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The first stop anyone should make as they journey through “Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits,” The Criterion Collection’s towering dedication to late martial arts master and international icon Bruce Lee, is “Water and Vessel,” critic and historian Jeff Chang’s load-bearing essay. For novices, the background Chang has gathered and woven into a tapestry of Lee is essential for contextualizing the five pictures assembled in the set: “The Big Boss,” “Fist of Fury,” “The Way of the Dragon,” “Enter the Dragon,” and “Game of Death.” Think of Chang’s piece as Bruce Lee 101, insight and knowledge procured by an author to whom the name means everything.

Continue reading ‘Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits’: Criterion’s Box Set Presents New Perspectives Of The Iconic Film Star at The Playlist.

Without a doubt, Bruce Lee is a martial arts icon. He’s a cinematic fixture in pop culture and in the new documentary Be Water premiering at Sundance on January 25, filmmaker Bao Nguyen touches on his role as martial artists, but he goes beyond that and paints a picture of Lee’s impact in Hollywood during the ’60s, his trailblazing role as Asian advocate and an American institution.

Prior to Be Water, Nguyen directed the 2019 docuseries We Gon’ Be Alright based on Jeff Chang’s book of the same name and the docu feature Live From New York!, which detailed the history of the late-night sketch show. He said that doing the film sparked an interest in doing another project about American cultural institutions. With Live From New York!, he looked at SNL through a different lens and he wanted to do the same thing — this time with Bruce Lee.