Be Water Biggest Details ESPNs Bruce Lee Documentary Leaves Out

Be Water: Biggest Details ESPN’s Bruce Lee Documentary Leaves Out

ESPN’s 30 for 30: Be Water provided an in-depth look at Bruce Lee’s life, achievements, and impact. Here are the biggest details left out of the special.

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ESPN’s 30 for 30: Be Water provided an in-depth look at the life, achievements, and impact of Bruce Lee – but the documentary was missing a few details. A few things were left out of the ESPN special, which ran for over an hour and a half. Directed by Bao Nguyen, Be Water closely examined numerous aspects of Bruce Lee’s life and career, complete with insight from people who knew him, including his wife Linda Lee Caldwell, former NBA basketball player and Game of Death co-star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, martial arts movie actor Tony Liu, and Hong Kong producer Raymond Chow.

Be Water talks a great deal about Lee’s work as a child actor in Hong Kong, follows his move to the United States, his dream of opening martial arts schools all over the country, and how he got back into acting as an adult. The documentary explores Lee’s struggles with finding roles in Hollywood, and explains how they were tied to the underlying problem of racism, and the idea that studios were hesitant to trust a leading role to an Asian actor. Racism is an actually important theme in the documentary, as it takes a considerable amount of time talking about the Civil Rights Movement, Japanese relocation camps in the 1940s, and other racial tensions that were present in both the United States and Hong Kong decades ago.

Be Water focuses heavily on Bruce Lee’s philosophy and ideas, including his opinions about his nationality, kung fu, and thoughts about race. As expected, the program went into his film career, how he reacted to his fame, the tragic circumstances surrounding his death in 1973 at the age of 32, and the aftermath of Lee’s sudden passing. In short, the documentary served as a comprehensive look at Bruce Lee, but as much as it included, there were some details that either went unmentioned or weren’t given enough attention. Here’s everything that was left out of ESPN’s 30 for 30: Be Water.

Bruce Lee’s Relationship With Yip Man

Be Water did talk about Yip Man – Bruce Lee’s kung fu instructor in the mid 1950s – but only included a short segment on him, despite the important role that he played in Bruce Lee’s journey to becoming a martial arts expert. Yip Man (who was played by Donnie Yen in the four Ip Man movies) was a grandmaster of Wing Chun, a style of Chinese kung fu that relies on reflexive moments. Yip Man’s friendship with Bruce Lee and the impact he had on his student were heavily featured in the last two Ip Man movies, but were barely touched on in Be Water. Yip Man, who lived in Hong Kong, trained dozens of young men, many of whom being kids who were engaged in gang violence on the streets. By taking them under his wing and teaching them Wing Chun, Yip Man made an effort to improve their lives. One of the children he helped was a 16-year-old Lee, who was getting involved in a lot of fights at this point in his life. The influence that Yip Man and the principles of Wing Chun had on Lee can be found in his philosophical ideas about martial arts.

Bruce Lee’s Religious Views

Be Water is flooded with Bruce Lee’s personal beliefs on a wide range of topics, but absent are his views on religion. John Little (a friend of Lee’s) has described Lee as an atheist, and Lee himself admitted to not believing in God. Lee claimed he didn’t belong to any religious affiliation, but it’s been said that he was deeply influenced by Buddhism and Taoism.

The Problems With Bruce Lee Teaching Non-Chinese

During the portion of the documentary about Bruce Lee’s time as a martial arts teacher, it’s revealed that many of his students were non-Chinese, as Lee was fine with teaching kung fu to anyone, regardless of their race. What the documentary doesn’t talk about in regards to this issue is the extreme push-back to this decision by many in the Chinese community, particularly his fellow martial arts teachers. These people were deeply opposed to Lee sharing his skills with white or black people, because kung fu was created by the Chinese, and it was believed that these ideas belonged to them only. Lee didn’t agree, and was eventually challenged to a fight by a kung fu master to stop him for admitting non-Chinese into his schools. There are differing accounts of who won the fight, but Lee continued teaching kung fu to anyone who wanted to learn. What Chinese martial artists thought of this decision to go against tradition was depicted in Ip Man 4.

One-Inch Punch and Jeet Kune Do

Unfortunately, Be Water didn’t devote much time to the martial arts techniques and the moves that made him so popular. It did discuss the ideas that inspired many of them, such as his attitude toward traditional kung fu, his openness to different ways of fighting, and his thoughts about water and how it relates to martial arts, but not much was said about the style of kung fu that he founded, Jeet Kune Do. Actually, Jeet Kun Do is less of a “style” and more of an idea. Jeet Kune Do rejects specific forms and tradition, and focuses on adapting and reacting to different attacks. The documentary also skips over Lee’s most famous move, which is his iconic one-inch punch, a technique that supposedly knocked a man 16 feet backwards. What’s remarkable about it is how much power Lee was able to generate from such an incredibly short distance.

Fist of Fury

Bruce Lee made five martial arts movies in his short career. Be Water did segments on The Big Boss, Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, and Game of Death, but inexplicably excluded Fist of Fury. Only a passing reference was made to the martial arts legend’s second starring role. In Fist of Fury, Lee plays Chen Zhen, a young man who returns to his home to find out that his master has died. Eager to avenge his teacher, Lee gets caught in a conflict between the Chinese and the Japanese. “Kung fu vs. Karate” was a key theme in the film, which was popular due in part to its Chinese nationalism. The 1972 revenge movie was a massive hit that elevated him to new levels of stardom. Lee had already achieved fame in Hong Kong and China by making The Big Boss, but Fist of Fury exposed him to American audiences. Even today, Fist of Fury is considered an extremely influential film in the martial arts genre.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/bruce-lee-be-water-documentary-details-info-missing/

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