Emotions during anticlimactic ending.

Kim points out a lot of topics raised in the movie A Single Spark. Kim talks about the lack of romanticizing Jeon Tae-il’s death; the framing of the shots before he goes to work, or while he was on fire, are filmed as realistically as possible. He calls this last scene anticlimactic.  There are many emotions that the scene evokes; the pain that Jeon is enduring, the frantic cries of the people around him, or the efforts of trying to save him. The scene, while quick, could essentially be there to help a nation come together during a time of crisis. There are two sides to the emotions that are conjured up by this scene. The first of which is Jeon’s side: he is in pain not only for himself but also for his people. He is angry and frustrated with the mentality that he is not important to society, and that his life is worthless. He feels the weight of the nation on his shoulders. This is his final attempt to help people for whom he cares deeply, but also his final moment before his escape from a life that was hard, and for the most part was meaningless to the elites. For me personally, the most frustration is not from when he is on fire alone, it is when he is screaming, “We are not machines!” They are the perfect final words for Tae-il to be screaming. The words are his life mission. The other side of emotion is the viewer: we feel hopeless. There is absolutely nothing that a person can do to stop Jeon from immolation. We cannot convince him that there are other ways of fighting his war, or help put the fire out. The past is in the past and there is nothing that can be done for him. It leads the view to feel remorse, “This person died for me to have the rights I deserve.” Watching from the 21^st century in a developed nation, you definitely feel anger. Not only at the end, this person died for rights I already have, but throughout the whole film, all the struggles and the general lack of accomplishment. His final words evoke pain. We do not understand the pain that Tae-il felt from burns, but the words are relatable. At some point everyone has felt overworked. This brings two questions to mind. Does a lack of extravagance make this movie anticlimactic? Or can the emotions evoked replace extravagance?