foreman and the female employees. For example, the foreman has control over almost every aspect of his female employees. He is the one who gives them permission to go to the bathroom or go home. He is the one who injects shots into the girls if they’re falling asleep, even if it endangers the girls’ health. His actions dictate the fate of their livelihoods. The women cannot do anything about it because his authority is so deeply established not only in the title of his job, but also his gender. Through this, Park effectively shows the patriarchal limits imposed on women at that time.
MinJoon Choi
ReplyDeleteThis film Single Spark uses the contrast of white and black to convey the labor movement in Korea, which took place at the time. The director achieves this by showing Tae-Il (in black and white) and the organisers who continued to work in the 90s (in color). One interesting point is that there was numerous instances where there was a swift but smooth transition between the black white and color, which is intended by the director to parallel the times and show that there is actually little difference between back then and in the 90s. This is true because in both time periods, the workers do not have a strong voice and right, while majority of the population share the mutual feeling.
Another key color in the movie is blue. This color blue in the 90s period demonstrates that there is no solace in escaping the black and white world of the past. There was many cohesion of the color of the scene with the coupling of music. For example, a wide camera shot of the initial introduction of the sweatshop unshelled the hallways, presenting multiple blue hues of color, and this was comprised along with the melancholy music. By doing this, I believe the director has created a modern film while still being able to focus on issues that were significant from the past.
The movie ‘A single Spark’ was based on real event that happened in Korea. That was when South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world and was undeveloped unlike these days. The story was true story about Tae-il Jeon who was 22 working as a tailor in the factory. Most of laborers in the factory was suffering from low incomes even working all night in the miserable environment. Tae-il felt a lot of grievance and was the one who tried to let the others know about the Labor Standard Act which was to get the rights back of the workers by suicide.
ReplyDeleteThe film mostly shows the flashbacks of Young Su Kim to Tae il Jeon. Interesting thing is that the director shoots the story of Young su with color and Tae-il’s story with monochrome. It does make the audiences to notice that Young su is in the present and Tae il is in the past. The both scenes show connections and contradictions very well. Especially, when showing the scenes in the past, it uses very strong contrasts. This effect does show the audiences to feel the miserable reality of the workers of that period. When the film gets to almost the ending of the movie, there is the only one scene where it shows the past scene with colors. Tae-il put oil all over his body and burn himself, shouting “Observe the Labor Standard Act! We are not machines!”. Why did the director put this scene with colors? I feel like the director might not want to separate the present with the past.
Additionally, each stories and perspectives of Young su and Tae il also shows connections together. The scene where Tae-il is having secret discussion with his friends in the secret place, he is surprised by the sound of knocking the door and says, “Mother!” The right next scene is Tae-il’s mother coming into the boiler room where Young su is staying and Young su greets her. These two scenes were connected very smoothly by Tae-il’s mother, in other words, the two different periods is connected like they are in the same period of time. Moreover, when the scene that Young su is sitting on the night train the camera gradually moves to the other directions, and when it comes back, it shows Tae-il suddenly. Even the stories of Young su was shoot with colors, and the stories of Tae-il was shoot in black and white, the audience is not likely to feel awkwardness because Young su was in the night train with dark background.
Throughout the film, I could really feel the efforts of Tae-il Jeon, and people also should not forget his great achievement that even changed our country.
Dayeon Hyeon
ReplyDeleteThe movie, “A Single Spark” is a story of a boy named ‘Tae-il Jeon’ who lived like a single spark in 1970’s. Korea in 1970’s was under President Park. It was very dictatorial. Tae-Il is a man who argued about the unfairness of the law of labour in Korea. This movie talks about this young man’s voice and the unfair society. The most impressive scene in this movie is the ending. Tae Il burns himself to death. Some people would say that his decision was quite rash. However, in 1970s, as this movie was shown, nobody was listening Tae Il’s voice. His death was the only way he could attract people’s attention and the only way he could appeal the seriousness of the problem of working condition. The society where Tae Il was living in was hopeless. Hopeless means no reason to live. By committing suicide, Tae Il tried to be a hope to the society. On the other hand, Young Soo’s hope was Tae Il and his baby along with Jeoung Soon. Tae Il from Young Soo’s memory is a hope to make changes to the society. Young Soo’s baby is his motivation to make a better society. This is why Young Soo tried to see his baby and his wife before his final work of writing his book. Young Soo wants his family to live in a better place and his baby to work in a better working condition. After he published his book, now he becomes a hope to others who read his book.
When Young-Soo thinks about Tae-Il, whole scenes are in black and white. It clearly distinguishes Young-Soo’s story and Tae-Il’s story. Also, for Young Soo’s story, it is in first person’s point of view. For Tae-Il’s story, it is in third person’s point of view. Audience would feel that they are watching Tae-Il’s life at a distance. These distinguish of camera works help audience to understand this movie easily.
Inhwan Choi
ReplyDeleteA Single Spark by Park Gwang-su is about labor and human rights activist Jeon Tae-il, who immolated himself in November of 1970 at age 22. The great thing about this movie is the Mise-en-scene because it depicts realistically the miserable situation during the dictatorship under the president Park Jeong-hee. This film is a well-made movie in a way that it illustrates the set of the 1970s Korea even though it was made in 1995.
The director and the camera look at Tae-il with warmth and respect. When Yong-su apparently sees Tae-il in the boiler room, Park is trying to tie together the past and the present. The shot of Tae-il looking down the path and looking back shows that the "past" represented by Tae-il acknowledges the viewer aka the "present". The changing of color shots to black and white ones also enhance the distinction drawn between past and present. This scene represents Park's feeling that he wants to walk on the same path and follow his trail.
As I described above, the distinction between black and white and color shots show the differences between past and present. However, Park decides to bring Tae-il, primarily displayed as a black and white character, into the color world. This technique, used in the final sequence, is effective because it finally stitches together the past and present and shows that even though Tae-il physically died for a cause, his impact on the state of labor laws in Korea are felt to this day.
Myoung Su Ko
ReplyDeleteKorean cinema
“A Single Spark” depicts with realism about sensitive social issue of labor law. It portrays the difficulties the Korean society faced during the rapid industrialization, when South Korea was ruled by a military force and was in a turmoil. The tone of the movie is a heavy depression one, where the atmosphere seems gloomy, and it rains quite often. The rain symbolizes the dark, depressing environment where the characters live in. One scene in particular that has a lasting impression is when Tae Il is coming out of the building after a meeting with the inspector, where a woman comes out and then goes back into the building to seek haven from the rain. Yet, Tae Il goes into the rain, without his umbrella, in a black and white scene. His umbrellas that he sells in the beginning symbolizes his shelter and roof, a way to make money. However, when he leaves that world, he is thrust into a darker world of abuse. Yong Su, in the future, is in a way a reincarnation of Tae Il, even walking in the rain without an umbrella, when the young boy tries to sell him one. He too, leaves the umbrella, to seek a conclusion to the mess and disorder of the present. He even has to keep himself away from his pregnant wife, to continue his struggle and fight. Both characters, are running away from hardships brought on by the outside, but still face those same hardships in the end, in a way that is not directly confrontational. Both are being diplomatic in their approaches, and both care too much for what they believe in, that they continue their journeys. One can strike the parallels between the two characters. Yet, since society and culture are both different in the timelines, the end conclusion for both are different, yet the struggles are similar.
Director Park Kwang-su plays extensively with shadow and light throughout “A Single Spark.” Consistently, scenes are shrouded in darkness except for one limited area of light. Certainly one of the most notable scenes using this technique are the scenes with the lighters; focus is then centralized on the flame, which is accentuated by the slow-motion with which it is lit and manipulated by the figure in the scene. Additionally, light often streams out from a doorway serving as a frame inside a frame, while the rest of the space remains dark. Furthermore, faces were often hidden fully or partially in shadow, covered completely by a newspaper or umbrella, blurred, or not shown. The widespread usage of shadow, darkness, and high contrast adds to the weight and heaviness of the film’s content; it draws out the anguish of the laborers and adds power to A Single Spark’s moving depiction of torturous labor conditions and the seemingly hopeless fight for justice and humane treatment for workers.
Although "A Single Spark" is in a way an antique in Korean cinema, it makes strides as a modern depiction of social struggles in Korean society throughout not only the story lines or narrations, but also the style or camera techniques.
Gayoung Park
ReplyDeleteThe film, A Single Spark, depicted the life of Jeon Taeil, a real heroic figure who committed suicide by burning himself to death in protest of the poor working conditions in South Korean factories. Shocked by the death of Jeon Taeil, Youngsoo Kim writes a bibliography about Jeon Taeil. The process of which he follows Jeon's trace is portrayed as the form of flashback documentary film.
The director's use of color and black-and-white, and camera movement was very interesting. He made constant switches between color and black-and-white which differentiated the time period between past and present; Jeon Taeil's life as black-and-white and the moment of writing bibliography as colored. Kwangsoo Park managed these transitions very well and made easier for audience to understand the flow of the story. The director used the extreme longs shots and close shot to highlight some important scenes in the film. For instance, the director used the extreme long shot of empty street and Jeon Taeil's way to Pyung-hwa market which implied that there are still more way to go for and that it would take a long time for the victorious moment to come. The close shot of Jeon Taeil's face during his suicide was also very impressive. Jeon Taeil demanded for due rights for all the labors even when he was dying out of fire. We were all able to feel his dedication and desire for healthy working environment. Throughout the movie, the camera movement such as the long shot and the close shot amplified the Jeon Taeil's sacrifice for all.
In the film “A Single Spark,” there are two time periods that are utilized to depict the events. Jeon Tae Il’s life, the worker’s activists who burned himself to protest the horrendous working conditions in the factory, are shown in a grainy black and white footage, and Kim Yong Su the author of Jeon Tae Il’s biography are being shown in color. One of the best characteristics of this film was its smooth transitions between the two time periods, with scenes that interlocked with one other and seamlessly integrated into the plot without breaking the flow of the film. The audience isn’t jolted with sudden cuts and takes which assists in conveying the message of the film in a precise and definite method. The long shot of Tae Il digging his grave and lying down in it foreshadows his honorable death as he is voluntarily willing to lay down his life for the good of improving working conditions. The close up shot of his face as he lights himself on fire clearly depict his fierce determination about the cause, and the audience can intensely feel his struggle as he makes this decision.
ReplyDeleteDuring the color footages, when the workers were dumped in a rural, waste-land area it embodies what workers mean to the factory and how they are seen: as disposable trash that could simply be thrown away without consideration for their nature as human beings. They were carelessly kidnapped and left in the wasteland, like worn-out machines that had out-lived their usage. Its important to note that when he set himself on fire at the end of the film the fire was shown in color for the first time in the black and white footage of the past. This is symbolic because the first glimpse of color represents a new beginning for the workers. The colors black and white have mundane qualities and no lively aspects. The colors red and orange are extremely vibrant and fierce and it demands the attention of the audience when set against the black and white footage. In the same way, the worker’s plight has come to the full attention of society, demanding changes and forcing their voice to be heard.
Saewon Kim
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Korea so I heard about this movie a lot and I knew that Jeon Tae il is a legendary figure in Korea.
I also heard that this movie got lots of award and highly rated when first released. So I expected a lot, but the movie is
quite disappointing.
The biggest feature of the movie is its constant time changing. The stories of Yongsu was shot in colors
and the stories of Tae il was shot in black and white and the stories of Tae il and Yongsu kept alternating during the movie.
I think the director used this sequence to connect Yonsu and Taeil and to imply that the situation had not changed a lot in spite of Tae il's sacrifice.
But to me, it is quite confusing and hard to concentrate on the movie.
I heard that after Jeon Til il's sacrifice there was lots of changes in labor condition. However, it is so sad that
still lots of unfair conditions remain in Korean society. The prices of products has risen dramatically during years and but the average incomes
did not increased a lot. I went to Japan 2 months a ago, and I was surprised because the prices of products are not expensive than Korea. Rather
I thought that Korea's prices of goods are more expensive. I think this movie still suggests a lot for Korean society.
This movie with the documentary-like footage effectively describes one worker's tragic life ending with his final action of suicide. As a meaningful report about a hard and poor period in Korea, this movie focuses on showing workers' never-ending labor under the painful circumstances. Starting with representing arduous life of Jeon Tae-il's family, this movie minutely draws how Jeon protests against government hypocrisy. While he works in a factory for clothes, he gradually realizes that working environment of factory has a big problem to be fixed since all employers should work all day long and all night.
ReplyDeleteJeon's life are filmed in black and white, and it vividly depicts the way Jeon finds out the root of problems occurring in the factory. While Jeon studies various laws for the fair rules required for the operation of factory, shadow and lighting play important roles highlighting Jeon's enlightened vision of equality and fight for the human rights. This part may be used to maximize Jeon's distress and desperation followed by his failure to improve workers' status.
The climax of this movie the last part where Jeon commits to suicide with a fire. This part should give the audience a great impression about how much Jeon's death was brave. Also, this movie uses this climax scene to represent how unfair and cruel the regulation of usual factory in Korea was. This movie shows how painful and difficult the workers' life while Korea was considerably developed. Even though this movie is quite slow that it makes some audiences to be bored, I think this movie is a good source to understand Korean developmental era under the authoritarian regime learning how important one's fight for justice.
Jae Young Lee
ReplyDeleteThe film, A Single Spark, explained me to reflect how the laborers in the past had been paid unfairly. Kim Young Su is a person who writes a bibliography for Jeon Taeil and is in dangerous situation because of writing a bibliography for Jeon Taeil. Jeon Taeil is a person who states fair labor law to all the laborers. He is a very brave person and satisfice himself to address labor law even though he is risked and does not get payment at all. Jeon Taeil couldn’t endure that labor law was still unfair, so he decided to burn himself to death in order to inform that laborers were struggling and to obtain the right labor law. After he passed away, labor associations are made and spread out a lot and labor law is changed more fair than before as well.
I very respect Jeon Taeil because he was very young person who satisfices himself for workers to obtain the right labor law. During watching the film, I could feel workers’ rage and how the world was going on unfairly to workers. The film’s sound and shots make characters apparently. Especially, the piano sound helps to set the film’s mood for the tragic and sad atmosphere. I really enjoyed watching the film and could know that period’s mood.
Melody Chi
ReplyDelete7-31-13
Korean Cinema
YISS, Summer 2013
Prof. Steven Chung
Movie Response #4: A Single Spark
PART 1 OF 2:
The movie begins with scenes of anti-government protestors marching in support of pension and governmental policy reform. Many of these scenes are shot using medium shots, and all are in black and white. These scenes, which the audience later discovers are flashbacks to a period a bit earlier than the present temporal space that the narrator/protagonist occupies, smoothly transition into scenes of the present by the continued use of drab, dark colors in the portrayal of the present setting and characters’ appearances. For example, in the first scene in which they are both together, both the protagonist (a rebel who writes anti-government texts) and his wife Jung-soon are dressed in navy, black, or gray pea coats and pants. Likewise, the background of their meeting place is a dirt road lined with rows of worn-out, gray shanty houses. This blurs the line between past and present, promoting the negative idea that the present is simply a copy of the past that is continuously and hopelessly being acted out; no change has happened or is currently happening.
Despite the attempt to use of black and white versus color in scenes to establish and contrast distinct past or present temporal locations, this idea that the present is exactly the same as the past is reiterated by the similarity between Tae-Il’s house and the protagonist’s house from the very beginning of the movie. First, both areas are constantly portrayed as shadowed and constrained. For example, there are several scenes throughout the movie in which we, the audience, see the protagonist staring at us from behind a grate or barred windows (such as those in the front window of his rented house). These obstructions are reminiscent of the bars of a prison cell, which clearly represents captivity, helplessness, and a restriction of movement. In addition, the protagonist is often shown as being located in shadow, such as when he hides from the government census worker in the dark corner of his room or works on his book in a shadowed basement after Jung-soon is arrested. Likewise, Tae-Il’s house is represented as small, cramped, and restrictive through the use of close-up shots in which Tae-Il takes up most of the space in the frame, while the rest of the space is shadowed and crammed with his other family members. The protagonist and Tae-Il’s constrained positions emphasize the fact that the government still possesses control over Korean society and its citizens in the present.
A Single Spark movie response
ReplyDeletePART 2 OF 2:
However, by the end of the film, it is suggested that this relationship has been turned around: the past has been retaken, reclaimed, and redefined by the present, in which change (forward movement) has begun to occur. For instance, in the final scene of the film, an image of Tae-Il is displayed as walking down a road away from where the protagonist sits observing young revolutionaries reading his anti-government book relating Tae-Il’s story. This scene is shot using a medium shot, which brings the film full circle; the first scenes of the movie are displayed using medium shots, and this last scene mirrors them in this way. However, while the first scenes’ use of medium shots that captured the crowds of protestors promoted the revolutionaries as nameless (homogenous) and rather insignificant as individuals despite their great numbers, the end scene uses a medium shot (with Tae-Il’s image located in the middle of the frame) to grant attention and thus an identity to Tae-Il, while also including a view of him in the crowd to express his role as the Everyman. Also, the last scene (in which Tae-Il is first shown as walking away while carrying the protagonist’s book until he ultimately stops to look back at the protagonist) transitions from black and white to color, which is also accompanied by sunlight. In a direct reversal of the effect created by the overwhelming use of dark colors and shadows in the beginning of the film, the past (represented by the black and white scenes) is here being reclaimed by the present (symbolized by the use of color in the scene), in which widespread revolution has begun sprouting.