Film about labor conditions under the south Korean right-wing dictatorship, covering the story of Jeon Tae-il, a worker who self-immolated in 1970 to call attention to horrific working conditions

Korean title: 아름다운 청년 전태일 (Beautiful Youth, Jeon Tae-il); English title: A Single Spark. YouTube video has subtitles in various languages available.

A Single Spark is based on the real life of Jeon Tae-il, a 22 year old worker who witnessed the terrible labor conditions in south Korea in the 1960s and 70s under the anti-communist military dictatorship. The film was released in 1995, after south Korea's transition to a liberal/bourgeois democracy in the late 80s. Over 7000 people contributed funds to make the film, their names appearing in the end credits. The film covers Jeon's life from 1965-1970, framing it within the story of a researcher, studying Jeon's life in 1975 during a highly repressive and torture-ridden period of the dictatorship, with the researcher having to evade the authorities as he does his research, meanwhile his partner attempts to organize a union, facing intimidation and violence.

Wikipedia: Jeon Tae-il

As a tailor, Jeon witnessed the horrendous working conditions in the Seoul Peace Market (서울평화시장; Seoul Pyeonghwa Sijang). Such conditions included rampant tuberculosis due to poor ventilation (or the lack thereof) in the sweatshops, and the enforced injections of amphetamines to keep sleep-deprived workers awake and to work them overtime without proper compensation.

Article: Remembering the life of Jeon Tae-il and his sacrifice 49 years ago

What he saw at Pyeonghwa Market was the suffering endured by girls even younger than him. At the time, over 90% of the market’s more than 20,000 employees were “young women with an average age of 18.” While the tailors were predominantly male, all of the sewing machine operators, assistants, and trainees were female. The trainees, who accounted for 40% of the 20,000 or so employees, were “children with an average age of 15.” These young girls were forced to “work 16-hour days for pay amounting to 90 to 100 won [less than US$1]” -- an amount that might just cover the cost of a bowl of noodles.

The film shows Jeon's process of trying to protect his coworkers from the abuses they suffered at work, and eventually discovering the existence of labor laws, and then researching them, and trying to inform his fellow workers that they have rights, and trying to raise public awareness about it. As times goes on, the workers gain more consciousness and fight for their rights, struggling to educate themselves on the laws despite the laws being written in difficult language and many workers being very young and/or lacking much formal education, however the bosses continue to abuse and lie to them about conceding to their demands for safer work conditions, and eventually Jeon publicly immolates himself while holding the Labor Laws, believing that if the laws are not being observed, they may as well be burned.

While the film focuses on the historical figure of Jeon Tae-il, it is also a look at 1960's and 70's era south Korea's repressive political environment and highly exploitative labor conditions.