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Be Water is a 2020 documentary film directed by Bao Nguyen. It premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.[1] It is about Bruce Lee, a famous martial artist, and it uses significant amounts of archival footage, focusing on Lee’s two years in Hong Kong spent filming four feature films.[2] It is part of ESPN‘s 30 for 30 documentary series and the film tackles racism in America.[3][4][5] In a GQ interview, Nguyen talks about how this film represents protest and fits the zeitgeist, with many more Asian-American films being released as contemporaries.[6]

As of February 19, 2021, the film is on Netflix. It won the Gold List Award in 2021.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregate score of 93% based on 28 positive and 2 negative critic reviews. The website’s consensus reads: “If Be Water‘s surface level approach doesn’t quite match its subject’s depth, it still serves as an appropriate introduction to the almighty Bruce Lee.”[7]

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film as it serves as a respectful response to Bruce Lee’s “demeaning portrayal” in Quentin Tarantino‘s film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where he was reduced to “a white he-man joke”. Rooney wrote, “The film’s strengths are its stimulating archive-rich historical content and its thoughtful examination of the systemic racism that blocked Lee’s path in Hollywood until he had proved himself a commercial powerhouse in Hong Kong.”[8]

References

  1. ^ “be-water”. www.sundance.org. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  2. ^ Harvey, Dennis (February 4, 2020). “‘Be Water’: Film Review”. Variety. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  3. ^ “BE WATER: Director Bao Nguyen Reveals Bruce Lee’s Fight Against Racism in America”. Den of Geek. June 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  4. ^ “How Bao Nguyen’s documentary Be Water unpacks the human being behind the legend of Bruce Lee | CBC Radio”. CBC. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  5. ^ “In ‘Be Water’, Bao Nguyen looks at the giant shadow cast by Bruce Lee”. ESPN.com. May 27, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  6. ^ Goh, Yang-Yi (June 9, 2020). “How Bruce Lee Became a Global Protest Icon”. GQ. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  7. ^ “Be Water”. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 9, 2022.
  8. ^ Rooney, David (February 4, 2020). “‘Be Water’: Film Review | Sundance 2020″. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 1, 2023.