In addition to being the one person most responsible for making martial arts popular in cinema and with practitioners of self-defense, the legendary Bruce Lee also wrote poetry and discussed philosophy. In 1972, Lee explained to an interviewer his thoughts on how water changes, transforms, and adapts—and offered parallels between water and our lives.
Now, 45 years later, BMW has transformed that Bruce Lee interview and adapted it into a commercial for the new BMW M4 GTS. The ad is directed mainly at the Chinese market, in which Bruce Lee has remained hugely popular from this first martial arts films and beyond his untimely passing in 1973.
In the video, Bruce Lee talks about how water can be formless, and it can flow around anything, but when contained, it takes on the shape of the container and serves a purpose. In life, Bruce Lee suggests that if we can flow with the adversity we encounter and adapt to whatever we find, our lives will improve.
BMW seems to be saying though the scintillating cinematography in the commercial that the M4 GTS can be driven to flow with whatever it encounters to provide a superior driving experience and in doing so, takes on the shape of the environment through which it is moving or flows around that which would upset it.
Or, BMW might be using Bruce Lee's thoughts to explain the M4's water injection system. With water injection, BMW introduces a fine mist of water into the combustion chamber, allowing the engine to run cooler while producing more power. This is in stark contrast to how an engine usually ingests water, which happens when the driver takes the car into deep water and some of it gets sucked into the intake and usually damages the engine. So water in the engine can be a positive or a negative.
Along with the great camera work, BMW added a music track from Debussy's Claire de Lune that blends perfectly with the water sequences and Bruce Lee's soft explanation.
So after watching the commercial do you want to buy an M4 GTS? Yes, of course! Who wouldn't? But was it the commercial that made you want the car? Perhaps not, but anytime we get to see Bruce Lee again, it makes us want to "be the water." Just as seeing the M4 GTS makes us want to be the driver.—Scott Blazey
[Photo and video courtesy of the BMW Group.]
