#BringBackSungWoo director Josh Swade discusses his ESPN 30 for 30 film about the Royals superfan — who returns to KC for Monday’s Union Station premiere

Die-hard sports fans will do just about anything for their favorite team, but how many are willing to travel half a world away to spend two weeks of vacation time watching (at the time) one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball? South Korean baseball fan Sung Woo Lee was more than willing — for him, attending his first Royals game at Kauffman Stadium last season was a dream come true. And his enthusiasm for the Royals seemed to rub off on the team, which ascended from fourth to first place in the American League Central Division and, well, you know the rest.

Unsure if Lee’s visit caused or merely correlated with the Royals’ exponential improvement, superstitious fans on Twitter started an impassioned campaign around the hashtag #BringBackSungWoo.

Filmmaker Josh Swade, a Kansas City native and University of Kansas grad (who also directed 30 for 30’s There’s No Place Like Home, which documented how Dr. James Naismith’s original rules for basketball were returned to Kansas), captures the movement to return Lee to KC for the Royals’ first World Series appearance since the 1985 championship in a new ESPN 30 for 30 documentary called #BringBackSungWoo. The documentary premieres at Union Station on the Regnier Extreme Screen Theatre at 7 p.m. Monday, September 21. And good news for the slumping Royals: Lee is coming back to KC. Swade and director of photography Anthony Behm will also be on hand for the local premiere, which KC FilmFest is presenting. A Q&A with all three will follow the screening. 

The Pitch caught up with Swade to discuss the documentary and how Lee’s devotion for the club has rubbed off on even the most disillusioned Royals fans.

The Pitch: What’s fascinating about Sung Woo’s obsession with the Royals is that, until the 2014 season, the Royals were the Onion’s favorite team. Due to the relentless losing, the Onion would run headlines like “Dying Boy Brought in to Cheer up Kansas City Royals.” It’s fascinating that Sung Woo gravitated to the Royals instead of, say, the Giants.

Josh Swade: The Royals had become the butt of sports, for baseball. Last year was a major, major breakthrough. Let’s face it. It was like a once in a lifetime opportunity. [In ’85], you had a full stadium, rabid fans, people in love with their team compared to people who just want to come to the ballpark and eat some food. It was whole different deal.

The beauty of Kansas City is that people really will get behind their team. I always get that sense, even though I haven’t lived there in a while, that when I go back to the K. I was impressed with how good and loyal the fans were even though the team was pretty bad. I do give kudos to Kansas City fans for sticking with the Royals through thick and thin. But you’ve got to give these people something. Last year was our year. I hope it keeps up. The pessimist in me has its doubts. I just hope they can keep it going.

It’s odd that he fell in love with the Royals simply because he liked the way the K looked.

As you saw in the film, there was one English-speaking channel on television when he was a kid. He would watch General Hospital and Sesame Street, but it was hard for him to follow. Then he would tune to the weather broadcasts, but he found that really boring. I think it was two hours a day that there was a sports broadcast in English. Baseball’s a big deal in South Korea — not Major League Baseball — the sport of baseball’s a big deal.

Sung Woo knew baseball as a sport, and it was a natural thing for him to be drawn to as a way to improve his English. He’s watching these baseball highlights, and he sees the K. The K, probably less now because there are now a lot of new stadiums, was a revolutionary stadium. It has water fountains, and it set the stage for baseball stadiums across the country. Sung Woo, 6,500 miles away, seeing it on television was immediately drawn to it. He saw a game with a home run, and fireworks went off. That’s another thing that’s big in South Korea. He started paying attention to the Royals, and it kind of kept growing from there.

What’s striking is that despite the fact that he’s stable and rational enough to hold a white collar job, his enthusiasm for the team belies their record until recently.

He’s an optimist. On the surface, he seems like a normal, almost reserved guy. He has a child-like wonder about him. There are times when you’re with him that you feel like you’re with a child. He draws you in. On Twitter [in Kansas City], they responded to his positivity, his commitment. Once they met him, they responded to that sort of charisma he has. It reminds you of being a kid again.

His arrival and the Royals improved performance in rising from fourth place to first unfolded at hyper speed.

It was like “The Royals are winning. We’ve got to get Sung Woo. We’ve got to go to Korea and get the boss on board and figure out a way to get him back to Kansas City. He arrives on the day of the game, and I have to go to the stadium, and it’s on.” Talk about a whirlwind. It was nonstop. I’m still wired from it.

I’m only a casual sports fan, but the 30 for 30 films are just good movies that happen to involve athletics. No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson and Playing for the Mob are insightful and great even if you couldn’t care less about basketball.

The beauty of ESPN Films, the films division at ESPN, is that they are looking for filmmakers with a unique voice and people who creative, interesting ideas, people who are open to various ways to tell a story. I think #BringBackSungWoo is a great example of something that’s more non-traditional for a sports documentary and 30 for 30 in that it’s not necessarily about an iconic athlete or team. We’re talking about a young man from Korea. It’s kind of one of those stories in the margins. It’s not the kind of thing that just jumps out at you. This isn’t a story about Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan. It’s about a guy who no one really knows.

On the flip side, here comes a filmmaker like me who really prefers to tell a story in more a vérité style as opposed to a “looking back” doc. They are completely, 100 percent behind that. They’re willing to give filmmakers that creative [license], which for me is really, really exciting. I’m more influenced by the Michael Moores and the Larry Davids of the world. I don’t respond much to documentaries that are just “looking back” docs. I’d rather find great archival footage and tell the story in real time. That’s the kind of film I want to make. I’m not a narcissistic filmmaker. These are great subject to pursue, and I want to pursue them.

For example, in #BringBackSungWoo, you’re an active participant.

Exactly.

And if you hadn’t been an active participant, wasn’t there a chance that Sung Woo wouldn’t have been able to attend the World Series?

I don’t want to say the film hinged on getting him to come back, but that was part of the story. There was more than one major tent pole in the story line. Us getting Sung Woo is one of those it allows us to go into another country, a place people [in the United States] haven’t seen very much on television or in movies. We show our audience what their culture is like and how different it is. There’s also some humor there and drama.

The other thing you’re trying to weave in is, why are we there in the first place? Why should we care about Sung Woo? That leads to us telling the story of how Sung Woo was able to come to Kansas City and the impression he made on the fans and on the team, quite frankly.

There’s such a sea of documentaries being made out there. Most people do great work. For the most part, for me, I get really bored. Ken Burns is great. He revolutionized a certain style. He’s an artist, and he’s important. … For my personal taste, documentary filmmakers are relying too much on talking heads. I know you need them, and I’m not saying that I don’t use talking heads, but when I’m spending my time doing a project, I prefer it if at all possible to use great archival footage and tell a story in real time. I really respond more to those kinds of films.

If you hadn’t gotten to know him or the fans he interacts with well, you wouldn’t have been there in the hotel room when the Royals won the pennant.

Isn’t that a great example of how sports is just a great barrier breaker? You’re right. If the Kansas City Royals Twitter group hadn’t become real friends with Sung Woo, it wouldn’t feel as authentic as it was. And if I don’t have a connection with him, and we don’t connect as friends, you’re right, the whole thing falls flat.
When you share a team in common, as sort of corny as that might sound, we all need something to believe in. And when you all believe in the same thing, it’s a powerful way to connect as human beings. It really is. Those kinds of ideas are much more important in this story than what this story is about. So if you’re watching it happening in real time, that makes sense.

For a chance to win tickets to Monday’s screening, click here.