Abstract
Single Spark (1995) is a retrospective work discussing the growth of the labor movement under the authoritarian rule of the Park government. This focuses on the life of a young worker named Tae-Il Chon,2 who immolated himself to protest against labor oppression at the age of 23 in 1970. It deals with the labor movement in the 1970s, but it does not attach importance to the tension between the working class and employers/capitalists. Rather than depicting a violent conflict, the film highlights a sense of inevitability regarding the labor movement where both administration officials and employers pay no regard to labor laws, laws that are generally considered to favor the management more than the working class.
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