# A Single Spark (아름다운 청년 전태일)
**A Single Spark** (아름다운 청년 전태일, *Areumdaun Cheongnyeon Jeon Tae-il*) is a 1995 South Korean drama directed by Park Kwang-su that portrays the life of the labor activist Jeon Tae-il, a textile worker who set himself on fire in 1970 at the age of 22 to protest the government's failure to enforce its own labor laws[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1621) • [2](https://kccuk.org.uk/media/documents/LKFF19-Brochure_vrxO1AV.pdf). The film was released in South Korea on November 18, 1995, runs 96 minutes, and competed at the 46th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival)[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1621) • [3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Korean title / release | 아름다운 청년 전태일, released November 18, 1995; 96 minutes; rated 15 and over[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1621) |
| Director / production | Park Kwang-su; produced by Yoo In-taek for Cine 2000[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=1028&page=1&pyear=1996&sec=120) |
| Screenplay | Lee Chang-dong, Kim Jeong-hwan, Lee Hyo-in, Hur Jin-ho, and Park Kwang-su[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=1028&page=1&pyear=1996&sec=120) |
| Lead cast | Hong Kyung-in (Jeon Tae-il), Moon Sung-keun (Kim Young-su), Kim Seon-jae (Jung-soon)[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1621) |
| Visual structure | Two intercut narratives, one in black and white and one in color[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121755/) |
| Admissions | 235,935 total admissions in South Korea[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1621) |
| Festival | Competition section, 46th Berlin International Film Festival; Golden Bear nomination[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm) • [6](https://cinegraph.org/movies/a-single-spark-1995) |
| Major awards | 16th Blue Dragon Awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm) |
## Spoilers
### Subject and story
The film's historical subject is Jeon Tae-il (전태일, 1948–1970), a young worker in the sewing factories around Pyunghwa Market in Seoul's Cheonggye clothing district. After working as a tailor and organizing fellow workers to demand compliance with the labor standards law, he set himself on fire during a protest, burning a copy of the labor law together with his own body, to expose the conditions of garment workers[7](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/2608) • [2](https://kccuk.org.uk/media/documents/LKFF19-Brochure_vrxO1AV.pdf).
The film does not present a straightforward biography. It offers two narratives: the true story of Jeon Tae-il's life and activism, and the partly fictionalized efforts of Kim Young-su, a law-school graduate and labor activist who, five years after Jeon's death, is wanted by the police for anti-government activity and is writing a biography of Jeon while evading capture[2](https://kccuk.org.uk/media/documents/LKFF19-Brochure_vrxO1AV.pdf) • [8](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19950050). Kim reads the diary handed over by Jeon's mother and interviews people who knew him, trying to move from a vague image of a martyr toward an understanding of the man and of what drove him to his final act[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm) • [8](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19950050).
A parallel present-day thread follows Jung-soon, a factory worker who lives with Kim and, while pregnant, endures repression and harassment as she tries to organize a union at her own factory[7](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/2608). As Kim's research brings Jeon's life closer, the film draws his own circumstances into overlap with Jeon's, and the synopsis frames his biographical work as a form of self-sacrifice in a dark political period[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm).
## Production and style
**Two timelines, two film stocks.** The film intercuts its two stories in black and white and in color, with the Jeon Tae-il narrative running from 1965 to 1970[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121755/). A contemporary Korean newspaper review highlighted the contrast between black-and-white and color footage as the film's most striking device[9](https://www.hankyung.com/article/1995111701851). The self-immolation scene, the image used in the film's marketing, was completed in Australia[10](https://www.korlit-so.org/NFUpload/nfupload_down.php?name=0806186.pdf&tmp_name=20150401165247.500.2.0).
**Financing.** The production was largely financed by public subscription; the closing credits acknowledge nearly 5,000 names of contributors[11](https://www.timeout.com/movies/a-single-spark). The production company was Cine 2000, with Yoo In-taek as producer[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=1028&page=1&pyear=1996&sec=120).
**The director.** Park Kwang-su was born in Sokcho in 1955, studied at [Seoul National University](https://www.edgepedia.org/seoul-national-university) and at the ESEC film school in Paris, and debuted with *Chilsu and Mansu* (1988). His earlier features *Black Republic* (1990), *Berlin Report* (1991), and *To the Starry Island* (1994) had already won prizes at home and abroad[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=1028&page=1&pyear=1996&sec=120).
## Reception and awards
The film drew 235,935 admissions in South Korea[1](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1621). It was submitted to the competition section of the 46th Berlin International Film Festival and nominated for the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear)[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm) • [6](https://cinegraph.org/movies/a-single-spark-1995).
At home it swept major categories. At the 16th Blue Dragon Awards it won Best Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm). The 32nd Paeksang Arts Awards brought the screenplay prize, a Best New Actress award for Kim Seon-jae, and a technical award for the art team[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm). The 6th Chunsa Film Art Awards gave it Best Film, Director, Cinematography, Best Actor for Hong Kyung-in, and lighting, and the 34th Daejong Film Festival gave it a planning award[3](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm).
The film has remained in circulation as a reference point for Korean cinema's engagement with labor history. It screened in the Korean Panorama section of the first Busan International Film Festival in 1996[4](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=1028&page=1&pyear=1996&sec=120), appeared in later retrospectives such as the London Korean Film Festival's "A Century of Korean Cinema" in 2019[8](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19950050), and is available for free viewing on the Korean Film Archive's YouTube channel[12](https://www.cinematheque.co.kr/cinema/19950050). It is also used in South Korean high-school labor-rights education programs alongside the 2021 animated film *Tae-il*[13](https://www.jne.go.kr/upload/open/na/bbs_297/ntt_5071598/doc_f7262e5f-039d-42d4-80ae-0ee9ab16e4bc1694a4784b76327.pdf).
## Context in 1990s Korean cinema
The film appeared in the early-to-mid 1990s, a period when Korean films began to treat political and social subjects that had previously been avoided[14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ingQFui5t0I). Time Out's review describes it as a protest drama made well before later commercial films on Korea's authoritarian era, and as less a standard biopic than a meditation on Jeon's self-sacrifice seen through a 1970s radical's eyes, turning into an elegiac film about where life and art meet and diverge[11](https://www.timeout.com/movies/a-single-spark). A Korean academic study treats the film as an act of "memory struggle," examining the gap between the historical Jeon Tae-il and his screen representation[15](https://cau.scholarworks.kr/item/e17f3c41-35fc-47ec-aee6-2d85c4f931bc).
## References
1. [아름다운 청년 전태일 (A Single Spark) 상세정보, Cine21](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=1621)
2. [London Korean Film Festival 2019 brochure, Korean Cultural Centre UK](https://kccuk.org.uk/media/documents/LKFF19-Brochure_vrxO1AV.pdf)
3. [아름다운 청년 전태일 (1995), Korean Film Council database](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/single_spark/single_spark.htm)
4. [A Single Spark, Busan International Film Festival archive, Korean Panorama 1996](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=1028&page=1&pyear=1996&sec=120)
5. [A Single Spark (1995), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121755/)
6. [A Single Spark, Cinegraph](https://cinegraph.org/movies/a-single-spark-1995)
7. [아름다운 청년 전태일, Korean Film Archive video library](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/library/search/video/2608)
8. [A Single Spark (1995), Korean Film Council (English)](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19950050)
9. [아름다운 청년 전태일..흑백과 컬러 대비 독특, 한국경제 (1995)](https://www.hankyung.com/article/1995111701851)
10. [한국문학논총 제44집 (2006)](https://www.korlit-so.org/NFUpload/nfupload_down.php?name=0806186.pdf&tmp_name=20150401165247.500.2.0)
11. [A Single Spark review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/a-single-spark)
12. [아름다운 청년 전태일 (A Single Spark), Cinematheque](https://www.cinematheque.co.kr/cinema/19950050)
13. [전태일·노동인권 교육 자료, 전북교육청](https://www.jne.go.kr/upload/open/na/bbs_297/ntt_5071598/doc_f7262e5f-039d-42d4-80ae-0ee9ab16e4bc1694a4784b76327.pdf)
14. [열악한 노동 환경을 고발하다, '아름다운 청년 전태일', YTN Korean (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ingQFui5t0I)
15. [미완의 80년대와 갱신되지 못한 90년대, 영화 <아름다운 청년 전태일>의 문화정치, 중앙대학교](https://cau.scholarworks.kr/item/e17f3c41-35fc-47ec-aee6-2d85c4f931bc)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films late 1990s › Released 1995 to 1998*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license