Bruce Lee’s documentary 30 for 30 will bring you to tears over the triumph and tragedy in his life.
I have been a casual fan of Bruce Lee during my life. I vaguely remember watching clips of his movies as a child, reading his biography in middle school, and watching movies vaguely based on his life as an adult.
Most recently, I watched the controversy happen when Quentin Tarantino had Brad Pitt beat up Bruce Lee in his latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
After completing several books about Ip Man and Wing Chun, I finally had the time to read the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. The quotes were inspiring, resolved a lot of the turmoil I felt about Kung-fu versus modern theories and mixed martial arts, and inspired me to keep reading. This brought me to Shannon Lee’s book Be Water My Friend.
One day, I subscribed to a streaming services after being bored in quarantine. I did a search for Bruce Lee and found the 30 for 30 documentary Be Water, based on the life of Bruce Lee. You can rent it on Amazon or watch it free if you have a subscription to ESPN+.
I have seen various documentaries based on Bruce Lee’s life, but was not impacted as much as this documentary probably because I was not sure what was reality and what was dramatized. Those past movies looked more like cartoon versions of Bruce Lee, while this documentary told his story using actual photographs, video clips, and stories from the people closest to him that knew him best. They told a complete story starting from his troubled childhood, coming to the United States as a foreigner, attempts at breaking into the television and movie scene, the disappointment and opportunity given to him through being Kato on the Green Hornet, becoming a movie star in Hong Kong, and finally his death shortly before finally becoming a breakout movie star in the United States with Enter the Dragon.
This movie will take you on the journey of one of the most iconic martial artists of all time. The part that struck me the most from this documentary was not his athletic prowess or even his martial arts ability, but his contribution to culture that ended many of the racist depictions of Asians in the film industry like the Japanese landlord in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Bruce Lee was not just a cultural icon but a turning point in a cultural revolution. Bruce Lee was an underdog using the spiritual and personal development side of martial arts to not just defeat an opponent in a ring but an entire system.
“You know what I want to think of myself? As a human being. Because, I mean I don’t want to be like “As Confucius say,” but under the sky, under the heavens there is but one family. It just so happens man that people are different.” -Bruce Lee, The Lost Interview (1971)
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