Close Analysis of the Camera Use in A Single Spark

For me, the movie is very touching in multiple layers. Not only from the beautiful ending scene of Jeon Tare-Il sacrificing himself for the sake of mobilizing the unconscious Young workers, but also from the afterward thoughts about the fortune granted to me for living upon the liberal and democratic achievements which derived from the bloody revolutions in early generations. And I think the use of camera plays an essential role in conveying story and meanings through creating very power images.

There is one thing continually strikes me throughout the movie, that is the way how the director uses his camera to constitute meanings by focusing on objects. While in Madame Freedom, so as the other classical cinema, the use of close-up for major or minor facial expression is employed intensively to depict the inner emotion of the characters. By doing that, we, as spectators, create a direct contact with the characters; therefore we receive an immediate message which helps to generate a similar emotion with the characters or an emotion which the director intends to have us experience. Quite differently, in A Single Spark, there are much less close depictions of faces. Instead, the close-up technique is used frequently in shooting books (Labor Law and Yongsu’s biography of Tae-Il), lighter (Cue to connect the opening and ending scences), fire (symbolizes the fate of Tae-Il and the inevitable labor movement). This aesthetic choice the director makes really gives me a different spectacle experience. When I see these objects, I am puzzled in the first place, and then start to think about the purpose of emphasizing them. It is not until the moment when I finally relate them with the characters and plots, I am granted the access to the underlying meaning as well as the emotion. Due to this indirect way of conveying emotions, I find myself become more actively involved in this “imaged world”. It is the objective approach that triggers me to be subjective.

Besides, I notice the composition of the image is very sophisticated in a way that it deviates from classical convention of telling a story in a naturalistic and approachable way to a more “distracting”, “unexpected”, and “innovated “way. There is a scene in which Yongsu is running and concealing himself from being caught by the police. While Yongsu occupies the left half of the frame with a focus on his upper body, a police jeep which is situated couple hundred meters away from Yongsu juxtaposes on the right. Hence, we are able to see both Yongsu fleeing from the police and his girlfriend Jung-soon being caught by the police on the same image, the same frame at the same time. By doing that, spectators are given double tasks to keep up with the rhythm of the film. However, I find this aggressive representation functions very well in this movie, which creates a sense of intensiveness and breathlessness that duplicates the reality and drags me into it.