*This content was translated by AI.
Founded in 1982, the Korean professional baseball KBO League celebrated its 45th anniversary this year. In the meantime, numerous stars have been born and an immortal milestone has been established. Among them, the record of 30 wins in a season set by Korean Japanese pitcher Jang Dae-jung (1950-2005, Japanese name Hiroaki Fukush) in 1983 wearing the Sammi Superstars uniform remains a representative record that is hard to see again on the professional baseball stage these days, as the division of pitchers and the management of the number of pitches have become common.
This is why fans' memories of Jang Dae-jung, who earned the nickname "Raccoon" by pitching to cook batters with a slick expression among many Korean Japanese players who played in Korean professional baseball in the early days, were strong.
The Nihonkai (Sea of Japan) Newspaper, a local newspaper in Tottori Prefecture, Japan, which is Jang's hometown, reported on the 16th that a documentary film about Jang's turbulent life is scheduled to be released.
The documentary film, titled Leaves of Hyeon Hae-tan, is directed by Korean Lee Young-gon, 32. Director Lee Young-gon, who graduated from Japan's Musashino University of Art in 2020, reportedly made a film by traveling back and forth between Korea and Japan more than 15 times in six years to make a documentary for Jang's list.
Manager Lee, who was interested in Korean professional baseball when he was a child, said he was attracted to the Sammi Superstars, the weakest team in the early days of professional baseball, and produced a documentary film for Jang's list.
During the interview with Kim Il-yong (75, Hisao Niura, Japanese name), who played for the Samsung Lions in the Korean professional baseball as another Korean pitcher in Japan, Lee was able to capture the hardships and joys that Korean players in Japan and Korea had to go through in Japanese and Korean professional baseball.
Jang Myung-bo's father moved to Japan as a Japanese colonial era general (工) and lived in financial straits. Jang Dae-jung, who was weak, wrote in his diary when he was in the fourth grade of elementary school, "When I get sick, I want to become a baseball player and succeed." After seeing this, his father bought him a baseball glove, and Jang Mi-jung was able to develop his dream as a baseball player.
Jang Dae-jung contributed greatly to the team's victory by recording his best record of 15 wins when Hiroshima Carp, famous for his "red helmet," reached the top of Japanese professional baseball in 1980. However, after falling into a slump, he refused to negotiate with Hiroshima and announced his retirement after the 1982 season.
However, Jang Dae-jung was arranged by Jang Hoon (86, Japanese name Isao Harimoto), a Japanese professional baseball legend, to appear on the Korean professional baseball stage in 1983.
At a press conference for joining the Sammi Superstars, the president of the Sammi baseball team responded to Jang's list, who was confident that he would "win 30 games of the season." However, when Jang Dae-jung recorded 30 wins, the president said, "I never said that," and the relationship between Jang Dae-jung and the club began to deteriorate.
Jang Dae-jung, whose shoulders were broken due to the record of most wins (30 ⅓) in 1983, as well as most appearances (60 games) and most innings (427 wins), has gradually gone downhill since then. He was forced out of the season in 1986 with the Binggrae Eagles having the worst record of 1-18.
Jang Dae-jung, who enjoyed gambling as well as alcohol and cigarettes when he was a player, did not have a clean private life, such as touching drugs. In 1991, he was arrested as a drug offender after being found to have used methamphetamine, and was later permanently expelled from the Korean professional baseball league.
Since then, he has made a living by opening a mahjong house in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, but died lonely in 2005 at the age of 55 due to drug addiction.
He left these writings in his own handwriting at the mahjong house he ran. "Fall leaves do not resent the autumn wind."
Jang Dae-jung's documentary film, which was a Korean baseball player in Japan and lived a life of a border man through numerous discriminations and difficulties in Korea and Japan, will be shown to the public through the 2026 Japanese Film Festival.
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*This content was translated by AI.
