Spark of hope

A Single Spark by Director Park Kwang Su depicts the hardships during Park Chung Hee’s dictatorship. The movie utilizes many different techniques to emphasize the strong message it contains to the audience.

One of the several techniques used was the colour of the screen. The movie goes back and forth between black and white to colour. The story of the past, story of Jeon Tae Il, is in black and white, while story of Young Soo, is in colour. In doing so, even though the time has passed, it shows the same idea both Jeon Tae Il and Young Soo is fighting for. This subtle change allows the audience to realize Tae Il and Young Soo is not so different in their situation. One could say this colour transition displays the special relationship between Tae il and Young Su, also being somewhat timeless in a sense. Especially when Young Soo is on his way to see his lover, Jung Soon, he talks about hope, “I had to glimpse at her briefly, even from a distance. And my child inside her. Maybe Jung Soon embodied a hope, which would help me to get through the darkness of Jeon Tae Il’s death. A Hope! A new life must surely lie beyond that darkness.” Perhaps Jeon Tae Il also saw the darkness in his death but still hoped to light up a tiny spark of hope for hardworking citizens. Sorrow and determination can be seen at the close up of Tae Il’s face, staring out the window. It makes me wonder what he was actually thinking on the bus, seeing the world he is living in, pass by so quickly.

It is obvious from the title of this movie that the fire is a symbol for hope. The title in Korean, directly translated, is A Beautiful Youth, Jeon Tae Il. Why was the translation different? Is it because there is a difference in viewing the film between Koreans and non-Koreans? The movie starts with the setting of the present moment; the chaos caused by the students and workers demonstrating about labour laws. The colour scene, then fades away showing the spark of fire made by Jeon Tae Il in black and white. Here, the director possibly wanted the audience to see that this little fire started all that chaos from the scene before. Fire is seen quite often throughout the movie. The time when Jeon Tae Il creates a Fools’ Association at the beach, the lighting of the match, and the spark of fire from the lighter. This hope is finally seen at the end of the movie when there is a close up of a student holding the book of Jeon Tae Il’s biography written by Young Soo. The student turns out to be Jeon Tae Il. Jeon Tae Il, in colour scene, makes us realize his death indeed was a spark of hope for labour and human rights and thanks to his martyrdom, students and workers fought for the society we have now. His death is still remembered and strongly affects the society in the present moment.

All the education bit aside, this movie sure did bring tears to my eyes. Park Kwang Su did an incredible job of informing the dark side of Korean history to the youths. Because I am Korean, seeing this movie made me thankful, sad, and hopeful at the same time. However, I wonder what non-Korean viewers think of Jeon Tae Il’s martyrdom.