About This Film
The 1995 South Korean film “A Single Spark” is the second collaborative project between the highly political New Wave director Park Kwang-su and the writer and director Lee Chang-dong. The movie is co-written by Hur Jin-ho of “Christmas in August” fame and co-produced by The Jeon Tae-il Commemorative Association. It has won numerous awards in Korea and abroad.
Synopsis
The film depicts the real story of Jeon Tae-il (played by Hong Kyoung-in), a young tailor at a garment factory in the Pyung-hwa market in Seoul who committed suicide by self-immolation in November 1970 as a means of protest against the abject working condition in his country, sparking the creation of the labor unions in South Korea and consequently, the anti-government and pro-democracy movements in the country. His story is told through black and white flashbacks from the perspective of Kim Young-su (played by Moon Sung-keun), a law graduate and himself a wanted man by the Park Chung-hee regime and the KCIA for his supposed “Communist” beliefs, who starts writing a book about Jeon Tae-il's struggles five years after the martyr's death.
